Eureka, here is one about Mieke

This is the 27th Post since I started these.  Turns out there is some sibling rivalry going on.  Each one of the kids has told me that if I write about them to make sure it is better than the last one.  Lots of blogging pressure for me.  I am going to finish them at the  30th post. I am thinking about doing some more writing after that, on another subject.  Truth is I have enjoyed doing these things.  I am somehow going to copy them and keep them in a binder for our family and someday somebody might get them out and enjoy some of the stories.

Before I get to Mieke allow me to tell about a sad event that happened in between Alden and Mieke. In earlier writing, I talked about the events surrounding the birth and deaths of our first two babies.  But now there was a test they could during the pregnancy do to determine if the baby could survive.  We had decided to try again. Somehow at an earlier point we pictured raising 3 children.  So it was with anxious anticipation that Deb and I traveled to the doctors office to get the ultrasound that would determine the outcome. You can kind of tell in the room when the technicians are doing the test what is happening. In this case things got real silent. I think they save the news for the doctor to give you but things here did not look good right from the start.   We were told that because of our history with 2 other children with the same condition any children with the same condition had no chance to survive. It was decided at the 4 1/2 month point to induce labor and end the pregnancy.  There were two memorable events with this.  The body is not ready to go in to labor and the drugs they use are strong.  At one point I became very worried. Debs temperature was very high and I will tell you of all the events she has had to endure this one was the very hardest. I remember it taking about 6 hours and at one point I was worried she might not survive.  Soon after the baby was born they allowed me to hold the baby which fit neatly in the palm of my hand.  It was amazing to me how developed the fetus is at this point.  No movement and no life  but still a part of a creation process that is truly amazing.  We named the baby Grant and donated his body to U of M for medical study.  In the same cemetery that we used for the others there is a nice board with a large number of plaques listing names of  similar circumstance births.  On that plaque is the name of Grant Hoksbergen.  I will tell you that when events like this happen you do not always know what to do but you feel you must do something.  Every 4-5 years as we are traveling by that area we stop and find the graves and this plaque.  The tears are gone now but the memory of these days will never go away. As I report these things it seems like just yesterday.  I do think when you endure events such as this it makes one more thankful when things go well.

About 2 years later we found ourselves at about the 4th month point of Deb's final pregnancy.  The test were done, we knew it was a girl and that she was OK.  Somehow Deb and I were watching the Indy 500. We are not  racing fans so I have no idea why we were watching.  It always seems to me that watching a couple of hours of left hand turns gets a little old. The guy who was winning was named Arie Luyendyke. He was from the Netherlands and had never won before.  The ABC camera was watching him go around the track and as the end was getting close they would show his wife holding a clipboard and writing down his lap count and position.  Her name was Mieke.  I had never heard the name before but I asked Deb how she liked it.  The name grew on us.  Shortly thereafter I saw in the paper a picture of a Zeeland girl by the name of Mieke.  I called that girl and asked her if she liked her name and she said she did.  Mieke it was. She hung around in the womb for several more months and then on November 13 was born in what the easiest and least stressful of all of our birth events (at least for me).    Now the job of raising two boys and a girl.  I know it does not work out this way for all families and I am sensitive to this. At the same time we are thankful for this mix and might I say thankful for a special relationship that Deb and Mieke have always had.

In the early days of Mieke's history it started to become apparent that a passion for two things were surfacing.  First was a strong like for crafts.  Anything that had to do with beads, boards, strings, ornaments, decorations and the like, started to appear in any area we would give her in the home.  With this a strong love for the Christmas season. Sometimes it all got a little hard to keep track of as one project after another was somewhere in mid-stream.  And then in the later years as a teenager a strong love for children. We had a girl in our neighborhood that babysat for Mieke in the early years. Her name was Leah  and I think Mieke learned this art from her.  Mieke stays real busy. She is now in her last year of an education major at Hope and has a real passion for teaching.  She seems to never tire of being with children and when they are with her I think they all learn something.  The other day she was busy with many things and I offered to take care of one of her charges for a couple of hours.  He was a nice kid and wanted me to read for him some books.  I have always read to our kids and always made up a page right in the middle of the story and somehow put them in the story.  Our kids always liked this and after a while knew when this was going to happen.  I read for him several books. After a little while he looked at me and said "I just cannot figure out how I got in all of these books".  After a while he started catching on and I think he liked the pages he was in.  When he comes over now he wants a story. He is a cute little kid who now resides inside of some of the stories of the childrens books at our home. Just like all kids who come over.

You know this post about Mieke would not be complete without mentioning a couple of more things.  In the Bible is a verse about we becoming the "salt of the earth".  In this sense Mieke has always been salty to a higher degree than all other members of the family. She is always willing to verbalize her faith and is confident enough to introduce others to it in a very nice way.  She loves music and participates whenever she can in leadership of music at our church with both adults and children.  Whoever encounters her is going to find a person that has faith beyond what the average person is able to have.   Several years ago I attended a play she was in.  In that play was a guy that I could kind of sense had some of those same qualities.  He was playing a big dumb guy in that play but it turns out he is anything but that. Other than the fact that he is a Packer fan we have enjoyed the relationship they have had now for 3 1/5 years.   Can't wait for him to come over.  My guess is that this relationship will go forward and you could not find a couple of parents more happy about the whole thing. 

P.S.  I wrote this on Thursday morning and was going to post it sometime on Friday.  On Thursday night we were invited to Aaron's parents home and were sitting on their back porch.  Mieke and Aaron walked up and she had a nice engagement ring on her finger and they told us about their plans to become married.  Thinking about sometime next fall.  A couple of happy kids and 4 happy parents.  What a day!!!!!!

From sadness to gladness. I guess that this post is one of those......Whatever it is please know that the storms of life also bring with them some moments to be thankful and to realize that there can be some humor in the middle of it all..........Till next time........3 left.

Stan the Man