Kait and Nick are Coming Home!

I am so happy! Kaitlyn and Nick are coming home for the weekend. It has been since August 11 when I last saw Nick - the LONGEST I've ever gone without seeing my son. I last time I saw Kaitlyn on August 30 - over four weeks ago. We are all very excited that they are coming home for the weekend. Above is a photo of them dressed in their summer work attire. Nick worked at Kings Island and Kait worked at Ivy Hills Country Club. Feels like an eternity ago.

We have some plans for the weekend. We are going to cook out pork chops tonight. Nick has requested Asparagus as a side dish. Kait didn't request anything. Tomorrow we will all go to Tim's football game and out to dinner afterwards. Then, there is church on Sunday morning followed by lunch, hopefully at Panera. (hint, hint)

I just talked to Nick and he was leaving shortly to drive to AA to pick up Kaitlyn. YAY! I'm doing a happy dance knowing they will be home today!!!

Karen

Happy Birthday Kelly!!!

Kelly is my "baby" sister. She is the mother to two beautiful girls. Kelly gives so much of herself. She gives at school where she is the secretary. She gives to her family. She gives to her friends. Kelly is so special in many ways. She is funloving, nice, trusting, loyal, and just a great person.

Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Love,

Karen

Wedding Videos

Here are a couple videos from the wedding.

I hope you enjoy these. Mom, you can see what a good job Kaylee and Kylee did walking down the aisle. Also, I love the look on Kaylee's face at the end of the second video.

Love,

Karen

For Kaitlyn

Tim, Kylee and Emma on the dance floor.

Timmy at our "fun" table.

I think this photo is adorable of Tim with his two cousins, Kaylee and Kylee.

All Wedding Photos

Julia bowling at the Rehearsal Dinner. She's holding her gift bag, too.
Kelsey and Emily

Haley and Emily

My Aunt Rosemary, the grandmother of the bride (holding the marriage certificate).

My cousin, Connie - the Mother of the Bride.

The Wedding Attendants: Haley, Emily, Julia and Kelsey

The Flower Girls: Kaylee and Kylee

Dad and Connie before we did the WAVE.

Mike and I having fun.

Rod and Kaylee dancing.

Kaylee and Kylee talking to Karla (or trying to get her on the dance floor).

The bride, Melissa, with Julia!

A Golden Day

Happy Anniversary to my BEST FRIEND!

You have made these last 24 years an adventure. I am blessed to call you my husband and I love you so much. We have experienced many of life's ups and downs together: miscarriage, many moves, death of your dad, divorce in our families, cancer, adoption, traveling, buying our first home (and four more since then), laughing, and just having fun together. I can't wait to see what's in store for the next 24!

Love,

Karen

Happy Anniversary Karen

Karen,

I want to wish you a Happy 24th Wedding Anniversary!! I am so lucky to be married to my best friend and true love all in one. In our 24 years we have had many blessings and a few down times - I'm just glad I was able to go through it all with you.

Thanks for your warm smile, for being fun, your corny jokes, your faith, your constant prayers, your support, your unconditional love, your wisdom, your love of traveling, listening to my sports and music discussions like you are really interested, being a beer and pizza girl, your great mothering and for being an awesome wife.

I love you so much.

Happy Anniversary,

Mike

PS: If you could just give me more than a sliver of the bed at night, you would be perfect.

Signed,

Fallen off the Edge In Cincinnati

a kaitlyn update

Vanessa, Kendra, Sarah, me, and Jess at the Tigers game Friday night!

This past week was the first week on the normal schedule that I will have the rest of the semester. It was busy! Busy in a good way, though, it will just take me a little while to get used to it. I was blessed to have a very relaxing summer. Most of the time I didn't start work until 4, and I usually got at least 3 days off a week. It was so good for me to have that time. It was precious time to spend with my family, to be still and seek God, and to rest. Even though I'm busy here, I'm determined to make time to be still and rest. My dad and aunt Linda have really taught me the importance of rest and that it is okay - no, it is good - to say no to opportunities to do things and to take time for myself. They are wise people:) Now that I have my own room, there's always a place for me to retreat and be alone. It is so good for my soul.

This week I started my placement in a 5th grade classroom at an elementary school here. I am in a class called "Michigan Mentorship," and we earn 4 credits for mentoring students who are at risk or having a difficult time in school. This semester, I will spend 8 hours a week in a 5th grade class, and I love it already. A friend asked me why I love it so much and it's hard for me to put into words. I'm just happy when I'm with those kids, whether it's observing them while they learn, helping them with their math, or eating lunch with them. The funny thing is, I'm learning things myself in 5th grade! I mean, do any of you remember what prime factorization is? Because I definitely did not. The teacher is also a really, really cool guy in his 50's. He's loud and outgoing, and at first I was a little intimidated, but after observing for a week I think he's awesome. He's laidback and jokes around with the kids, yet also commands their attention and respect and has control over his classroom.

Overall, life is good here, so much better than last year. Last year I struggled deeply with fear and anxiety - my mind was just a mess (a hot mess). I feel so much more freedom now. I still struggle with anxiety, I probably always will. I just have a deeper sense of God's love and grace and I know that will never change, and I find freedom in that. Please pray that I will continue to feel freedom in God to be myself. With my family this summer, I feel like the real me came out. With my family, I can be my true self because they're going to love me and support me even if I go make a million stupid decisions and mess my life up completely. Having their unconditional acceptance took away the fears I had of myself. In high school, I messed up a lot (I was not as perfect as anyone thought) and in college, I started trying to be the "perfect Christian" by doing everything with my church. I thought if I followed all the 'rules', led a Bible study, went to every meeting possible, only hung out with Christians, and got advice about every little issue in my life, then I would be fine and wouldn't mess up again. The problem: that is legalism.. and Jesus is totally against legalism. The other problem: that is not living in freedom. The way I was living last year, I was pretty much telling God that I didn't need grace because I was going to be perfect on my own. But if we could be perfect on our own, Jesus wouldn't have had to die. I am finding so much freedom in admitting I'm a sinner in need of grace and love, but I have to remind myself of it all the time and I still forget a lot. And Satan still attacks, telling me that if I'm myself I will fail and that I do not really even believe in God, but I recognize those are lies and I try to fight them with the truth I know. Anyway - thank you mom and dad for mirroring God's unconditional acceptance of me, because the way you let me come alive and be myself has shown me how God does the same. I love that God wants me to be myself, to follow the dreams and passions on my heart, because those were give by Him. So awesome!!

Welp.. that was longer and deeper than I planned but.. that's me! I hope you all have had a really fun time in Rochelle. I wish I could have been there!

Dad, mom, N, T, J - can't wait to see you guys on Friday!! It will be awesome.

~Kaitlyn~

Excitement in the Air

Tim and Julia are packed and ready to go. I just need to pack and get Mike packed. We are so excited about going to Rochelle tomorrow. Julia is especially excited about being a part of the wedding festivities! She is giddy! Tim is looking forward to spending time with his cousins and other relatives. Mike and I are looking forward to all of it.

We are hoping to be on the road by 9am our time. Max is already at the kennel. The cats are on their own for the weekend. They should have a wild time. The only "downside" to all this is Kait and Nick won't be there! BUT, they are coming home next weekend. HURRAY!

(The above photo was taken in March while the cousins decorated Easter eggs.)

See ya all soon!

Karen

Quick Hello from Dad

Hello Combes family. I'm at my Panera "oasis". It's been a hectic couple of days. I worked Sunday and all day Monday on a big proposal that I just presented at 11am. The proposal went well so I'm glad to be "taking an oasis" for a couple of hours.

I loved reading all the posts. I'm so proud of everybody!! You are all an incredible family and I love you so much.

Mom, if you think you are scared about going to Haiti, how about me. I'll be "left behind" with crazy Tim and nutty Julia. Thank GOD Linda and Tom are coming. I could not handle those two alone. Now that I'm over 50, I'm slowing down and need help. Those little buggers wear me out. I cannot keep up with their energy (why do I try?). Don't worry, I'll try saying no to Julia 5% of the time instead of never.

I'm still loving Cincinnati and Mercy. I sent Mom this week's "Spirit Brief" from Mercy. It's a weekly spiritual writting from one of the leaders in the system. This week it was from Jeff Ashin, the President of Mercy Fairfield Hospital. He wrote his testimonial about how he came to Jesus Christ in 2001. It was very moving and inspirational. He talked about how he loves working for system that has a daily prayer, that starts each meeting with a reflection and isn't afriad to lift up the values of love, kindness and caring. That's the way I feel too.

Take care everybody and have a GREAT day. I LOVE our family.

Love,

Dad

Update from Cincinnati

Julia couldn't eat breakfast on this day and her stomach hurt because she was hungry ;-(

Dad, Tim and Julia at hospital. Tim wanted to support his sister.

Mom and Julia in ICU. Julia had to lie flat for four hours!

Julia enjoying Dirt Cake at hospital! MmmmMmmm good!

I think this was worth being hungry earlier!

Tim and his friend, Mitch, hanging out on trampoline. Mitch comes over as much as Ross did in East Lansing. We love it. He is a nice kid and treats Julia nice, too!!!

We are all doing fine in Cincinnati. Tim's football team lost again yesterday. They really take football seriously down here. Mike and Tim have decided to come to Rochelle with us next weekend for my cousin, Melissa's, wedding. Julia is part of the festivities. We are looking forward to seeing the family then. It will be so much fun. Julia has never been to a wedding before, so this means a lot to her. Haley, Kelsey, Emily and Julia will do the guest book, pass out the program and also pass out the bubbles. Kaylee and Kylee are the flower girls. I can't wait to see them all!!

BTW, Happy Birthday to Haley! She is 12 today. Her last year before she becomes a teenager. Tim was trying to get her to talk to his friend, Mitch, on the phone earlier. ha! It was a big birthday week with Connie turning the big 6-0! and Dad having his 69th! Happy birthday to Dad and Connie, too!

Welp, I better get chuggin' to make dinner!

Karen

Julia on Trampoline with snow board??? Doesn't everyone use a snow board on a trampoline?

Update from East Lansing

East Lansing is excellent! I love being back "home." However, I do miss Cincinnati and totally feel like that is where my family needs to be. I am really looking forward to going back there in a couple weeks and seeing everyone. My classes are going well...I think I will do well in them. My teaching class is a little challenging, and deals with a lot of "deep" issues that require a lot of analyzing. My German class is great. It is laid back and hasn't been too much work. I am in a social science class that is all about Geography, which is actually pretty interesting. We are learning about population and migration right now. My other class is called Europe and the World which is pretty fascinating. We just read the book Pocahontas, which was surprisingly good. Campus Crusade is going well too. I really like my bible study. The girls and guys studies do a lot together which is fun. I don't think I will do Outreach Team this year. That is a group that meets biweekly and plans outreach events. I have too much going on this year and don't really feel called to do it again. Mount Hope Church is great. Pastor Dave did a sermon last week on learning to be a champion and not being a victim. One of the things he said was that if you fall/make a mistake, shake it off and step to the next level. He also talked about how we can't control our circumstances, but we can control our response. Sometimes we get so caught up in how we wish we didn't have to do this or didn't have this in our lives, but we can't control that. We only have control over our response.

Being a Resident Mentor has been fun. It is really a blessing. When it gets stressful I can either a.) wish it wasn't stressful or b.)accept it and do the best I can. I choose b. But lately, it has not been too stressful and has been great.

Also, I reccomend the new Hillsong album called Saviour King. It is pretty amazing and the songs are really great and speak to the heart of God.

Jonathan's Birthday!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Jonathan!

"You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever"
Psalm 30:11-12

This verse came to my mind today as I thought about Jonathan's life. God really is turning his wailing into dancing. In August, I saw a glimpse of this. When we first arrived, he seemed so sad and discontent all the time, not smiling or playing at all. By the third day, he seemed so much more joyful and content, so I took this video to capture it:

Now that the Monfils have decided to adopt Jonathan, it's clear to see God has huge plans for redemption in Jonathan's life. This little boy was sick from malnutrition, discontent, sad, and living without the love and care he needs. And now, he belongs to a family who will shower him with love, provide for all his needs, teach him to know the Lord, and bring JOY to his life. I'm also so excited that he will have older siblings!

---Kait---


PS - Mom and Dad, we need an update from Cincinnati, Nick we need an update from EL!

Four weeks from today..

Four weeks from today, mom and I will be on our way to Haiti! I cannot wait to go back. Now that I'm back in school, I'm having a hard time because I feel like what I'm learning is not really important. For instance, I'm taking a developmental psychology class, and we had to read these two 30-page articles on whether half-day or full-day kindergarten is better. Psychologists have done all this extensive research on it, controlling for all these different variables, and then one article says half-day is better and one says that full-day is better. I don't know, it's just hard for me to see that as important when are there are so many children in Haiti who can't even go to school. And when they do, there's hundreds of them in one-room school houses. For developmental psych, I have to conduct an observational study on how preschool children show affection. It seems silly to me to spend my time doing studies on such insignificant things when there's so much else to be done in countries like Haiti.


I know that there are important things that I'm learning about the development of kids that will be useful to me in the future to help children. I'm trying to see it this way! I know that this is where I need to be right now, finishing my degree, and I'm thankful that I will be done in 8 months! Hallelujah. And I'm so, so blessed to be going to Haiti in 4 weeks!

Joy for the Combes Family

Hello all from Dad.

I was very impacted by Kaitlyn's post about joy. It seems that God has filled my heart and brain with lots of thoughts about joy. My fervent prayer is for our family to experience abundant joy. Kaitlyn made a great point that we will never experience everlasting joy (until we get to heaven). We will experience pain and disappointment in our lives, but let's pray for God to show us as much joy as possible. It just hit me to not think in black and white terms regarding joy and pain. Let's experience joy in the face of disappointments and pain. As Paul talked about in Phillipians while he was in prison, "for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Phillipians 4:11-13).

My prayer is for God to "annoint us with the oil of joy" (Psalm 45:7).

We had a nice day at church. They are doing a 5 week series on love and sex; therefore, we put Tim in the place for 5th and 6th graders (Area 56). Tim was not real excited, but he ended up having fun. He was playing an intense game of air hockey when we went to pick him up. At church they had a hilarious interview with Satan about sex. When asked about homosexuality, Satan says, "I'm all for it, it leaves more chicks for the rest of us." When asked about living together,Satan says, "Just let me say this, would you buy a car without test driving it." It was classic Crossroads - risky, but very effective in getting the point across.

I am now officially sick of the heat. We have done a nice job of being positive despite the heat, but yesterday was the 45th day of the summer over 90 with 5 days over 100. The humidity was very intense yesterday. We are ready for some cooler weather. I went for a bike ride at 7:30am this morning and the humidity was so bad that I was soaking wet after the ride like I was in a rain storm.

Julia is doing great from her surgery. Tim's team lost but he played a great game. He played every play on offense. Even though he didn't play defense, he made the two best tackles of the day on a punt return and interception. Mom is doing great, but a little worn out from the whole Julia thing.

I pray for everybody to have a wonderful week with many blessings from God.

Love, hugs and kisses,

Dad

joy knows no bounds

"I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds."
-Paul (2 Corinthians 7:4)

This has been a really awesome week for me. God is so good. I love that in Him, our joy knows no bounds. This encourages me right now because I feel like I am in a time of really experiencing God's blessing and love. Yet I also know that seasons of pain and trouble will come again, and it brings me comfort to know that I will still have joy in God.

I am so excited to hear about the results of Julia's heart cath. I can't believe she's only borderline pulmonary hypertension now. That is great.

Last night, my church had a concert to celebrate the release of a CD they recorded. It's been a dream of the worship team for a long time to record a CD and to write some of their own songs. It was a great concert. They sang a lot of worship songs, and also sang 2 new songs that our worship leader wrote. His songs were amazing. Nick, you would love them!

Today there's another football game, and I'm hoping at the end we have a happy student section instead of the melancholy, depressed group of fans we were at the end of last week's game. I really have faith we'll pull through this week.. Go blue! Aunt Linda is coming with Brad and Liz to tailgate so that will be a good time for sure.

Sunday I'm getting together with a family in Ann Arbor who is looking for an after-school babysitter for their 3 kids. Their mom is a professor at the U of M art school. I would babysit 2-3 times a week from 3:30-6. I think it sounds like a fun job! So hopefully we'll get along well on Sunday and they'll hire me. That would be a big answer to prayer because I am in need of a job and I do not want to work at the Markley Hideaway anymore!

I hope you all have a fun Saturday! What is everyone up to this weekend?

Love,
kaitlyn

Great Day for Julia

Great news from Cincinnati Children's hospital. Julia's heart cath is done and her pulmonary artery hypertension (pah)has improved. Although her numbers are still not considered normal, they have greatly improved. In fact, Dr. Hirsch (the cardiologist who is an expert in pulmonary artery hypertension) says that Julia is now actually considered "borderline" for even having pah. Praise God. This was our prayer going in and it has been answered. Julia also had her prayer answered in that Dr. Hirsch said she will no longer need to be on oxygen. Julia had been on oxygen every night since her surgery 13 months ago and she did not like it. She will be on happy little girl to find out this information. Dr. Hirsh wants her to remain on the sildenafil medication, but this was not really a problem at all for Julia.

We are still waiting to see Julia. She is coming off anesthia and they are getting her situated in ICU where she will most likely stay for the night. It has been a long day for Julia, Karen, Tim and I, but we have been having fun. The heart cath was delayed for over two hours. Julia watched TV while Tim played games on the computer.

Well, they just came in and told us to come on in to see Julia so I got to go.

Love you all!!

Julia Update

I just talked to my parents, and Julia has not even gone into surgery yet! It keeps getting delayed, but they are expecting her to go in soon, probably around 3:00. Then the procedure will take 2 hours. My parents and Tim are all in the hospital room with Jules - everyone is doing well, they're just really hungry because they haven't gotten lunch yet!

Well, that's all I've got! They'll probably update from the hospital later..

love.
kait

HELLO

Hello everyone! I just wanted to say hi. Things are going well at MSU. I have Real Life tonight (Campus Crusade for Christ weekly meeting). That should be a good time. After that I have an Akers Hall substaff meeting from 9-11pm. Busy night! I am excited for the weekend, but I do have a lot of work to do. Heres a good quote: "The time to relax is when don't have time for it."- Sidney J. Harris. GOOD QUOTE!

Update on Julia

Just a quick update.

I just got home from Children's Hospital. It all went very well. Julia did great and "did not even cry" when she got her blood drawn. She said "not even a tear!" She was happy. Thanks for your prayers regarding this.

I did find out that due to an emergency infant heart cath, Julia has been moved to the third patient of the day (instead of second). We now arrive at Children's at 11am and the procedure is scheduled for 1pm. They said the procedure will take about two hours and they might leave her in ICU all night just as a precaution. They said sometimes the lungs can be "finicky." There is a sleeping chair in ICU that I can sleep on so I will be with Julia. Julia is very upbeat about this procedure. I think she is remembering all the presents she received last August when she had her open heart surgery. I did tell her that it won't be like that this time.

When I got back to school, I ran into the school counselor, Mrs. Bode. She told me that tomorrow at Wilson, there is a new student who just was adopted from Katzikstan (sp?). She has never had formal schooling and only speaks Russian. She asked me if it was okay if they got Julia together with this girl to help her. I, of course, said YES! I also told her to have the mom call me if she has questions or wants to talk. The girl will be in second grade, but Mrs. Bode thought she was 8.5 years old. I think Julia will have a new friend.

Thanks again for your prayers for this morning!

Love,

Karen/Mom

What's Going On

Hey!

Tomorrow Julia goes to Children's Hospital for her Pre-Op appointment. During this time, they will do a chest x-ray, EKG, Lab work and also a general physical. Julia knows that she will miss school in the morning tomorrow. She knows we are going for "pre-op" stuff. She just doesn't realize that the "lab" work will mean a stick in the arm!!! She will not be excited! SIGH! She is so BRAVE on most things....she just doesn't like needles. I can't blame her.

Then, on Friday, she is scheduled for a Heart Catherization at 10:30am. I am so impressed with her doctor down here. His name is Dr. Hirsch. He's from South Africa and has a nice accent and is very up-to-date on Pulmonary Hypertension. They will be measuring the "pressures" in her artery to see how she is doing. From what I see, she is doing fantastic. Julia will be spending Friday night at the hospital and coming home on Saturday morning. The last time we had this procedure done (June, 2006), she recovered very quickly and it was an outpatient procedure. Dr. Hirsch just likes to keep his patients in overnight. He will do a general anesthesia, which they did not do in Ann Arbor.

Tim is doing great. He was bummed they lost their football game last Saturday! The "good" news from the football game last Saturday was that our family won "Split the Pot." ha! We won $30! WooHoo! Not like the 50/50 at the MSU basketball games. You could win 5,000 at those events, but we were happy.

That's all I got for now. I love you all!
Karen/Mom

Quick Hello from Dad

Hi family. I'm on an "oasis" at Panera. Thanks so much for my father's day present - the lap top. It is one of my favorite gifts of all time. It gives me the freedom to get away from the stress of the office and do some work off-site. It has been wonderful - many thanks.

I love you all and pray for you all constantly.

Love, hugs and kisses,

Dad

Football, Fireworks and Firetrucks

Dad watching Tim's team warm-up! Go Raiders!
Pre-game meeting against Delhi. The Raiders lost 12-6.

Fireworks from River Fest. It was a lot of fun and a nice eveing. Great breeze!

Tim and Julia hanging out along the side of Interstate 275 after our bus broke down.

Dad in front of our bus that broke down along 275. We were so close to our exit...we could see the sign. We lost power (acceleration) then we could smell something burning. We pulled over immediately behind a state policeman who had pulled over a drunk driver.

Someone said we had five three trucks, two ambulances and five state police cars!

We had fun at Kings Island today! It was crowded, but we go there early and got a great seat by the wave pool It sure has been a fun summer there! I went down the Coolangata Racer! It was fun. We also did the lazy river and the tube slide.

I love you all, family!

Mom/Karen

My House!

My house!

The entryway coming in the front door. We'll use that table to put mail.

The family room from coming in from the front

View of the family room from the kitchen

Our kitchen

My bedroom! This is what you see when you walk in the door.

My two big windows. My bed is in the corner - love it.

Standing in front of the windows

The view from my windows. I love the trees and that I can see the church.

Pictures from Claddagh

Those are my pictures from Claddagh! That was a fun night. I will hopefully take pictures of my house today and post them. It has been SO crazy ever since I got here (in a good way, mostly), but today I have nothing planned and it sounds like heaven. It was a lot of fun with Nick here! My favorite was on Saturday night, we walked around campus and got ice cream. We went to the diag, and Nick fell 3 times right in front of groups of people. It was hilarious! Last night we had a house meeting, then half of us organized the kitchen and half went outside to clean up around the outside of the house. Things are looking great around here. Julie came over and she said, "This doesn't feel like a college house, this feels like a home." It really does. I love it! I hope you all have a good labor day. Talk to you soon.

-kait-