Pray for Lorilee's Dad

It’s just five days before Christmas, and here I am, finally sitting down to plunk out the annual letter! 2005 was a year of extremes, I’d have to say, with a whole lotta everyday slices of life.

Of course, the big, huge event in our lives was becoming parents for the third time, to our beautiful daughter, Phoebe Min-Ju Jayne. We traveled to Korea in July to meet our baby girl and bring her home to her anxious big brothers.

The trip was fantastic! We loved Korea and its people, their graceful ways, hospitable hearts, and gentle, mighty spirits. We will watch with pride as Phoebe discovers her rich ancestry.

When they placed that gorgeous girl in my arms for the first time, she was six-and-a-half months old, and my life changed forever in that moment.

It’s funny. For the two years we went through the adoption process, I prayed for a baby who was calm, mellow, and who loved to sleep as much as I did. Well, anyone who has met “Peeby” can tell you she’s rowdy, wild, and can subsist on very little sleep! But she is exactly the way she needs to be to make her way in this world and fulfill the purposes her Father has for her.

This baby beats all, folks. Everywhere we go people stop in their tracks and comment on her skin and eyes and general adorableness. She’s a rock star. Phoebe-Cakes walked at 10 months, says “Mama” and basically does not miss a single thing going on around her! She’s loving, and she adores her doting brothers, making her famous “kissy sound” and leaning in for smooches every time they come near her.I think she may be our strongest willed child yet, and I thought Ezra broke the mold!

Next to Phoebe, I spent the most time with Ezra, my new five-year-old (sniff, sniff). He is one of a kind, my Schmoytie-face. He’s a feeler, an artist, and a love bug. Independent to the core, Ez has no interest in hockey, hunting, or fishing. None. We have to bribe him with treats to get him to come willingly to Jonah’s games!

But that’s just fine. We want him to follow his own path, which now includes lots of art, drama, and hilarious comic bits that come out of his mouth. Ez’s current fads: Superheroes, the alphabet and phonic sounds, slushy-making, and Chicken Little. Together we call out the answers to “Family Feud” on weekday mornings! He loves his three afternoons a week at Oakdale Christian preschool.

Jonah, 8, (#27) has made me a hockey mom, a role I relish with great joy. With two practices per week and one or two games, we are at the rink all the time. It’s so cool! The EGRAHA Mites squad is #1 in their league and have a record of 12-1-1.

Jonah recently scored his first goal, which was a moment none of us will ever forget! One of the other dads said, “20 years from now it will be a top drawer shot from centre ice”..and he’s right! In his spare time, Jonah thrives as a second grader at Oakdale. He is a great reader, a whiz at math, and a social party animal (pretty much like me except the whiz at math part).

One highlight this year was his performance as the wolf in the “Three Piggy Opera,” a role that included solos and much dramatic angst as the odious villain in the piece. Thanks go to Mrs.Knott—a teacher par excellence—who noticed and nurtured something in our boy we may have missed, aka the ability to take the lead role out of 60 other children and perform fearlessly for over 100 people! Yeah, we may have missed that!

Doyle still detests his job but at least he gets to work with his friend Chris and check his traps on the way home from work. Yes, traps. He’s taking his mountain man fantasy one step further into Jeremiah Johnson-ville by taking up trapping. He even has a fur trappers hat as his main fashion accoutrement. So far he’s gotten a possum (in our yard), a red fox, a mink, and a muskrat which he and the boys ate the next day. I had a salad. Just so you know.

For us, three kids is a lot—not an easy one in the bunch! Seriously, we are challenged to our limits many a day, but we wouldn’t trade the noise, the chaos, the brouhaha for all the quietude in the world (well, maybe a little quiet would be kinda nice!)

It’s a juggling act for me to get my work done, but as always when I’ve had a baby, I’ve slowed down some. The Press was wonderful this year as I started writing more and more about television, a great job for a mom who likes to work in flannel pjs! Plus on this beat I was able to interview Ray Romano, Georgia Engle, Jeff Probst, Randy Jackson and many vividly creative Hollywood types.

A special treat was following closely the capers of Grand Rapids’ own Gary Hogeboom as he outwitted, outlasted, and outplayed all but 6 contenders on “Survivor.” A former NFL QB, Gary is a fine Christian man and a tribute to his home city (plus I got to do a lot of pajama-working in the 12 weeks he was on!)

My devotional book, “Just Give Me a Piece of Quiet” was released in April, and in Fall MOPS sent it to 115,000 of their members, a most excellent exposure for me and my books! I also wrapped up writing “The Wide Eyed Wonder Years, Book 7!!!!!, which releases in February, with a MOPS imprint and some serious marketing heft. Fiction, my life’s dream, is hopefully next on the horizon.

One job highlight was traveling in a van full of loony ladies to Iowa, where me and my writer’s guild pals spoke at a writer’s conference. This was a fabulous trip, full of great fun, hysterical laughter, and rich rewards of nurturing the writing dreams of others. I also spoke at the MOPS convention in Dallas, to 500 women about the topic of “We Should Do This More Often.” Yeah, uh huh!

I always end these letters on a sad note, don’t I? Well, life seems to be full of good things and bad, blessings and sorrows. In March, I lost my incomparable, beloved, irreplaceable Uncle Al, one of my dearest friends on this earth. My brother Dan and I flew to Winnipeg for the funeral, where I was supposed to give a tribute, but we were stuck at O Hare airport in Chicago. Yeah, that was pretty bad. I miss Uncle Al. I mourn him and wish he were still here. Every day. I know where he is—vibrantly healthy, gloriously alive, and waiting, watching, as part of the “Cloud of Witnesses.” But sometimes that is just not good enough, you know?

And now we face another time of sorrow, in the Valley of the Shadows, that place we none of us want to go. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer less then two weeks ago. For me, it’s unthinkable, impossible, and terrifying. A month ago I anticipated with joy their annual Christmas visit, so my parents could enjoy their granddaughter and my dad could watch the third generation Reimer hockey fan on the ice. It kills me that now he may never see Jonah play, and he may never come here again. I mean, it tears me to pieces.

We probably have a year with him, give or take. This means lots of visits to Winnipeg, lots of packing in memories, and lots of leaning, on the everlasting arms that prop me up and keep me going. The same arms that enfold my parents, and the same ones that welcomed my uncle in March.

Thank goodness He came! Thank goodness we don’t face life alone, that the baby in the manger grew to walk beside us, to love us, and to speak words of comfort and joy, at Christmas and every single day. Thank goodness.

Love Lorilee, for Doyle, Jonah, Ezra, and Phoebe Min-Ju Jayne.