Janet's Blog

It was quite a week, that week leading up to our wedding on the 21st day of December in 1974. Bill had insisted on having our wedding right after he graduated from Milford Technical School (now Southeast Community College), so he had just completed finals and his family had driven the nearly 400 miles from Gering to attend his graduation the previous weekend. His dad wasn't too pleased about having to ask for time off work twice in a week's time during the sugar factory campaign, where he worked rotating shifts at the height of the sugar processing season. And the thought of making that long trip four times in 10 days must have been more than a little irritating for the whole family. Mom and I were both attending Concordia College (now Concordia University) in Seward, so we both had finals that week, and Mom technically graduated, although she didn't have a graduation ceremony just then. Mom had to drive back and forth to Seward for each of her finals, while I was still liv...

  Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel, (which means "God is with us.")     Isaiah 7:14 NLT Once again, it's time to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. In a year filled with inevitable ups and downs, we rejoice in God's gift of a Savior, born as a baby in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago, and still present with us today.  Last Christmas, we were certainly glad that God was with us after Bill's dad died suddenly on December 21st at the age of 98. And then, when Levi and I contracted Covid soon after Christmas and were unable to attend Al's memorial service, it was comforting to watch the live-streamed service from home--an unexpected result of the pandemic. January brought us record-breaking snowfall, but spring arrived early enough that I could plant things like snow peas and spinach in early April. We had an abundant harvest that continued even after June's devastating hailstorm, with more tomat...

We don't get to see our youngest granddaughter as often as we would like, because she lives with her family in Ohio. Little Anna Elizabeth is 13 months old, and Anna is truly a Little Person. Anna She was diagnosed with Hypochondroplasia, a rare type of short-limbed dwarfism, when she was just a few months old. When doctors suggested, even before she was born, that she might have dwarfism, Erin and Reed passed it off as another misconception about their family's relatively small stature. None of them are tall people, and both Erin and five-year-old Will were always near the bottom of their respective growth charts when they saw their doctors for well-child checkups. Doctors had voiced similar concerns before Will was born, but he does not have any type of dwarfism; he is just small for his age.  Will, Erin, Anna, and Reed Anna, on the other hand, has been in and out of the hospital since she was born, first for breathing issues, and then for focal seizures, which are manifested...