February 2020

High school friends reunion

Baby Fonte 20 weeks

Fish #3- Bubbles

Harley- the constipated lizard

Caleb, Jacob and Ashton at Bittersweet

Skiing at Cannonsburg

Just another day at Forest School 

-Nate and I saw Hamilton and it was fantastic. I went home, bought the album and began listening non-stop.
-Isaac went on a middle school retreat- little sleep, lots of sugar, challenged in his faith, and lots of fun with friends.
-I went to Baltimore for a couple days. Robin, Heather and I stayed at Deb's house. Deb has two young kids so we spent most of our time at her house, but we had no problem finding stuff to talk about for 2 days! We hadn't seen each other in probably 3-5 years so this was a fun reunion. 
-Nate, Caleb and Isaac went to a Calvin v Hope basketball game at Hope stadium. Caleb said 75% of the crowd was over the age of 65- ha!
-I made a quick trip to Dayton to go with Steph to her 20 week ultrasound. Ben was on assignment out of state and couldn't be there, so I got to go along! They don't want to know the sex of the baby, that will be a fun surprise! Baby is growing well and due July 4- they call the baby Freedom Fonte.
-Our family went skiing at Cannonsburg for a day. Julia does not enjoy skiing and was happy to spend the day with Grandma Jongsma.  Lexi and Stephen were especially excited to ski- Lexi has been talking about it since we took her last year. At night she would pray, "Thank you God for skiing, please let us go skiing again."  It was a cold day to ski, thankfully we had hand and feet warmers. The older boys went off on their own. Stephen and Lexi moved off the bunny hill fairly quickly. Stephen's strategy is to point his skis down the hill and go fast. Lexi did best skiing with Nate as she needed help getting on/off the chairlift.  Overall a fun day!
-We bought Stephen another betta fish as the first two died. Everyone says betta are so hardy, I don't know why ours died. We are hoping 3rd times a charm- so far Bubbles seems like a winner.
-Harley the lizard didn't poop for weeks so we brought her to the vet and found out she is a he. Thankfully Isaac had chosen a gender neutral name- ha! And I am annoyed that I was worrying about a lizard's bodily functions.
-Caleb went on a high school retreat- little sleep, lots of sugar, challenged in his faith and lots of fun with friends.
-We have an Chinese high school age adoptee, Aliah, spending with with Lexi once a week at our house. Lexi enjoys hanging out with someone that looks similar to her and has similar experiences. 

January 2020

Career Day at school- who is he?

Isaac did Stephen's hair for crazy hair day

Playing at Outdoor Discovery Center

Nolbi loved walking the trails

Nate installed a washer/dryer for Enedina- alot of work

41 years old

Celebrating Grandma's birthday

-We all filled out a year in review, will be fun to look back on someday
-Enedina's fiance, Santos, was picked up and detained by ICE for months. We hired a lawyer, but unfortunately Santos was deported to Guatemala. The whole situation is heart-breaking. Enedina's family was split up- she lost her fiance and the kids lost their Dad. We continue to be so proud of Enedina. She is raising 3 kids, working, and trying to become a Certified Nursing Assistant.  We are praying a way can be found to bring Santos back to the US.
-Nate and Isaac continue to enjoy coaching and playing basketball. We have some good videos of Isaac playing, too bad we can't share them on the blog.
-I took Lexi to the allergist because of her ongoing hives.  She had testing done and she has some mild environmental like dust, pollen, etc. The Dr said her body reacted to a virus and her system is still on high alert and breaks out in hives at any form of stress (cold, exercise, tight clothing, etc.) The Dr. put her on zyrtec twice/day and singulair once/day for 2 months and then continue the zyrtec for another month. The idea is to flood her system with antihistamines, suppress reactions and hopefully once she is weaned off her body will no longer overreact. 
-Caleb and two other trumpet players participated in solo and ensemble and they received a score of 2! The scores range from 1 (highest) to 5 (lowest).
-Nate and the kids made me feel loved for my 41st birthday and Nate and I were able to go out for an evening.
-We took care of Jovanni for a weekend. He is 4 years old and Tim/Jenny's foster son. He is a cute kid, but we were tired by the end!
-The Lunar New Year was Jan 24. As a family we decided to celebrate the holiday at school. We made Chinese long life noodles, had dried seaweed, and Chinese almond cookies for Stephen, Lexi and Isaac's classes (also potstickers for his class).  For Julia's class we made Korean rice cake soup, potstickers, had seaweed and almond cookies.  It was a lot of food prep, but all of the students enjoyed the food.
-Nate took the girls to Grand Rapids for a Chinese New Year celebration. The event turn out was massive, so they couldn't really see/participate in the activities. 
-I was assigned my first Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) case. I have a sibling group of 3 kids. The kids are in foster care and I will advocate for them and make recommendations to the court about what is in their best interest. 
-We had Grandma and Grandpa over to celebrate her birthday!