From: Kraig Warnemuende <ad6075@wayne.edu>

Date: Sat Mar 27, 2004 9:08:17 AM America/Detroit

To: Kraig Warnemuende <ad6075@wayne.edu>

Subject: 03-27-04 March 'n' on Update from Kraig, Loren and Keren

Hurrah! Finally caught up! And a special hurrah, 'cause Keren is a year-and-a-half today! Here's the scoop on March:

March came in like a lamb this year (and it hasn't been too cold since). Right now the crocuses, daffodils and tulips are beginning to put forth some leaves....

Keren and I jumped into the first week of March full-swing with a special vacation to visit my sister Jessie in North Carolina. As Jessie and I both have birthdays in March, my mom decided to treat us with getting tickets for me to fly down with Keren. Talk about an awesome gift! I found out later that this also came as a result of Mom noticing that January had been a tough month for me (Thanks, Mom!). We planned the trip for a week that Jessie's husband Brian had to be out of town so that Keren and I could keep Jessie company. We had about five days--more time together than we've had in a long time. Jess and I got to catch up with lots of talking, and as the weather was absolutely gorgeous, and Jessie lives about five minutes from two nice parks, we also got to take some long, long walks. Keren enjoyed the walks so much more than she did last year. She's interacting much more with the world around her--I'm looking forward to better weather here in Michigan! A particularly funny thing to watch was when Keren got too warm on the walk she started hiking her pants up over her knees.

We packed a number of events into our North Carolina trip besides walks. Thursday afternoon after arriving, we got to visit with Jessie and Brian's pastor's wife for "tea". Donna has been praying for Keren since she was born, so this was a particular treat for all of us. On Friday, Jessie, Keren and I met with a family from my trisomy email list that I've been a part of for over a year now. Linda A (grandma), Linda B (mom) and Gabby (about 20 months, trisomy 14) live about half-an-hour from Jessie, so we met up with them at a local Panera Bread and chatted about the joys and stresses of having a special needs baby (funny, I mostly remember the joys part!). That night and on Saturday, I helped Jess a very little as she started to sort things for packing--she and Brian just sold their house and are moving into an apartment so that they can move at a moment's notice when Brian gets a permanent job. He's been searching for over a year now (along with Kraig's bro Kevin)--it's been a long road.... Anyway, I say I helped Jessie only a little because we realized that packing up a house is not a skill I've had to acquire. Kraig and I are going on nine years this July and have not really moved since our marriage, whereas Jessie and Brian are working on move number four in there three-and-a-half years! I must say, I did come home inspired to clean house and chuck as much stuff as I possibly can (a difficult task for two pack-rats :( ). Saturday and Sunday saw us visiting local novelty stores and Jessie and Brian's church, and then on Monday we had a final unexpected treat: my friend Melody Snyder from college came up from Columbia, South Carolina (a three hour drive) with her daughter Karah. Karah is exactly six months younger than Keren--she's a year old today! Mel and I haven't had a chance to visit since a year or so before Keren was born, so this was a particularly special visit--showing off our girls was fun, too! :)

Keren and I made it back to Michigan safe and sound with lots of great memories. Flying with a baby was another whole story in itself. Suffice it to say, she did pretty well--was only a little fussy (and is actually not terribly loud when she fusses)--and we had lots of extra room since it was a light flight both ways. Kraig was very happy to see his girls and assured us that we held a much closer place in his heart than Ahanu the puppy or his sister Kathy :) ! The day after we got home, Keren celebrated the fact by getting up into a crawl position for the first time!!! She's continued to work on this with varying degrees of success, and her physical therapist has shown me what exercises to work on with her to get her to extend her arms and shift her weight--the next step toward actual crawling!!!! I was amazed at how exciting it has been to watch Keren do this--despite everything indicating she could get here, I somehow couldn't imagine it actually happening. I love how God chooses to surprise us!

We haven't slowed down much since we've been home. As I mentioned earlier, I was working on the bathroom till the end of last week. Also, last week Kraig went to his conference in California and left us at home for a few days. Now he's back and is focusing most of his attention on completing his dissertation, hopefully by summer. This also means a job search for us in the next few months, and all the change that will entail. Dad W came back into town for annual flight training, and Kathy's been working away on Grandma's old house and projects here. Kraig and I did take a day this past Saturday to go out for a movie and dinner in honor of my birthday while my parents (who were gone most of February) came over to spoil their granddaughter.

Looking ahead:

Next month will bring on a series of six-month check-ups with doctors. Hopefully some of these will then move to annual appointments. We've added two specialists to our repertoire, as well. A "physical medicine" doctor who specializes in watching development, and assessing what kind of equipment and therapy is necessary--he'll keep an eye on Keren's foot braces and we'll be getting a seating evaluation done which will determine if Keren will need a wheelchair of some type (the answer to this is most likely yes!). We've also met with a dietician who can keep an eye on the nutrients Keren needs as she's still primarily fed by feeding tube.

Other events we're looking forward toward is Kraig's folks coming back from Mali for their summer furlough, and Kraig's completion of his PhD. There are a lot of uncertainties in our future, but I haven't really been worrying about them. I don't know if that's because I'm totally out-of-touch with reality, or if (hopefully this is the actual case!) there are so many praying for us that I've been able to put this completely into God's hands. He's done so much for us so far, I know he won't drop the ball on us now. No matter what happens, it's all part of his plan and will bring glory to him and as a result, joy to us! What more could we ask for?

Well, that's certainly enough....This one day update is about as long as the others combined! Thanks for bearing with me! And thanks for continuing to pray for us!

May your spring be a time of renewing :)

Much love,

Loren for the gang here