Pictures of Europe

I hope you enjoy our pictures.

Dawn

Garnet Grace

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and support as we lost our baby. We unexpectedly found out we were pregnant May 19th. We repeated a pregnancy test May 21st and then announced our good news. I was especially excited because we were due January 11th and I really wanted the baby (via C/section) on January 7th - my Mom's birthday. We only got to enjoy the baby for 1 week. Monday May 25th after dinner I began to bleed, I was seven weeks. We made some calls and had someone from our church here within 20 minutes - our driver arrived shortly thereafter and we headed to the hospital. One frustration was that it was so late in the evening - nothing could be done. We got a bed and had to wait until 8AM to have the ultrasound. They found nothing - no baby or sac. We were trying to get all the information to decide what our next course of treatment would be. We were scheduled to leave for a Medetteranean cruise on Thursday. During this time of trying to accept that our baby was gone Garnet seemed an appropriate name (January birthstone). After confirming with bloodwork that she was really gone - we decided to have a D&C to avoid any complications on our trip - even if it was just me feeling rotten.

I was crying in the surgery prep room and everyone seemed really surprised. The only thing I could compare it to was a funeral. I knew that the baby was gone - but this was the final goodbye. I remember waking up - still groggy and just sobbing.

My heart hurts that I can't ever see or raise this precious gem, but I know that my baby is in heaven. I live in a world cursed by sin, pain and death and my God does not glory in the pain that this curse brings. He is beside me grieving with me and I have chosen that I will glorify Him by my actions.

Sam and his evening naps

Sam quite frequently needs an evening nap - here is a compilation so far.

Growing Up 1 month vs 9 months

Sam's latest

He may not be able to crawl "normally" but he's on track every other way.

Updates

I posted about 3 months worth of pictures in 3 new slideshows. Joanna managed to get 2 birthday parties - one in America and one in India.

Our kids are the center of attention wherever we go. Blonde headed kids are very rare. On our way home from Christmas dinner some beggars in the street were trying to sell Santa hats. When one of them saw Sam - he forgot to sell and started goo gooing the baby. The people at church call our girls barbie dolls because they think they look like Barbie. At the zoo I think more people wanted pictures of Sam than the animals.

Our trip to the zoo:
Monday 1/26 was Republic day - the day India adopted its constitution. Scott had the day off so we took an outing around the city. We started out in the morning going to a park - that we were told had animals. No such luck - but we did manage a "train" ride. The train was obviously meant for kids and they started it on a curve of an oval - they had to unhook the cars and push them to the straight away. It was smooth riding from then on. We had some boys befriend us at the park and they gave flowers to the girls. One lady approached us to give a "blessing from the gods" for Sam. We politely refused but it was hard because she was so insistent.

Things are going well and we have a church camp coming up 2/28-3/1 as well as a European cruse 5/31.

Dawn

Joanna's Big News

Guess what it is.

Update

This week has flown by. Tomorrow is the memorial service in Arizona. One week later - I move to India. I'm spending today with my Dad and on Friday we will be having a party at Tiffany & Gary's. It's been good just to be able to be still with him.

Dawn

We are home . . . for now

We arrived home shortly after midnight Monday morning. And except for the fact that I have caught Scott's cold - we are all doing well. Packing our shipment will happen on Friday and then Sam and I will leave early next week for the memorial service in Arizona.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying and comforting and supporting us during this time. We calculated that we have driven at least 2000 miles in the past week and quite a bit of it late at night.

Dawn and family.

Joan Mary (Hying) Niedermeyer, age 60, went to be with the Lord unexpectedly on October 20, 2008 at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Joan was born January 7, 1948 in Highland, Wisconsin to Leo and Mary Jean (Tomashaska) Hying. Her mother predeceased her on July 5, 1959. She married James Niedermeyer on November 16, 1968. Together they raised three daughters in Arizona.

Joan was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and friend with many passions. First and foremost was her personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Second was her dedication to her husband of almost 40 years. She treasured the time spent with her daughters and grandchildren.

She touched many people throughout her life by giving to others. She was an avid volunteer with many local community groups and churches. She always made time to “visit” and stay in touch with family and friends all over the world. Her concern for others still continues today. Her final wish was to donate her body for medical research and this wish will be fulfilled at Duke University.

In addition to her mother, she was preceded in death by two nieces (Kelby and Jessie Schmelzer) and one nephew (Tyler Laufenberg).

Joan is survived by her husband (James), three daughters: Wendy (Michael) Lemme, Dawn (Scott) Zook, Tiffany (Gary) Brawley and seven grandchildren. Other survivors include: her parents Leo and Bernadette(Wienkes) Hying, married on Oct 19^th, 1960, her younger siblings Pat (Cindy) Hying, Helen (Bruce) Laufenberg, Evelyn (Jess) Schmelzer, Tim (Kathy) Hying, Alice (Tim) Yanna, Curt (Barb) Hying, Bruce (Vicki) Hying and 18 nieces and nephews. She will also be greatly missed by her devoted and faithful friend, Karen Zehm.

A memorial service celebrating her life will be held on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at 11:00 am at Ss Anthony and Philip Catholic Church, Highland Wisconsin. Reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Joan Hying Niedermeyer Scholarship Fund at Highland High School or Boscobel Pregnancy Helpline, 409 E. Kansas St, Boscobel, WI 53805.

My Mom died Monday

Sunday after church my Mom was found slumped over in her car in a restaurant parking lot near her newly built cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. My Dad does a weekly commute to Atlanta and when he called her at 1 PM the emergency room answered. He immediately turned around and when he got there they were preparing her for transport to Forsyth Medical Center in Winston Salem NC.

She nearly died several times that night. We packed everyone up and headed down there, a 9 hour drive. We arrived around 8 in the morning on Monday and she was stable but sedated and on a ventilator and receiving nearly lethal doses of blood pressure medicine to achieve almost 100 on her blood pressure. My 2 sisters and 4 of my Mom's 7 siblings arrived also. After an echocardiogram it was determined that she had fluid built up around her heard and an Esophageal Echocardiogram it was determined that she had a Aortic dissection. My Mom died in surgery between 5 and 5:30 PM Monday evening.

Our move to India has been postponed to November 13th. We have 1 memorial service in Wisconsin Saturday 10/25 and another one in Phoenix on 11/6.

I'm home for just a but before we are headed to Wisconsin.

I've been writing more - but I'll post it as I have time.

Dawn

Houston - we have a roll-over

Last night Sam rolled over for the first time - of course Scott is on the other side of the world. I'm trying to get video - but so far he hasn't done it on cue.

Dawn

Guess the Baby?

Can you figure out who is who?

Madeline's 4 year portraits

Sam's 4 month portraits

Sam's uncle makes a funny video of him

Voice courtesy of Dan Teeters

You won't see this in convention news

American Right To Life Unfurled World's Largest Protest Sign: DNC Sheets Of Shame

DENVER, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- An official Guinness Book of World Records attempt to display the largest ever protest sign has succeeded. The 530-foot tall and 666-foot wide message is being shouted from the mountaintops overlooking the Democratic National Convention with the leading 2008 protest message.

Depending on their location, thousands of DNC delegates and journalists can look out their hotel windows to the west to see the sign. Sponsored by American RTL Action, the message initially appeared with three enormous 160-foot tall, bright yellow letters, D-N-C, stacked on top of each other.

After those letters suddenly appeared on a mountain just west of Denver, the actual full message of the sign began to unfurl. Three lines of white text, built on the vertical yellow letters read, D-N-C:

Destroys
uNborn
Children

"The tiniest boys and girls should be loved and protected," said American RTL Action president Steve Curtis, "but as nominating Barack Obama emphasizes, the DNC even supports killing kids in the womb old enough to know their mother's voice, sleep and dream, suck their thumbs, and play with their toes."

Columbine dad Brian Rohrbough, whose son Daniel was murdered at that high school massacre, is the group's vice president. "When we tell kids that unborn children can be killed if their parents don't want them," said Rohrbough, "we rob them of the knowledge of the God-given right to life and we destroy their moral foundation. Abortion is wrong because it's a baby; it's always wrong to intentionally kill an innocent baby."

Guinness assigned American Right To Life an official world record attempt number: 228132. The protest sign weighs more than 2,700 pounds and was sewed together with more than four miles of seams connecting 2,400 sheets and backpacked onto location and unfurled by 44 letter carriers with spotters a mile away to ensure proper letter placement. ARTL commits to removing the DNC Sheets Of Shame and leaving the area cleaner than it had been.

ARTL is also a lead sponsor of the DNC Power in the Park protest event by national black leaders at Denver's Martin Luther King Jr. Park and of the Clinton Watch project at Denver area strip joints.

Video is here American right to life

Our New Siding

We have to side the house before we move to India - so here is the start - I'll be adding more pictures as we go.

Sam's 2 month Pictures

Our new family blog

Scott commented that the other blog was becoming too cluttered. The pictures were taking too long to load. So this is the solution. This blog is going to be dedicated to the Zook family and the other will be dedicated to issues dealing with India.

Dawn