Save The Date!

Okay, so this is the post a number of you have been waiting for, our Save the Date notification!

Yes, that's right, as most of you already know, Scott and I are getting MARRIED! YAY! ***sigh*** I can't wait! :)


Scott Malefyt & Cindy Solomon
June 2, 2007
10:30am
Indianapolis, Indiana

(yes, you read that right, 10:30am on a Saturday) ;)

Okay, so those are the basics for now. More details will follow at a later date.

And I want to say THANK YOU to all of you at church who have gone out of your way to make Scott feel so welcome! And for me too, thank you SO MUCH for all of your love and support of me while I've been away. I've been back and forth to Michigan for 5 years now and I could not have done it alone! I have appreciated your prayers and encouragement more than you could know! You all mean so much to me! Really, it brings me to tears! God has blessed my life in amazing ways by growing up with all of you! I love all of you so much! ~cindy

Yes, I know, it has been almost 3 months since my last post. Well, for awhile I didn't have a computer, then for some reason I got really busy..hm...more on that with the next post. MEANWHILE....I have some important unfinished bizzzzzness. It is time for a post on...*drumroll please*.... My big sister CHARIS!!!! Ta-da! Charis was born 18 months before me, and I must admit, I'm sure it was the happiest day of her life when our mother brought me home! Our childhood basically went like this: Charis did it first, I screamed, whined, and begged until I got to do the exact same thing. After all, as nature would have it, everything the older sister does is incredibly cool and amazing! Who would want to be left out of that?!

One morning Mom was passing out our daily Flintstones vitamins and she also handed me Charis' to go give to her. Thing was, Charis got Dino and I only got Pebbles. If Charis was getting Dino, then surely it was bound to be better than my Pebbles, and that's just not fair. Only thing left to do? Taste them both and see which was better. Fortunately for Charis, I recalled that the resident Mother-force might not be very happy with me if I ate them both, so after the taste test, I reluctantly went and handed Dino over to Charis.

"EEeeeewwww! It's all WET!! Mommmmm!"

Uh-oh, it looked like the Mother-force was going to get involved anyway. When confronted with my deed and an explanation demanded of me, I tried to get them to see the positive here. I mean, it's not like I ate it or anything.

"Ummmm, well,.... I only tasted it!"

Sometimes Mother-forces do things that are strange and unexplainable. In this case, our Mother...laughed. Why? Well, I think only a Mother would know, but I will say it was much to my relief. No one can get in too much trouble when the sentencer is smirking and smiling, right?

When Charis married Phil, I knew that suddenly, it was a new best day of her life. ***sigh*** too bad. Ah well, life moves on and I have to say, Phil is an INCREDIBLE edition to our family. He and Charis go together like,.....like...Abbott & Costello, coffee and cream, Pam & Jim, Guitar Hero & Phil, (whoops, did I say that?) I mean just look at that crazy curly dark hair! How could you not love a guy with hair like that? (tee hee.) Anyway, He and Charis are AMAZING to be with and if you ever get the chance to hang with them, you totally should. Best of all, they are also a brother and sister in Christ and it is so great to be able to share that bond with them. I know God is going to do great things with those two! I miss them being so far away in CA, and I can't wait to see them again! I love you, Charis & Phil! See you in a few months!

Mirm

Finally! After much ado....(i have been quite busy!) I will move on my sister talk to the next hot chick in line: Miriam.

Ahh, my dear Mirm! What could I possibly say to describe you?! Where to even start? Ahh...I know...

So my earliest memory of this chica occurred many many moons ago when she was just a wee lass still in her crib at our old house. Mirm was quite attached to her "baa-baa" (or did you call it something else?) and I was fascinated with how long she could suck and bite on this piece of rubber while keeping herself entertained. During a routine 5 yr. old's investigation of the magical qualities of a pacifier, I made a very important discovery about my sister. Mom had asked me to go check on Mirm to see if she had awakened from her nap yet and I decided it was a perfect oppurtunity to begin my investigation. As it happened, she was awake, and I asked her to open her mouth and do exactly as I said. So.....she opened her mouth. I put my index finger inside and instructed her to bite down on my finger as hard as she could. I repeatedly stressed "As hard as you can!" because I just KNEW somehow this would help me get to the bottom of the pacifier mystery. Miriam, being the obedient younger sibling, did exactly as I said. It took all of 1.3 seconds for me to abandon all thoughts of any investigation and swiftly determine that Miriam could bite VERY hard indeed. (Please. Don't ask me how this tied in to discovering why a 2 year old liked her pacifier so much. How should I know?! I can only fathom that, at 5 years old, my brain had not yet begun that crucial process called...oh yeah, THINKING!) Anywho, back to the story...

Now where were we? Oh yes. Mirm was joyfully in the process of biting my finger in half. Right, so I quickly told her to "Stop it! Let go!" Suddenly, Miriam was no longer the obedient and submissive younger sister. Now she was a grinning, toothy mouthed girl with twinkling eyes who...of all things!....actually looked like she was enjoying her power over me!! Heaven forbid! And did she stop?! Yeah right! She bit even harder! I tried pulling my finger out, but only succeeded in shaking her head about as she continued to hang on like a bulldog in a death grip...

Ahh yes. Now you are probably all wishing you could have seen this in action. My, my, my. Well, come to think of it, I guess it might have been kind of funny. I don't really know. You'd have to check with my Mom. She's the one who is STILL laughing about it back at my old home in Wilkinson. Sheesh! You'd think a girl could at least go crying to her mother for sympathy! ;)

Right. Miriam and I have both grown up a lot since then, but what I learned about her that day is still true even to this very minute. First: NEVER EVER put your finger in her mouth, and Second: When Miriam sets her mind on something, she sticks to it with bulldog tenacity! From her faith to her family and friends, Miriam is loyal and genuine, the real-deal! She might make you laugh. She could make you cry. But she will always leave you knowing that she has been honest with you and is not afraid to be herself.

I love you so much Miriam Anne, and I miss you being so far far away!!!!!!! :( **tear*tear**

p.s. see you in 5 days!!!! ;)

Miriam described to me AIM a kid she thought was really hot. I went into paint and created a pic of him. As you can see, I kind of ran out of time by the time I got around to working on her, hence her lovely figure and stick arms/legs. **snicker**snicker** tee hee hee! ;)










Miriam and I really enjoyed the strawberries at Sam Hickey's wedding reception. (By the way, if you didn't know, they're one of her favorite foods!)








My junior year of college and Mirm's freshman year at IUPUI we went on Spring Break to Florida together. What fun!!

[ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!] tee hee hee!

LOVE YOU, MIRIAM!

THUNE

I thought I'd started with the youngest first and work my way up. This would be Beth Roseann Solomon. Now you all might know her by that name, but with us sisters, she has a number of names. Most commonly, THUNE. Now this name has, on occasion, been picked up by the rest of my family, but it went through a complex evolution as follows:

Beth > Bethy > Bethuney > Thunelope (like Penelope) >THUNE

(and here it has remained for many years and many years to come.)

Then there is her most current name by which she is called (okay, it's true mostly by Mirm, then me) POO-POO. Now please believe me when I say this is in NO way derogatory or offensive. It's just her name. Ask her. ;) Alright, so in the beginning there was Charis, then me, next Mirm, and finally...Poo-poo. She was always tired of being the youngest and the "baby" of the family, so her little mind worked up a perfectly good solution to this problem. It went like this:

"Well when I grow up, I'll be older than you, so there!"

Ahh...poor Thune. Either she's not grown up yet, or else her little threat of overpowering us was nothing but an unfulfilled dream. tee hee! :)

Speaking of overpowering, however, you might all have heard the story of how Poo-poo totally dominated me in an all-out wedgie fest at CHURCH, and ended the little altercation by promptly snapping my left index finger like it was nothing more than a lil' ol' Q-tip. (I had to get an x-ray and wear a finger brace for the next month!) Honestly, Beth! We were at CHURCH!! *tsk*tsk*tsk! ;)

Thune is the artsy one who shares my love of reading (i'm still waiting for the next L. Austin, Beth, so hurry up, buy it already, and let me have a turn! sheesh!) ;). She also enjoys taking pictures, listening to music, and hanging out with her friends and family. Her heart is so in love with God and she is an inspiration to all who know her. Beth is as independant as the rest of us girls, so when she makes up her own mind....she goes with it.

Poo-Poo, I'm so proud of you and I pity all the poor fellows at Calvin (minus one...;) who are going to lose their hearts to you! I LOVE YOU!

SISTERS

My family has often watched the holiday classic, "White Christmas," together and we always end up laughing and singing along with the "Sisters Song!" We always found it humorous and would tease each other about it! If you don't know what I'm talking about, the lyrics are as follows:

Sisters, sisters
There were never such devoted sisters
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir
I'm here to keep my eye on her

Caring, sharing
Every little thing that we are wearing
When a certain gentleman arrived from Rome
She wore the dress and I stayed home

All kinds of weather we stick together
The same in the rain or sun
Two different faces but in tight places
We think and we act as one, ha-ha-ha-ha

Those who've seen us
Know that not a thing can come between us
Many men have tried to split us up but no one can
Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister
And lord help the sister who comes between me and my man

All kinds of weather we stick together
The same in the rain or sun
Two different faces but in tight places
We think and we act as one, ah-ha

Those who've seen us
Know that not a thing could come between us
Many men have tried to split us up but no one can
Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister
And lord help the sister who comes between me and my man

Sisters! Sisters!
Sister, don't come between me and my man!

Anyway, what I want to say is that the three best gifts my parents ever gave me were my sisters, Charis, Miriam, and Beth. So the next few blog entries will be "dedicated" one to each of these three priceless women of God who have influenced my life in so many FABULOUS ways!

So stay tuned, because you may find out some very interesting....(some might even say "embarassing") facts about them! (No, no, girls, just kidding. Like I would ever want to embarass any of you.....;) Haha! I love you ladies SO much!

A Day in the Neonatal

[ As to those of you who may be wondering where i went, currently, i have no computer so my blogging days are few and far between. Alas...so sad.... ]

Alright. Yes, I have been working almost a month now at DeVos' Children's Hospital up here in Grand Rapids on their NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.) And I must say, I do LOVE it so! My unit takes care of newborns with any combination of the following problems:

-kids born to moms who were on drugs/alcohol during pregnancy
-genetic disorders and complications
-infants whose moms had STD's
-multiple birth babies (twins, triplets, quads, etc.+)
-injured during birth (vaccuum suctioned, cords wrapped around necks...)

...but the majority of our patients are babies who have been born too early. They're the preemies, born as early as 23 weeks into the pregnancy, a.k.a. born up to 3 and a half months too soon. These babies are so small that their weight is described in grams, not pounds or kilograms. For Example:

Let's say Baby Jane was born at 24 weeks (6 mos.) and weighs only 450 grams (1lb is 455gms). When you think about an average baby weighing around 7-8lbs, less than 1lb seems miniscule. So Jane is extremely tiny. Her head is smaller than a tennis ball and her hand is the size of my thumbnail. Despite being barely bigger than a Barbie doll, Jane appears perfect on the outside. She has 10 fingers and 10 toes, her face is all there from miniature little ears all the way to a cute little nose. This is what the parents see, and this is one reason why it is so hard. Their baby looks perfect on the outside, only tiny. But on the inside nothing is developed. Jane's lungs are not big enough to take in all the air her body needs. Her gut isn't mature enough to digest formula or breast milk. Her eyes can't see hardly anything because most of the veins and arteries haven't attached to the eyeball yet. Jane's body doesn't know how to keep itself warm and her brain is way underdeveloped. It takes a lot of hard work, medical technology, family dedication and love, and God intervening to help babies like Jane grow into healthy children. Sometimes it happens, but other times it does not.

Being realistic with parents, yet trying to give them hope at the same time is very difficult. Babies stay on our unit anywhere from a couple days up to a year, and it may be touch and go every day of every month. Most premies stay at least until their due date, so since Baby Jane was born 3 mos. early, she would probably need at least 3 mos. to reach a developmentally stable condition. That's 3 mos. of Baby Jane's parents trying to balance jobs, older children at home, transportation, marriage, and emotional sanity while their baby is in limbo at the hospital. We get babies from all over the state, so some parents may live up to 4 hours away. Often, Mom and Dad try and split their time. Usually Dad has to continue with work after about a month off and tries to watch the older kids while mom is hours away putting herself up at the Ronald McDonald house in a city where she doesn't know anyone. It's a lonely time if no friends and families are around and the only person there is your tiny baby who has already permanently implanter herself in your heart. Mom has to make herself at home for the next 3 mos. living at the bedside of her ill baby. It's such an awful situation, and if the final outcome after so many months of hard work is Death...it just devastates families in ways I can't even imagine.

I'm finding that (obviously) this is the hardest part of my job...


However, there IS hope in these situations, and it is such an oppurtunity to be able to find ways of bringing God's love, hope, and peace into the lives of the patients and families I meet. So this is where He has placed me for now, and please keep me in your prayers when you think of me, because it takes an emotional toll on me as well. When a family asks me "Why us?! How could a loving God bring an innocent child into a world of pain just to take him away again?" I don't have any answers. In fact, I'm usually asking the same questions. BUT! I do know my God is a GOOD God and His sorrow over the situation is greater than mine, as was His love for that Baby. I don't get it. I don't understand it. It breaks my heart into pieces. But I know that God is Love and He, out of everyone, knows how to comfort me in my sorrow. Somehow the Holy Spirit still brings me hope every day.

"My soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore have hope:
Because of the Lord's great LOVE we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your Faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therfore I will wait for Him.' The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him."
~Lamentations 3:20b-25 (NIV)

I can't stop smiling!  

He surprised me with a picnic on the beach! Grilled steaks and shishkabobs! 

My first time on a Sea Doo! 

A day of fun in the sun!  

One day is like a thousand...

Scott and I celebrated SIX MONTHS this weekend! Hahaha! (okay, mirm, roll 'em...I'm waiting...done now?) ;) Following are some fun pix in MI. :)

See you all at RETREAT! yay!

Truly Blessed!

I know it has been awhile, but I don't have easy access to the internet yet, so it has been hard to update or even check my e-mails. But now, however, I have a story to tell....

Once upon a time there was a girl from Indiana who more than anything else wanted to move away and start her "own" life. She visited a college in MI, felt the Lord calling her to it, and went. Over the next four years she learned some tough life lessons, met people from all walks of life, managed to take out tuition loans the size of Texas, find new friends (and an incredible boyfriend!), and really discover a purpose from God in her life. Finally, one day it was all over. That fateful day she walked the plank and received a diploma in exchange for all her hard work and mighty loans. Before she could use it, however, she had to take and pass the dreaded EXAM, a piece of work that really has less to do with how much you know, and more to do with how lucky you are at taking a one-time multiple choice computer exam. But God blessed her in this, and next came 6 weeks of applying to all sorts of jobs, making follow-ups, going to interviews, etc... She moved from Indiana to Grand Rapids, Michigan on faith, no job. Then, on Thursday, September 7, 2006 her prayers were answered and she received the very job she was hoping for, to work as an RN at Spectrum Health's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Grand Rapids, MI. This girl looked back on her life and said, "God has richly blessed me!"


Okay, now, that is the fairy tale side of things. But the life of someone else is rarely what it seems to be. If I have learned nothing else through my four years of college it is this:

When bad things happen.....

-I'm alone and sick in a strange city where the doctors can't find what's wrong with me, where I have to get full-body x-rays by myself, and my dad has to drive up for my MRI
-I get C's and D's on my freshman year transcript and consider dropping out of college (I think God was trying to tell me something because after I switched from my killer biochemistry to nursing I did much better)
-I'm told my freshman year grades are too poor to get me into the nursing program
-a best friend is diagnosed with bone cancer
-my mother is diagnosed with breast cancer
-my grandmother dies of lung cancer
-I can't find a job

...When bad things happen......remember that God is FAITHFUL! ALL THE TIME! God has been so good to me! He is showing me what it means to live a Righteous life, to be faithful in the little things so I can be entrusted with the big. Every time I was depressed, homesick, lonely, feeling worthless and unloved, hopeless, then God pulled me through it and brought me into a place where I can live for Him, and rely only on Him. He is my Provider and He is FAITHFUL! I would not be anywhere near the place I am in my life were it not for my Lord and His intervention! I boast in the Lord and what He alone has done!

So be encouraged, God is a BIG God. He is Big enough to give you dreams and make them happen...even when you are told (by others or your own self) that it is impossible, I am proof that God is Big enough!!!