Family Matters and Happy New Year!

2012 was an incredible year for my family in a way we could have never expected. As time passes, we've lost relatives we've loved and the family numbers have declined. The "youngens" haven't reproduced yet and are still the babies, even though we're all around 30 years old. (Don't pressure us!) But that was all about to change. 

One afternoon I got the strangest call from both of my parents on speakerphone. Dad said "Your Grandma has a secret, and you'll never guess what it is." What I learned that day has been, and will always be, one of the most amazing days in the history of my family. 

Grandma told the story in a letter she sent out with her Christmas cards and I thought it would be neat to relay it in her words:

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Once upon a time, there was a handsome Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps. His name was Jack Lewis Oliver. After receiving his wings, he went home to Onawa, Iowa to visit his parents. 

As fate would have it, a student at Morningside College in Sioux City went home with her roommate to Onawa for the weekend. Her name was Jean Louis Arends. She met the handsome second Lieutentant and it was love at first sight for both of them. 

The next few months were taken up with trying to spend time with each other and ended with an announcement of their engagement and orders for Jack to join the other pilots in the Pacific. 

Jean traveled with her sister to Oakland, CA to be as close as possible to her fiancé but then she realized she was pregant!?!?! Jack was in the Pacific and couldn't return (but he wrote every day.) They decided she would have the baby and adopt it out. 

And so she did! Remember, this was 1943-1944 and Jean's father was a minister! The shame! The papers were signed and the cute little baby disappeared. Jack served in the Pacific, returning to Jean in 1946 and they were married by her father on May 2, 1946. 

66 years later, the cute little baby wrote a letter to her biological mother, Jean, and they were magically reunited. All was joy and jubiliation, except that the handsome Lt. had died and never saw his oldest daugther. But Jean has now been given a second chance with her first daughter, Marilyn Jean, son-in-law, Joel, two grandsons, Mark and Craig and their wives, and four great-grandchildren. What happiness! Jean is delighted to see her cute, little baby grown up, and Marilyn is happy to have found her mother, two fully biological siblings, and learn why she is allergic to sulfa (and other genetic information she should know.)

So, 2012 was a great year and will add so much to our holiday celebrations! We doubled the number of our family members and couldn't be happier!

May your Christmas also be twice as happy (maybe not in the same way) but we all send you our best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

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I am still in shock! To think I have a new aunt, a new uncle and two new cousins with wives and kids of their own! And my dad and aunt have a full-blooded older sister. What's even more amazing is that they all live within two hours from each other. I am so excited to finally get to meet everyone on one of my return trips to California. This truly will always be a year that will go down in family history. Our tree is looking mighty healthy and full. 

The Lord may taketh away ... but he also giveth!

I will never forget that.