Happy Birthday Andrew

Was going through some photos tonight and thought this was a pretty fun one of the big boys from Christmas. I hope that Andrew had a GREAT day and I am sorry I did not catch you home. Were you out celebrating? Andrew, is there anything special on your wish list?

Y Aunt Trish

Happy Birthday, Andrew

I have been trying to log into this thing for the last few days so that we could wish Andrew a very happy birthday. So, Happy Birthday a little late, Andrew. We hope you had a great day. Henry was very disappointed that he could not come, but could we make another date? Uncle Dan and I thought we would bring him and, since Henry does not want us to stay with him, we thought we would use it as a get-away and shop at Ikea. Maybe your mom and dad would have dinner with us. So tell us some week-ends that work and we will bring him over. Of course, you are always welcome here, too. But we really want to see where you live, and our house is way more fun in the summer. Now--how do I get my own account (I have one on Google) to allow me into this Blog? I noticed Len and Trish and Suzi are all members. I want to be one too. I hope you are all well. Have a good day! Arlene

Immigration

Olivia was at our home this weekend and she interviewed pappa and I about our immigration experience. I promised Olivia that I would send her an email giving her some more details about what it was like to leave my home and country (the Netherlands) when I was 10 years old. That is how old she is and Andrew, too. (And, we missed our interview with Andrew about this same topic because of a snowy roads. This does not necessarily replace that, but it may also answer some of your questions). The days leading up to the date that we left were exciting. We had a car that would take us to the city for medical exams and we had our family pictures taken and there were passports that we all neeeded. There were very few cars where we lived. Fortunately, Uncle Lieuwe (Aunt Trina's husband) had his driver's license and he would be the chauffeur. One time he picked us up from school and did I feel like a big shot! On March 28, 1953 we boarded a bus (I forget where they picked us up) and they took us to Amsterdam to the boat that would take us to America. The boat was called The Maasdam. When we left the Dutch waters all the adults stood on deck and sang the Dutch National Anthem. I can still hear them! The days on the boat are without a doubt, the most exciting moments of my young life. I had never seen a movie before and we could go into the theatre and watch them whenever we wanted to. They were in English, but who cared the moving picture was fascinaging. There was a playroom with the kinds of toys that I had only dreamed of. There was an elevator that we constantly would ride up down to different decks. Our family (there were 12 of us) had a table in the dining room with a waiter all to ourselves. That was foreign to our way of life. I was brought up on a farm in the northern part of the Netherlands (Friesland) and I had no knowledge of restaurants. The food was more and better than we had ever tasted. I ate so many bananas that for years the sight of a banana made me slightly ill. We arrived in Hoboken, New Jersey on April 5 and that is when we started a new life in a new country. I went to school that first day thinking I looked just great, to find out I was completely out of it. My look was Dutch, not American. I did not understand the teacher. I was in fifth grade and a teacher took a first grade reader and helped me read Dick and Jane. Math was my favorite subject because I understood numbers. Science and history were my worst subjects, because there was so much that I missed because I did not know the language. I developed a love and appreciation for America in those early years. Many years later I went back to my home country and discovered that something inside of myself felt much more at home there, then it ever did in the United States. I even thought that our kids would feel like strangers among their classsmates and that, because we had journeyed from a far country, they would still feel the impact of that. I know that my life is rich because of where I was born, and where I grew up. I identify easily with those who are "immigrants" and there are many of us. And today I feel pretty settled in the country I have called home since 1953. Thanks, Olivia and Andrew for asking about my immigrant experience. It is pretty neat to talk my heart in 2007 on a kupborgdebos blog. I am truly blessed! Beppe.

Andrew's Blog

yesterday was my birthday and we barely slept. We played racing games that I got for my birthday all night except for some 2-on-2 pool games. we had a couple fights but it was fun. we had pizza, cake, and a chocolate fountain. in the morning we had pancakes for breakfeast and then one kid stayed till 12:00 noon. Everyone got here at 5 and at first time moved really slowly but we ate a ton of sugar and we were moving at warp speed so time just seemed slow. We had glow bracelets and played in the dark for a long time tackling each other and being goofy. When we had the lights on we were throwing a ball and broke a framed picture that my mom had for a long time. There was a lot of glass. Mom yelled and we stopped horsing around. We watched Batman Begins on DVD but mostly played a lot of X Box.

Ryan's blog

uhh...Henry? I wanted to know if you remember the Adventure Quest password. Cuz I wanted to log on and I didnt have it. Anyway, now for everyone. At Andrews party,we played Xbox, used our new chocolatefountain [which we will bring to the cabin] stayed up past midnight and uh ate! Thats all I have to say. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you to my family

Well, Friday night was a good time to be together and I felt celebrated and loved. We missed you Nick and Jonna, Andrew and Ryan. The owning of VA, although in some sense a process of paperwork and payment, I do find that my day to day ownership sense feels different!

I thought you might all enjoy reading the poem once again, although some of the enjoyable flavor was Suzi's tone and our laughter that went as well. I cherish the memories of the years I was with Ted, but am happy with my ted-less-ness status!

Three years ago we were sitting outside

When you mentioned Ted and an idea in mind

You would hire immigrants and refugees

To wash peoples' backs, elbows and knees.

To take them places and clean their floors

Play games with them and do their chores.

We had our doubts and how it would go

Nick ran some numbers and said "I don't think so".

Only three people in all of our state

Can afford clean elbows at your going rate.

But you saw things in a different light

Only time would tell if your feeling was right.

So you bought a red car and you hired some people

and placed ads under every steeple.

As time passed it became very clear,

"Watch out Angel Care --Trish is here."

Visiting Angels grew and grew

We'd look at each other and say, "Who knew?"

So tonight we want to celebrate you

All that you are and all that you do

In our celebration we hope that you know

Our love surrounds you wherever you go!

The artwork is great and will be beautiful on the wall of our new location.

I love you all and hope Visiting Angels will give us reason for celebration for many years to come!

Trish

Len and Marcia

I am not sure if this will work but here goes.... We are coming to Muskegon this coming saturday to knock out some work on the rental and maybe go see the Lake Mi ice. No pressure on anyone but if anyone wants to help that is great. We will call with details and ofcourse if it is rented by then (it might be) then the work might be less immeadiate.

An update

I just posted the book Restavec and I do want to explain a little bit about the content and why I was so interested in it. Restavec is a French word, meaning to live with. In Haiti, children from very poor families are often designated to live with families other than their own who are not as poor as they are. As you can imagine, the arrangement often leads to abuse which has strong overtones of enslavement. Restavec is the autobiography of a restavec who somehow found his way out of it but to this day is living with the results of all the abuse he suffered in his earlier years. The reason I was so interested in this book is because Ted Boers started a project called Rescue One, which is designated to save the children from becoming restavecs. It is in its third year and he now has 50 children involved. His foundation, Micah, pays tuition to a Christian school, uniforms, books, one meal a day and health care for these children. Three Haitian churches help him, along with Kerline, who is the Haitian director of this program. His budget is $100,000 a year. And, because he wants to simplify his life, he asked me to take over this project. He will fund it until the end of August. At first I thought there is no way that I want, or can, do this. But more and more it is growing on me. When I talk about it I feel a real interest inside of myself and in the people I relate to. Len said if I did it, he certainly wanted to be involved. Could I raise a hundred thousand dollars each year, and hopefully more as the years go on and as the project grows? I think I can. I have not yet said yes. I am going to wait until the end of April to make a firm decision. I thought this would be a good way to let you all on this little intriguing bit of information that has come to me very unexpectedly. I'll keep you posted. By the way, this blog is a great idea, even though it took a while for me to catch on it. You can tell, I am making up for missed opportunities. Mom

A Cabin Rainy Day Preview

The boys and I had an idea for the rainy day at the cabin. Chocolate tasting! There are tons of different kinds of chocolates out there and we all have our favorites. And, few of us have tasted a wide range critically. So, we thought we should have a bit of a "taste off" this summer! Our idea is to have 5-10 different varieties. Something like a square for each of us to taste, and a score card preprinted for each person. Then review the cards and select a winner. My friends and I did this in college with local mico-beweries and it was really fun! Tonight we used a chocolate fountain with lots of unhealthy stuff to dip for Andrew's birthday party. A huge and delicious hit! And not even too messy! Jonna

Jonna's Job

I have to admit that I hadn't been on here yet. I just never took the time. And shame on me because thre is a whole "brag on Jonna" entry. Thank you for posting that! I thought I would fill you guys in on how it's going. I have my clinic 1 mile from the house and I will still technically be the boss there. But I am trying to hire staff to do the treatment because I am stretched a little thin and find myself getting sick every few weeks. Now that I have given myself permission to just have a successful clinic and not a super-stellar clinic, I feel much more relaxed about it. Nationally, I have clinics starting in WI, IL, TN, IN, AZ, GA, CT, OH, KY soon in MI, and FL. I am on the phone much of the time and I have been traveling some. More of the one long day variety and I have been able to schedule trips around Nick's schedule. But he will be gone for almost all of March and we have arranged for my Dad to stay here when we will both be gone. My Dad did that once already for us and everyone seemed to have a great time, and he is willing to come back so I will take that as a good sign. As far as working for Stryker goes, I am really liking it. I have fantastic people working around me and for me. People have been very positive, although I did have a very long conversation yesterday with some lawyers. I stress them out because this is a new product line for Stryker and Medicare is always scary. We managed to end the call without swearing at each other and no reports are out about any lawyers jumping off any bridges so I guess all is well. But check the statistics on liquor sales in Kalamazoo because I suspect they may go up.

My Birthday

2 days un til my party henrys coming and I can't wait for it. and I can't wait to have all of my friends over for a sleepover. Plus I kmow it's kind of greedy but I can't wait to open presents. Also my mom got us new movies to watch for the sleepover. And theres one movie called hot shots and hot shots deux. My mom ordered my cake today and I'm not sure she got a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and filling. Also we're going to use a chocolate fountain that I got for Christmas and it's also for the rainy day at the cabin because we always have a rainy day.

Time to Celebrate!

As you all know, Trish purchased the other half of Visiting Angels from Ted last week. We are planning to have dinner at Mom and Dad's on Friday night to celebrate her Ted-less-ness, as I like to call it (no offense to Ted, it's just fun to say).

I think the initial idea for a blog was to improve communication about such things, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Here's what we have planned and what I know about who's coming and when.

We're meeting at Mom and Dad's at 6 pm (Len and Marcia & Co will not make it until 8) for happy hour. We will feed the kids and get a movie started for them as soon as the Borgdorff's arrive.

Nick, Jonna, Andrew and Ryan can't make it. Is that right? If so, nuts, we'll miss you so.

Arlene and Suzi are taking care of most of the food. We will have everything ready to go so that we don't spend our time cooking (and messing up Mom's kitchen!).

We will eat at 8ish while the kids peacefully and quietly enjoy a movie in the basement.

I know Len and Marcia are spending the night, and I have heard some talk of plans for Saturday, but I'm unsure about those. Feel free to fill in that part if you know.

Ok, that's all I have. We're looking forward to it.

Love,

Suzi