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Hi friends,<\/p>\nHi friends,<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been quite a while since the last time I posted. Things have been very up and down in the Draijer\/Kidder household. At the beginning of February I got a call from my sister in the States that my dad had suffered a stroke. Things were a little touch and go and they didn\u2019t know if he would come out of it. In the back of my mind, I had been anticipating a call like this sometime\u2026however in my mind it wouldn\u2019t come for a couple years yet. In that sense, I suppose I was half-prepared. Early the next morning she called again with the news that he\u2019d also suffered a heart attack, with bleeding to his brain. Benne and I got on the next flight to the US, and my dad passed away a couple days after we arrived. He wasn\u2019t conscious when I saw him\u2026and I already knew that my dad wasn\u2019t really there anymore.<\/p>\n
I had shared in a previous post, that my family had all come to visit us in Holland for Christmas\u2026this was really special and I\u2019m now especially thankful for the time we had. It\u2019s funny how things work sometimes. On January of last year (so 2017), I suddenly got the feeling that I needed to have my family over to NL for Christmas. We hadn\u2019t been ALL together for the holidays in several years, and I realized that my dad had never even seen where I live. That day, I called my mom up and asked her if they could come. She was super excited and we started making plans. This past Christmas was one of the most meaningful I\u2019ve had with my family. Not just because of what I know now, but because we were all together and appreciating that that in itself was special.<\/p>\n
The following days\/weeks I spent with my mom and siblings after my dad passed, were some of the most rich and meaningful, also intense and emotional. When we returned home I was completely empty. It\u2019s taken me the past few months to come to the realization of what\u2019s taken place\u2026and to begin to adjust to this new situation we\u2019re in as a family. It\u2019s a different season, and we\u2019re all slowly reorienting ourselves.<\/p>\n
I think I\u2019m going to leave it at this for now. Just wanted to give a little update.<\/p>\n
Love,
\nAbby<\/p>\n
P.S.
\n\u2026I am still baking and working away on my bakebook project, I just haven\u2019t felt the desire\/need to write about it. No worries, I\u2019m still very much baking my heart out. I\u2019ll update you about this soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"