Dear Family & Friends,

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! I had a great and special day with my family yesterday. My husband took us out for breakfast and then we did some birthday shopping and ended the day with a home baked pizza. It was such a beautiful day with the 3 people I love most in the world. As a special gift to me REJoyce took her first 10 steps on my birthday. That was so thrilling!

I also had a special pre-birthday celebration when Darlene and Dawn took me out for a birthday coffee. I was under the impression I was going to the office to work with Darlene when I was mysteriously driven to a restaurant in town by Dawn. I had no clue… Those who know me know that it is hard to surprise me as I often “suspect” something is going on, but this time it was so well orchestrated and played I had no idea. My husband was in on it too. He had to use some odd persuasion to get me to change from my every day dress to something a bit more colorful- the same shirt in the morning he really liked, all of a sudden he didn’t like it anymore in the afternoon… haha . All he wanted was for me to look my best as he knew there was a surprise coming. It was so special and I loved it!!

Now we are all preparing for REJoyce Zoe’s 1st birthday on June 14th! Can you believe it, she will be a year old already. Time flies!! She is rapidly adding to her vocabulary and uses the first letter of words so “m“ is “more”, “b” is bird and when she calls mamamama for many times with no answer, she will switch to dada! Hahahah.

We just got back from our trip to the Netherlands where we had a precious time with my family. My brother’s wedding was a beautiful day and it was so special that all of us got to be part of that special occasion. We had Judith- the world’s best baby sitter- who visited us in Hawaii with my sister last year. She took great care of our girls and watched them when they were napping so we got to be part of everything. Hope carried in the rings in the church service and that was a big highlight for her. She sat through the entire sermon patiently waiting for her turn. We ate delicious food and it was also fun to see a lot of our relatives and friends in one go. My new sister in law- Maaike- was a beautiful bride shining all day and my brother had a very handsome blue suit.
After their honeymoon we also got to spend some quality time with them which was really nice.

My sister moved into her own place which we got to visit. She has such a great taste for interior design it was so cozy. We also had a fun movie night while my parents baby-sat the girls.

Our girls loved being with their grandparents and this love was mutual. Every day they went to feed the ducks as if they were their own pets, they visited the animals in the children’s farm and grandma had bought a sandbox to play in which made our Hawaiian girls feel really very much at home. My dad said that when I was young I would make him play every song on the piano out of the Dutch children’s song book, well.. now 3 decades later the same thing is happening with Hope. She would make him play each song every night and now that we are back in Kona she happily sings all those songs she apparently memorized. Sometimes there is a slight variation of the lyrics and you get stuff like “Klein, klein kleutertje wat doe je in mijn hart?” (little toddler what are you doing in my heart ..instead of garden)

One of the highlights of the trip for us as a family was the vacation we received in the woods in the Netherlands. It was a free standing bungalow in the most beautiful part of the Netherlands. We had bicycles with children’s seats and so we would cycle a lot or take a walk in the woods. There were lots of playgrounds and farms in the area so the children enjoyed the outdoors a lot. All of us slept for hours and we returned refreshed and strengthened. Even though we “travel the world” we had never had a vacation like this and we are so grateful for our friends to making this possible!

For Jackson one of his highlights was the trip to Germany. Visiting the new YWAM campus in Bad Blankenburg was so thrilling and exciting. He got to share the Bible, teach and preach and returned full of testimonies of God’s faithfulness and the Lord ministered through him in very special ways during this trip. Things are now being put together for a longer visit next year.

At the moment we are preparing the arrival of my cousin Debora who will visit us on vacation from the Netherlands. We are thrilled to have her here on the campus and show her all that we do here. It’s also special she will be part of REJoyce’s birthday celebration as well!

Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support.

Jackson & Anneke, Hope and REJoyce