Zachary Jon

And our youngest is Zach. Having Zach was like having another first child, but with the added excitement of the two older kids, who were 7 and 5 at the time. I had a miscarriage before having Zach and when he was born, Luke said that God fixed that baby and sent him back down. Pretty sweet.

When Zach was born, we had still not decided on a name. I had had a lot of bleeding during the pregnancy so we had lots of ultrasounds and knew Zach would be a boy. When he was born, I called my sister to tell her and she asked what was the baby's name. I put my hand over the receiver and said to Randy, "Shall we go with Zachary?" He said okay and there Zach was.

I took 4 months off after Zach was born and that was so much better than just the 12 weeks I had with Cori. He was born April 25th, so my time off was Spring and Summer. We don't have air conditioning and I would nurse Zach on our big, wooden rocking chair. Luke would stand on one rung and Cori on the other so I had these 3 little heaters surrounding me several times a day. That was a bit much but it was fun that they were so excited. Often, we'd be like a little parade down the hallway, me with Zach and the two others following along to watch.

Zach went to babysitters once I went back to work. It was part time at the church so it wasn't too bad. His first babysitter was my good friend Velma, who had to deal with him being weaned from breastfeeding, poor thing. And his next babysitter was a woman named Sarah, from our church, who had 3 kids of her own. Zach loved Sarah. I remember once when he was excited about telling her something one morning. He got out of the car and his little chubby legs were running up the sidewalk, while he said, "Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!" It made me a little sad that he loved someone else so much, but glad, too, because that meant he was happy while I was working.

After I went to fulltime work at TBS, I finally decided to get an au pair, something that a man from our church had been telling me I should do for years. He put an ad in a Dutch newspaper and also spread the news around his Dutch-American friends. It turned  out a woman I knew, who is in fact related to me, had a niece in Holland who was looking for an au pair job in the US.

So that is how we ended up having Sandra van der Niet with us for about a year and a half. What a blessing she was. She was wonderful for Zach, and for the other two kids, too. They loved her and she loved them. She kept them clean and played with them, did homework with them. It was just great. She loved California and took the kids to the beach quite often, and played outdoors with them. She also managed to meet several other Dutch au pairs and they'd go as a group to each other's houses with pools or other places. Now, years later, both Cori and Zach have visited Sandra in the Netherlands where she is living now and has two children of her own.

We had another au pair, Renee, who we found through an ad in The Banner after Sandra left. Renee was wonderful with the kids, too. She now lives in Colorado and is also married with two kids. Having an au pair those 2-1/2 years made working and raising children so much easier. I highly recommend it.

Zach was a real cutie (of course). He loved to sing. When he was little, he'd jump on our bed in time to "Winnie-the-Pooh, Winnie-the-Pooh, silly, little, billy, old bear," and another song he loved to rock out to was "Light my fire! Light my fire!" Sandra listened to MTV back then.

Zach did well as he grew up. He was a really sociable guy and always had friends. When he was little, he loved pre-school, and school in general. When he went to fulltime daycare, he actually got mad when he had to come home because they were getting out the movies when I'd come to pick him up. He was crabby with me the whole ride home. So I put up a chart where I said if he'd be nice when I came to pick him up, for 10 days in a row, we'd go to the new MacDonald's with a play area that he'd been asking to go to. I had to bribe him to be happy to see me!

School was kind of hard for Zach because he had dyslexia. But, as I told him often, the good thing was that Zach was also blessed with persistence. He did not give up easily. He also had help from Arlet Veurink, San Jose Christian School's special needs teacher. I am forever grateful to Arlet and the way she helped him learn. So is Zach.

Zach has always been a loyal friend, too. He would not tattle on his brother and sister, and even to this day he does not talk about others, whether it's friends or co-workers. I also am proud of Zach for continuing to go to church pretty much every Sunday. I admire his faithfulness.

Zach married Ashlee and they have a daughter, Violet. For a while they lived with us and it was a joy. Violet was 3 years old when they moved out and we missed her running footsteps and delight in life throughout the day.

Zach worked at Pivot Interiors, in the installation department, for several years. He took courses to become a fireman but did not end up going in that direction. In 2020 Zach got a job as a rural route mail carrier in Lynden, WA, so he and his family moved there. I am glad they are in Lynden by family.