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March
2009 Happy Easter to our Family and Friends! We had planned to get this letter out before Christmas, but it turned into an early Easter letter. We also hope that you had a very merry and blessed Christmas! The Hood clan is very large and grew again this year, expanding to a family size of 17. Please excuse the length of this letter. We wanted to give you a short update on each family member, but this still makes a very, very, very long, short letter. EXCITING FAMILY NEWS! We adopted three beautiful daughters from Ethiopia this summer. Karen, Brianne, and Janelle were fortunate enough to be able to fly down and escort them back home. The Hood children list has now grown to a total of 15. We were blessed with the arrival of 3 sibling sisters from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They arrived to the United States on August 22nd of this year…without being able to speak English. These three girls have been our true Christmas gift and an inspiration to our entire family. More Exciting News! Brianne has just announced her engagement. She is engaged to Moulik Vinodkumar Kothari and they are working out their marriage details. Save this date! May 30th, 2009 at 11 a.m. will be the date and time of Brianne and Moulik’s wedding. 1. Brianne Kristina (birth date 9/29/1980) age 28 Brianne is a doctoral student currently completing her second year in the Ph.D. program in Social Work and Social Research at Portland State University. She enjoys living in Portland and all the experiences of a bigger city. We know she will be happy to actually complete her Ph.D. and she might move back to Spokane afterwards, which will be great. It will be interesting to see where her life and degree takes her. She would like to obtain a university teaching professorship and also open her own service organization to help families and children in crisis. She is also looking forward to doing more traveling. Brianne and Moulik are working out their marriage and travel plans around their busy work schedules. 2. Marissa Kimberly (birth date 9/8/81) age 27 Marissa has been working full time at her father’s dental practice as the Office Manager and does a terrific job. Marissa is an avid skier and enjoys skiing at Schweitzer Mountain. Marissa also likes to cook and entertain and she is very good at it. She bakes and decorates wedding cakes with her degree and experience as well as makes delicious appetizers. She has actually started to cater some parties and has made wedding cakes for “Marissa’s Big Cakes and Little Parties” as her little side business. Marissa enjoys her position at Toastmasters and is getting more involved with that organization. She has many opportunities she can explore. She also lives only 10 minutes away which makes it nice. 3. Janelle Karina (birth date 10/25/83) age 25 and Janelle and Paul celebrated their one year wedding anniversary on May 12, 2008. They also celebrated their one year anniversary of being in their new home in October. Their house is 5 to 10 minutes away, close to the Spokane River bike trail. Janelle works as a teacher at St. Aloysius teaching 7th and 8th grade Math and Science. Paul works as a fireman for the Spokane Valley Fire Department. They had a wonderful Christmas dinner for everyone at the Olive Garden and it was a great get together. Janelle and Paul also enjoy playing indoor soccer and hockey which keeps them very busy. This spring they plan to start landscaping their new fenced yard and that will be a large project. 4. Mikayla Karlene (birth date 5/29/85) age 23 Mikayla currently works full time as a dental assistant at her dad’s dental office. Mikayla has a passion for opera and you can find her listening to classical and all types of music in her free time. She enjoys cooking and baking and does a wonderful job. She also enjoyed her latest adventure to Zambia, Africa with a group of fellow students from Gonzaga University. She is a great help to the family and helps transport the young kids to their after-school events. She is looking forward to skiing at Schweitzer this year because she could not go last year due to a surgical repair on her elbow. It looks like she will also be faced with two foot surgeries this spring. After that hopefully will be the end of her surgeries for a long time. 5. Kyler James (birth date 9/9/87) age 21 Kyler is now a senior at Gonzaga University and will graduate in May of this year. He will receive a double major in International Studies and Philosophy and minors in both Psychology and English. He loves to read and enjoys creative writing. Kyler also appreciates nature and camping. He always looks forward to skiing at Schweitzer Mountain in Idaho with his siblings. His younger brothers like to spend time with him skiing, shooting hoops, swimming, and jumping on the trampoline. Last year Kyler enjoyed his study abroad and traveled to Italy, France, Great Britain, Germany, Morocco, The Netherlands, China, and Zambia. He had the experience of a lifetime with all his travels and looks forward to graduate school. He should be getting his letter this month. 6. Kelsey Katrina (birth date 11/19/90) age 18 Kelsey is a senior at Gonzaga Preparatory High School. She is an excellent and attentive big sister to all her younger siblings. She skis, enjoys swimming, and also likes to cook. Kelsey is extremely talented in art and music. She also enjoys volleyball, softball, and tennis. She is working for a trip to France next summer, following her senior year.
So far, she has been accepted to many colleges including Saint Benedict,
Seattle University, and Gonzaga University 7. Corbin Joel (birth date 1/22/93) age 16 Corbin is a sophomore this year at Central Valley High School. He loves lacrosse, break dancing, soccer, swimming, and jumping on the trampoline. He plays the piano for enjoyment. He is quick on the computer and is doing some of his studies on the computer, too. When the weather is nice, he likes to go biking and races with his brothers. Corbin also likes to help out with the feedback on mom’s children’s stories and books. Corby’s favorite activity is skiing at Schweitzer Mountain and has been looking forward to our winter trip there since last year. He is definitely a ski fanatic. He hopes to become a Camp Reed counselor this summer and will also go with our church youth group to Mexico. Corbin will begin lacrosse practice in February and will try out for soccer and track on his school team. 8. Caleb Jerome (birth date 5/17/94) age 14 Caleb is a freshman at Gonzaga Preparatory School. Caleb loves reading lots of books and is taking a heavy schedule this year. Caleb enjoys playing sports with his brothers and sisters and on the school teams. He enjoys soccer, lacrosse, track, and is taking Debate this year. He is also out for his first year of high school wrestling so he stays very active and looks forward to lettering this summer. Caleb is happy to have earned a letterman’s jacket for all his wrestling effort. He will be going to Mexico with our church youth group again. When he went last time it was quite a profound experience. 9. Keisha Kalani Hiwot Hood (birth date 1/23/96) age 12 Keisha is in the 7th grade at St. Mary’s School and has done a wonderful job of total immersion into the English language. She was adopted into the Hood clan with two sister siblings from Ethiopia. She arrived on August 22nd of this year, after Karen, Brianne, and Janelle spent 10 days in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her positive attitude after spending 3 years in a rough African orphanage is truly inspirational. She is appreciative of being able to give up her “mother” role of her two younger sisters and we are happy for her to be able to be a kid again. Her birthday was last month and she had her first birthday party ever! She chose an Ethiopian menu and it was fun to enjoy the wonderful food. 10. Devontay Joshua (birth date 5/18/96) age 13 Devontay is a very energetic 12 years old. He attends St. Mary’s School as a 7th grader. He loves break dancing and tumbling everywhere. In his free time, he enjoys jumping on the trampoline and playing computer games. His favorite sports are gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, and of course he loves to snow ski. This year he is a running-back on the St. Mary’s football team. Devontay enjoys reading lots of books, which we encourage. He also likes video games, which we try to limit. His is helping his new sister Keisha learn English within her class and always looks forward to the next school dance. Devontay likes to play practical jokes and is great with his humor. 11. Kianna Karielle Selam Hood (birth date 3/13/97) age 11 Kianna attends 6th grade at St. Mary’s and is busy learning English. Kianna and Keisha already have orthodontic braces and are on the same soccer team. We are surprised at how well Kianna, Keisha, and Jasmine have adjusted and how strong their work ethic is. They are not satisfied until their homework and chores are complete. Kianna loves to cook, sew, and is currently on the basketball team while learning English at home and at school. This has been a very exciting winter with them. We enjoy watching them experience all their firsts. Kianna was very tenacious learning to ski during her first winter in snow country. 12. Rosy Kiara (birth date 10/4/98) age 10 Rosy is an enthusiastic 4th grader at St. Mary’s. She loves to swim and is fascinated with the outdoors. She enjoys watching all the different insects and little creatures. She spends most of her free time outside, either playing on the trampoline or going on an adventure around the house. Rosy likes playing with the dogs. One of her favorite inside activities is helping mom and dad cook. She has a lot of patience in the kitchen and mom likes her to help test recipes for her upcoming cookbooks. You can always find Rosy with a smile on her face. She struggles with her post-polio, but was very happy that we found a disability ski. 13. Mercedes Katherine (birth date 1/9/99) age 9 Mercedes is in the 4th grade at St. Mary’s this year and really
enjoys it. She is very sweet and always helpful. She loves reading books
and has a creative imagination (Dad especially enjoys her “shaggy
dog” stories). Mercedes loves playing with her siblings and is
very kind and 14. Jasmine Khalia Wengel Hood (birth date 2/6/2000) age 8 Jasmine attends 3rd grade at St. Mary’s and is also adjusting very well after her arrival from Ethiopia on August 22nd of this year. Jasmine is the prankster of the Ethiopia additions to the Hood clan and loves to play practical jokes. She is very athletic and enjoys all sports. She recently went roller-skating and loved it. We just returned from Schweitzer Mountain for our annual get away of 9 days of winter fun. She picked up skiing very quickly and had lots of fun. She is also attracted to anything electronic and has learned features on our cellphones that we didn’t know existed. 15. Cheyenne Krystal (birth date 2/23/2000) age 8 Cheyenne is currently a 3rd grader at St. Mary’s. We became part of her permanent family when her adoption was final on November 16th, 2007, which is also National Adoption Day. Our family continues to grow and she was very excited to be adopted. She will go on the Hood family ski trip this year and she is very excited. Cheyenne has high energy and is always willing to help out everyone. She is definitely active and is our tree climber of the family. We have lots of Ponderosa Pines that she climbs with ease and was the first to spot a pair of bald eagles in our yard. 16. Foster Child- We have a new foster child that arrived in February. 17. Jim- Dad (birth date 11/27/51) Jim is enjoying being “dad” and gets the very important job of running the kids all around to music lessons, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, etc. Jim is currently working to complete his Candidacy paper in Leadership Studies Doctoral program at Gonzaga University with mom. He advocates for the CASA program to support the rights of abused and neglected children in the Spokane Juvenile Court system. He also has a very busy, active dental office and is very proud of his dental staff. He is looking forward to some quiet time and a getaway weekend with his family. Jim had his total right hip replaces on July 3, 2007 and a total left hip replaced on May 19, 2008 so now he should be in great shape. He couldn’t be busier but enjoys family get-togethers. Our Sunday ethnic meals are a high priority. 18. Karen – Mom (birth date 1/2/53) Karen loves being busy with her large brood of children. She was diagnosed with Achalasia and had surgery on her esophagus and stomach on October 4, 2007. This chronic degenerative disease helped make our decision to get a hospital bed so that she can sleep sitting up. Karen will resume taking classes in the Leadership Studies Doctoral program at Gonzaga University with Dad to complete her Ph.D. She is registered as a substitute teacher for high school, in biology and chemistry and is actively working to advocate the rights of abused and neglected children. Karen enjoys writing and publishing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in her spare time. She recently finished several cookbooks and always looks forward to cooking for Sunday noon meals with family and friends and testing international recipes. More Children?? People continue to ask if we will have more children, foster or otherwise. Our answer is that if we can continue to keep our health, we always have room in our hearts and house for more foster children. Who knows?? And no, we are not in competition with the Duggars. We have a new foster child now and we are happy to have her. Keep us in your prayers. We will pray for all your happiness and good health. Extended Family In Spokane- My brother, Stephen, and his wife Karen, and Jim’s brother, Dan, and his wife Carolyn and two kids, Ross and Lindsay live in Spokane. We sure enjoy being able to spend time with them and to get together for the holidays. Sandy’s (Karen’s sister) son, Monte, and his wife Sarah and 4 kids, Alice, Liam, Charlie, and Samuel are living in Spokane. Bradley and Shawnda are teaching school in Utah and enjoying their three kids, Anton, Isaac, and Isabelle. Derek and his girlfriend Sharlet moved to Portland, Oregon. In his free time Derek plans to continue writing poetry, short stories, and playing music. We would appreciate if all of you would send your e-mail addresses so we could also respond by e-mail. Please send your address to karenjeanhood@hotmail.com so we can record them. We look forward to hearing from you. We hope you had a very blessed Merry Christmas and Jim, Karen, Brianne Kristina, Marissa Kimberly, P.S. We just had a huge snowstorm here that dropped over 32 inches
in two days!! It’s positively a snow frosted winter wonderland
and it’s beautiful. |
