Family Traits

Now that we're less than two weeks away from our second ultrasound, I'm really beginning to think about our baby and imagine life with him or her.

Obviously our main prayer is for a healthy baby. The health of this baby has been our number one concern since January 4, but the feeling grows stronger each day that its tiny presence becomes a little bigger. I fully recognize that carrying this life in my body is a wonderful gift, and I feel blessed and honored that Jonathan, the baby and I are on this journey together.

People have asked if I have a gut feeling about our baby's gender. I do, but I don't have a strong preference either way. It would be fun to give my parents their second grandson or their first granddaughter. It would be thrilling to add another Hardin boy to the family or welcome the first Hardin daughter of the next generation. I would love to watch our son with his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, or know that our daughter is the next in a line of strong-willed women. 

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know how happy I am that we will learn our baby's gender on Jonathan's grandmother's birthday (April 9) and that our baby's due date is three days before my grandmother's birthday (September 10). I have spent the last two years documenting our family's history and stories, and now I'm ready to see which family traits and characteristics appear in our baby. Blue eyes and fair skin seem like the two most obvious ones, but maybe we'll have a rebel baby with brown eyes like both of its grandmothers.

Until then, I've put together a family album that goes back to our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents. God willing, our child will grow up knowing exactly where he or she came from and who he or she looks like. What a wonderful thought and what an exciting journey.

Thanks for sharing our joy.

Jonathan and his grandmother Sadie.

Me and my grandparents Bill and Lucy.

Jonathan and his mother Denise.

Me and my grandma Joan and my mother Julie.

My dad Fred.

Jonathan's mother Denise.

My mother Julie and grandmother Joan.

Jonathan's father Greg and his grandfather Gerald. 

My grandmother Joan.

Jonathan's grandmother Sadie.

Jonathan's great-grandparents Dayton and Elzie with his grandfather Gerald.

My grandmother Lucy.

My great-grandmother Jennie Moore (back left), her brother Andy (back right), her mother Martha, stepfather Jacob and half-siblings Jake and Mayme Van Bibber. 

Jonathan's great-grandfather Dayton.

My great-grandmother Elsie (right) and her sister Myrtle.

Jonathan's great-grandfather Clovis Yates (back, second from left) and his great-great grandparents William and Julia.

My great-grandfather Raoul with his sister Marie and parents Ernesto and Adele.

Jonathan's great-grandmother Eliza Michael (top right) and her siblings. 

My great-grandmother Tina (front, bottom center) with her siblings and parents. 

vintage summer garden

I love the muted colors of these early 1970s photographs of my great-grandmother's garden. Photoshop has some awesome filters, but nothing is quite like the real thing. These photos feel like a summer garden should feel....warm and soft with flowers and trees everywhere. Add in palm trees and the most breath-taking views imaginable, and you have summertime perfection.

family photos: great-grandmothers

It's a day for beautiful, turn-of-the-century photographs of our families. The top photo is Jonathan's great-grandmother Eliza (back left) and her sisters. The middle photo is my great-grandmother Tina and her family. She is front and center. The bottom photo is my other great-grandmother Elsie and her sister Myrtle. Eliza's family lived in Prentiss County, Mississippi, Tina's family lived in Naples, Italy and Elsie's family lived in Lancaster, Ohio. The time period would be about the same for all of them. What would they have thought if they had known they would be linked together someday? 

Family Stories: Laura Stump Dumm

 

Laura Dumm, right, and her daughter Myrtle Robb in the late 1960s.

My great-great grandmother Laura A. Stump was born in 1881 in Ohio. She married my great-great grandfather Jacob Beecher Dumm in 1899, and they welcomed my great grandmother Elsie Belle Dumm the following year. Two years later, they had Myrtle, who was known as Mickey Dumm. In 1906, the girls were joined by Forest Dumm, and in 1909 Clarence Vernon Dumm, who was nicknamed Jake after his father. Sadly, I don't have any photos of the boys.

Laura and Beecher Dumm

My grandmother, Joan, loved her grandmother, just as I loved Joan. Their bond was incredibly strong, despite the distance that separated them after Joan's moves to Alaska and California. Although Laura died in 1971, Joan was determined to keep her grandmother in her life. She often shared stories of Laura's strong Christian faith and love of her family with us, and she kept many of Laura's writings for us to treasure and enjoy.

Laura Dumm at her piano. This photograph was displayed in Joan's home for as long as I can remember. It is now in my home.

A sweet card sent from Laura to her great-granddaughter Julie, my mother.

Here are a few of Laura's poems and writings. Many of them were published in her church's bulletins.

My Heart Sings

It was a beautiful morning and my soul was full of joy. Just a few rose-tinted clouds hung motionless on the Eastern horizon and the great, golden ball of sun peeped through the window right in my eyes. A new day was dawning, giving us another chance…another opportunity to let our light shine through in newness of life in our Christ Jesus.

Sunrise is the time to start the new day with prayer that God will guide us through the coming day….that He will help and sustain us…keep and direct us. There is invigoration and freshness in the early morning hours…to many of us it means just going back to the office, factory or to the field…to the housewife it means starting in again on the unnumbered duties of the home and our children.

How fortunate are we are who able to get up and go to work again. Just a glimpse at the sunrise and a morning prayer will put Hope in your heart and a song on your lips.

-Laura Dumm, 1970

When Father Prays 

When father prays he doesn’t use The words the preacher does. There’s different things for different days But mostly it’s for us.

When father prayers the house is still His voice is slow and deep. We shut our eyes, the clock ticks loud So quiet we must keep.

He prays that we might be good boys And later on good men. And then we squirm and think we won’t Have any quarrels again.

You’d never think to look at Dad He once had tempers too, I guess if father needs to pray We youngsters surely do.

Sometimes the prayer gets very long And hard to understand, And then I wiggle up quite close And let him hold my hand.

I can’t remember all of it I’m little yet you see. But one thing I cannot forget My father prays for me.

In addition to these sweet poems, I also have one of her silver dollars that was given to me by Joan when I graduated from high school in 2002. She had originally given the dollar to Joan, telling her that as long as she had the dollar, she would never be broke. I always loved that story, as it showed her sense of humor, as well as the deep love she had for my grandma.

I am proud to share her name.