Nyhuis Family 2024 Recap Video

Merry Christmas from the Nyhuis family!

It’s been a couple of years since our last Christmas letter, and what a couple of years it’s been!  

Early 2023 we found out we were expecting twins, then Laura’s water broke after only 15 weeks of pregnancy and we thought we lost them.  Against all odds, Laura was able to carry the twins for 11 more weeks and they were both born at almost 26 weeks.  Arthur was almost exactly 1lb at birth and Cyrus was 1lb 14oz.

We took their survival as a miracle which made it more painful and confusing when Arthur died a month later.  Cyrus nearly died multiple times too but thankfully he made it through after 3 full months in the NICU and another 3 months on oxygen support. 

Naturally these events took a big toll on all of us.  For over 6 months we dealt with intensive medical care to try to save the twins, and during that time our girls couldn’t live with us.  Before the birth, they posed too big a risk to Laura’s pregnancy, and during the summer we spent every day at the NICU and didn’t have the time or emotional energy to also take care of Oakley and Edee.  

We were all blessed that the girls were taken in by their Aunt Natalie and Uncle Trevor and got to spend the whole spring and summer with their 5 cousins in Eatonville, an experience that made them feel more like siblings than cousins!

We were truly blessed by a tremendous outpouring of love and support from friends, family, and even people who don’t know us but heard about our story secondhand.  It was bewildering, humbling, and honestly life-sustaining for us during those difficult times.  I can’t adequately express how we clung to each new text message, or card, or gifted meal, or any of the dozens of other ways people let us know we weren’t alone.

Through it all we really struggled with but ultimately kept our faith that God still loves us and wants us to be part of his family.  We believe we will get to see Arthur again, and our task now is to do the best we can with whatever precious time God lets us spend together.

With that thought in mind and our family reunited since October 2023, we’ve been trying hard to rebuild our lives and relationships with our kids.  We enjoyed the holidays getting to finally show Cyrus to loved ones in our area.  We also surprised the kids with a week in Disneyland in February, went camping in Eastern Washington for a week in July, and joined my family for a trip to Silver Dollar City in September. 

Through all of that and a lot of simple fun times throughout the summer, we’ve forged new memories together and are seeing a wonderful new family dynamic emerging.  There’s still a lot of pain over what happened last year, and still some fear and uncertainty about things that we used to take for granted.  This isn’t all bad though, as we are also having regular, deep conversations with our kids about life and death and everything in between.  The kids are working through all their feelings in many different ways, but through this open dialogue and lots of effort on our part to love and engage with each other and the people in the world around us, we’re all continuing to heal into something good that we couldn’t have become without going through all of this.

Oakley, now 6 years old, is going to kindergarten at a local Christian school that wears uniforms and teaches classical education.  She absolutely loves it and enjoys the rest of her time being a very involved big sister to Edee and Cyrus.

Edee, age 3, gets to spend most mornings at home with Laura and Cyrus and is also a very loving big sister, often singing lullabies to Cyrus in the car after dropping Oakley off at school.  She’s gaining a lot of confidence and loves to fill the house with loud singing and opinions!

Cyrus, 18months, is now a rambunctious, mischievous little boy crawling as fast as he can all over our house and getting into as much trouble as possible!  He loves cackling with joy when he does something crazy or just sitting and thoughtfully studying the face of someone who’s talking to him.  It’s fun seeing his personality emerge as he continues to catch up in size and functional abilities from his rough start in life.  

As we come to the close of 2024, we want to express once again how grateful we are for all the support we received from so many of you.  The feelings of being deeply cared about are mixed with the feelings of deep grief and pain from last year, and together, they form a core memory for all of us that will probably help us through tough times for the rest of our lives and hopefully equip us to better love everyone around us.

Wherever life is taking each of you right now, we hope that God will be there with you as he has been and continues to be with us.

Merry Christmas from the Nyhuis family!

Jonathan, Laura, Oakley, Edith, and Cyrus