Hi! My name is Deonne. I live in Lansing’s Eastside neighborhood now, but I’ve lived pretty much all over the lower half of Michigan in the last 20 years, except for a brief southern sojourn in Nashville, Tennessee.
Though I loved my time down south, Michigan has always been home in my heart. My work in public relations for various book publishers and eventually in freelance writing, gave me the opportunity to move back to my home state and I jumped at the chance. I was living just outside Grand Rapids when I met my now husband, Tom.
My First and Last First Date
We met through Match.com and our first date was coffee at Biggby and then on to ice skating. Even though I wiped out while skating and took him down with me, he called me for another date the same weekend. (We still go back to Biggby for coffee and chai lattes to celebrate our first date anniversary every year.) Three years, three months, and three days later, on New Years Eve, we got engaged. (When you fall in love with an accountant, numbers are a love language!)
After a sweet DIY fall wedding here in Lansing in 2011, we settled in for a busy first year that included both of us commuting for parts of the year and then selling my house, finishing projects at his, and finally getting all our stuff in one house. After job changes for both of us those first two years as well, life settled down and we turned our attention to the family we hoped to start.
Change of Plans
The story we’d hoped would be so easy didn’t turn out to be. After a year of trying, we started talking to doctors and doing tests and trying to figure out why things weren’t happening. But still, no answers. After a lot of prayer, we decided to move forward toward open adoption and by December 2016, our home study and other requirements were almost complete so that we could be open to a placement.
Two days before my 42nd birthday, we found out God had other plans for our family when I woke up early and got a positive pregnancy test. I had an amazing pregnancy and kept running until I got just inside my third trimester, finishing a race in each trimester. I completed natural birth classes with my husband, signed a contract for a doula, and went to the first of my four weekly visits leading up to my due date, only to find out that our feisty baby had flipped into breech position that morning.
Even after what ended up being a planned c-section, our daughter, Anna, has continued to flip our world around and change all our best laid plans in mostly wonderful, and at times frustrating, ways.
You Can Find Me…
When I’m not reading to my daughter, doing something with laundry or dishes (yes, those three things happen in just about equal weekly amounts as a stay at home momma), you can find me tracking down chocolate hummus at Aldi, out running on the River Trail or walking with my family downtown, trying to catch up on our family scrapbooks, or trying to research my way back up our family tree. I also coach a workshop at WW one night a week. Finding a healthier approach to food and fitness with WW at the invitation of a momma friend years ago resonated with me and helped me shed 85 pounds and become more mindful of my heath and fitness goals throughout all the seasons of life since. I coach now because I am passionate about helping others do the same and because it still helps me on my own journey.
I’m so excited to be part of Lansing Mom and look forward to sharing our stories with each other!
