Today I celebrate SEVEN years & SEVENtimesEIGHT (56) days.

—NUMBER OF PERFECTION (7) IN TODAY’S BIRTHDAY—

Today, exactly SEVEN years ago on the morning of twentySEVEN September 2018 @ SEVEN minutes past SEVEN, a very special little boy was born into the AssieTribe. If we were a royal family like the House of Windsor with OupaAssie as king on the throne, then as firstborn to Daniel (first in line to the throne), Micah Daniel van Aswegen would have replaced Anneen (née van Aswegen) Hay as second in line to the throne. Like the Windsors, some of us are English speaking, but unlike the Windsors, we are not royal, OupaAssie is not a king, Annie’s position is secure and all AssieTribe grandbabies are special.

Micah’s birth instantly promoted me from Mom to Nana and my beloved Assie from Dad to OupaAssie. Together as a family, we have experienced so many firsts since Micah’s addition to our AssieTribe. OupaAssie built his very first room-in-a-box, baby-engineer-wall and he converted a regular baby cot into a big boy bed for Micah. It did not stop there, OupaAssie also baked and decorated the rocket ship smash cake for Micah’s first birthday and the GummiBears-themed cake for his second birthday. However, Micah could not wear even a single one of the beanies my first-ever attempts at knitting and crocheting these items yielded. Micah re-introduced cute baby clothes, colourful toys, box-cars, tricycles, pool toys, diapers, wet wipes, bum cream and picture books to our home which had grown pretty dull since Jack and Jess had grown up. For the record, I baked cupcakes at 01:30 on the morning of Micah’s birth, I ordered all the books through online shopping and bought all the clothes from actual stores….just saying. Micah and I read through Narnia : The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before his first birthday, he knew thirteen world capitals off by heart before his second birthday, and he could name all the fruits of the Spirit and count to twenty unassisted before his third birthday.

But it was also early on in Micah’s young live when brain cancer came barging into the front door of our AssieTribe for the first time, and brought with it loss and death. These were most certainly not the kind of firsts we remember with fondness at all. However, we choose to remember and cherish the beautiful memories of a beloved member of the AssieTribe who is no longer with us.

It always brings me great joy and delight to write about my precious and precocious Micah Munchkin. Last year for his sixth birthday, I reflected on a few entertaining moments with him, but this year, I would like to highlight just one amazing moment which touched my heart in such a powerfully deep way. While Daniel and Chanré went on honeymoon, Micah stayed with us and on the first Sunday morning between church service and lunch with my parents, he engaged with his OupaAssie in a session of Microsoft Flight Simulator on the computer in the office adjacent to our bedroom where I was watching an Afrikaans preach about Jonah by Stephan Joubert on eKerk. I overheard an excitable Micah constantly commenting (in English) on his flight adventure and I was not prepared for what happened next. OH NANA, I KNOW THAT STORY ABOUT JONAH, BUT MY CLASS IS SO MUCH FURTHER ALONG. LISTEN CAREFULLY, THERE IS A TREE AND A WORM COMING AND THAT MAN, JONAH, CARED MORE ABOUT THE DEAD TREE THAN ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE CITY! While engaged in flying a digital plane while chattering away in English, Micah listened to an Afrikaans preach from my bedroom TV and then proceeded to inform me, in English, about detail which Stephan had not even shared yet! Micah attends an Afrikaans school, so he was introduced to the story of Jonah in Afrikaans. He relayed it to me in English, I was gobsmacked! The part which floored me most of all, was the authentic pain I heard in his little boy voice when he spoke about Jonah’s shallow selfishness. Jonah cared more about his own comfort when the cucumber plant died than the horrible fate of all the people in an entire city.

Micah Munchkin, you have such a pure, perfect, gentle and generous little heart, and I know that more often than you care to admit, it becomes almost unbearably heavy for you to carry. Yet, the Light in your beautiful blue eyes and the purity with which you believe in Jesus cannot be denied by anyone. You may not be earthly royalty like the Windsors, but within you resides the special flawless DNA of a perfect King Who rules over an eternal Kingdom which is not of this earth. Jesus loves you more than you will ever know and there is nothing you can do on this earth which is more important than following and serving Him.

Happy SEVENTH birthday, dearest Micah Munchkin!

—NUMBER OF COMPLETION (8) IN LAST MONTH’S WEDDING—

SEVEN times EIGHT (56) days ago, on the second day of month EIGHT of 2025 (2 August 2025) @ 15:30 another extraordinary event took place wherein the perfection of SEVEN was multiplied with the completion of EIGHT.

The strappingly handsome bridegroom stands at the altar of the quaint little chapel of a charming wedding venue on the outskirts of Bloemfontein. Despite the chill of the Free State winter outside the chapel, the tangible delight of the groom eagerly awaiting the arrival of his radiant bride, fills the room with warm excitement. The groom’s adorable little mini-me-best-man-ringbearer, dressed in his very own pin-striped tuxedo, amplifies his daddy’s delight by capturing the hearts of the guests with the bouncing impatience of his childlike excitement. On the arm of her beamingly proud father, the radiant bride, breathtakingly beautiful in black, makes her jaw-dropping entrance and all eyes are on her as her cool, calm and collected father escorts her down the aisle towards her awestruck groom. None of the guests are aware that, in just a few short metres, the father of the bride not only replays the entire life of his little girl in his head, but he also becomes witness to how she transforms from his little girl into a grown woman and the bride of another man. The moment of truth for the father happens at the end of this journey when he literally hands the hero baton of his daughter’s heart to her groom – a dreaded deed which all daddies of grown-up darling daughters in beautiful bridal gowns have to do.

A few firsts happened on that beautiful afternoon when my beloved firstborn son, Daniel, married Chanré, my beloved new daughter-in-love. With the poise and grace of a distinguished professional, Jan Taute escorted his daughter down the aisle. However, he had never done this before and Chanré is not only his baby, but also his one and only daughter! It was the first time almost all of the wedding guests attended the wedding of a bride dressed in black. It was a first for me. There was nothing morbid or dark about it, in fact, the boldness thereof so strikingly outlined Chanré’s authentic gentleness. Her choice of a black wedding dress echoed something so beautifully powerful – the closure of a season of mourning and the introduction of a season of completion. Deep inside the happiness of a brand new season, hurt is turning into healing through the heart and hands of a beautiful bride in black.

As with all of our other families-in-love (in-laws), I am so profoundly grateful that I am not competing with any member of the Taute family in any kind of competition, because if so, there would be so many areas in which I will lose hands-down. My aunty Woolies is pretty amazing when it comes to cooking, but compared to Elsa Taute, she is like a runner-up at the baker-baker awards ceremony of a pre-school where all participants receive participation awards. I have had the privilege of being a part of a wedding preparation process in which the remarkable three-way partnership between a determined bride, her wise mother and Shein, proved to be unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Their attention to detail in the meticulous planning of even the tiniest detail of everything from outfits to gifts, had me mesmerised from the very beginning. In the end, it was a picture perfect event with beautiful memories which I will cherish forever!

Happy SEVENtimesEIGHT(56) days’ wedding anniversary, dearest Daniel & Chanré and congratulations on your son’s SEVENTH birthday!

**SPESIALE AFSLUITINGSBOODSKAP**

Liewe Jan & Elsa, baie dankie vir een van die mooiste troues wat ek al ooit bygewoon het! Julle vrygewigheid en gasvryheid het nie ongesiens verbygegaan nie. Baie dankie ook vir die getroue ouerskapsbelegging wat julle in Chanré gemaak het, dis voorwaar ‘n voorreg om haar amptelik in die AssieTribe te verwelkom as Daniel se vrou, Micah se mamma en ons nuwe dogter. Dit is ook my eer en voorreg om julle en die res van die Taute-familie te verwelkom in die uitgebreide AssieTribe – WELKOM!