Hello everyone!  Hope everyone has had a good day....

So my dad told me to blog on here since I'm sitting in his class doing nothing. (The class I have this period is a TAKS class, and we already tested so they are just sitting around in there sleeping, goofing off, etc. so i came to his class.)  Nothing has really happened at all today...took my History TAKS, it was pretty easy.  We watched 'O Brother Where Art Thou' after we all finished...looked at some VOGUE magazine...went to my other classes.  I'm currently making a stained glass thingy in art for my mom...it will make a fish and seaweed. It will be awesome..because I am awesome...therefore, what I create must be awesome.  : ) No I'm not conceited.

Well, the bell's about to ring. 'Till next time, darlings.

Ciao-

Steph

Michael and some lovely girls reveling to the beautiful sounds of RAIN!!!  Thank God!!!  We have been so dry here.

Lya came in awhile ago to scan in this pic she found of Lorena taken during happier times.

She is in our backyard in the spring, obviously happy and contented.   Pictures such as this really get to me.  Don't complain about something being unfair, because none of this is fair.  Fair has nothing to do with life.

Lya found a bottle of champagne Lorena had been keeping for a special occasion.  Lya worked out a wonderfully persuasive argument about how the bottle was taking up valuable space and was in the way.  Lya is a little toot.  She argued that since she will not be here tomorrow (Wendy Weiss is hosting a lock-in at church with all the little urchins), completion of TAKS testing  IS a special occasion, and mommy would want us to celebrate that milestone tonight even though tomorrow is actually the last day of testing.  Marshmallow that I am, I am now contributing to the delinquency of two minors.  Of course, the mine is mine -- as are the minors...  Lya, however, thinks she has struck gold.  [Lya loves champagne.  Being the masochist that I am, I prefer real pain...  I wish I could convince the girls that I am just kidding because I like puns, because they dish plenty of real pain out to me.]

This morning, I needed to be at school at 7:30.  I finally herded the girls out the door at 7:40.  I was supposed to go by and pick Joey up, then drop Lya off at the Jr. high, then get to school [20 minutes after leaving school because of all the packed school zones we have to go through, and that is 20 minutes AFTER we leave home which was already 20 minutes late.]  When she reached the van, Lya noticed that the interior lights of the van had been left on after they got something out of the car last night.  The lights were still on.  Barely.  The battery was just as dead as I feared it would be.  Joey's dad came by and hauled us to school.  Did you hear me screaming???

Lorena will laugh so hard when we relate all this to her.  It is so much funnier from a distance...  Actually it was funny just watching all of us freaking out.  Lya got to school late -- to be given an unexcused tardy and get chewed out by one of the office ladies who is normally always nice to her.  The office lady told her to report to a certain room for her TAKS test, but when Lya passed her homeroom, she noticed that her class was all there, so she joined them.  Later the office lady saw Lya in the hall and again chewed her out:

Office lady:  "Why aren't you taking your TAKS test???  Why didn't  you do what I told you to do this morning???  It is TAKS test time until after lunch!!!"

Lya:  "Uh ... Ma'am, I am in seventh grade.  The TAKS testing today is for eighth graders..."

Office lady (after long, awkward pause):  "Oh, that's right.  You are Lya, aren't you?  I was thinking you were Allison..."

Lya (who related the story hilariously):  "No, Ma'am.  I am Lya, and I am in the seventh grade."

Office lady, now rather confused and very contrite:  "I am so sorry, Lya.  I thought you were Allison.  I was angry this morning because you were tardy to class even though I brought you to school."  [Now, she was suddenly VERY confused]  "Oh, that's right.  I brought Allison to school this morning, and you are NOT Allison!!!"

It is good to know that I was not the only one today having that kind of morning.  It will all be worth it, though, just to hear Lorena laugh when we relate it to her.  Anything is worth it to hear Lorena laugh.  My entire existence brightens when we get to hear Lorena laugh.

Her miracle continues.  To God be the glory.  I sincerely believe that she will tell her own story on here some day...  Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Michael y mis quatra niñas en Stephenville.  Yes, I now have four daughters.  I think I may be able to claim Molly Stripling as a dependent this year on my income tax.  She and Lya really get along well so they spend about a week together every day.  She is a great gal, though, so the elder Striplings had better watch out or I will take her away from them!!!

We just got off a phenomenal phone call with Lorena.  Her nurse Miguel was our moderator tonight, and he and she were in fine form.  My heart is singing as I type this.  SHE SOUNDS FANTASTIC!!!  Her "voice" is strong and forceful even is she is only saying "uh huh" and "uh uh".  Listening to her laugh, though, is the very best part. 

She laughed wonderfully hard when I told her about my travails shopping with the girls the last couple of days.  The girls had to tell her about dinner tonight, and that elicited some more heart-warming laughter.  [More about that later.]  We also got a great laugh from her when we told her how hot it has been for the last couple of days -- and she had a beautiful laugh at our expense because it never gets as hot in Tepic as it does here.  We asked her if she was improving, and we got a truly joyous laugh that literally brightened our day.  I asked her if she said something to me the other day when I thought she had -- and I was reward with an "uh huh" and another joyful peal of laughter. 

I began talking to Miguel in Spanish -- and he asked me please to repeat what I had said.  I was unable to do so for quite some time because Lorena was laughing so hard.  When I accused her of ridiculing my Spanish, she began laughing so hard I was afraid she might hurt herself.  She was literally gasping for breath between howls of laughter.  I, of course, put on an award winning performance of being hurt by her humor and having my perfect Spanish ridiculed.  (Sure I was acting!!!)    I am not sure exactly what struck her funny bone so hard, because I know I didn't pull a faux pas like I did a few years ago when I asked her mother how the vieja (old woman) had been instead of how the viaje (trip) had been.  Nor did I do anything like the diner I overheard in the Mexican restaurant who ordered a chimichinga instead of a chimichanga.  Whatever it was that I did or whatever I was that Lorena perceived that I did (or maybe it was merely the fact that her heart was so full tonight that she was reveling in my Texican Mexican):  whatever it was, it was wonderful, and I cannot wait for it to happen again.  In fact, our entire conversation tonight was one beautiful round of laughter after another.  Thank God!!!  Miguel is a superb nurse, and he was an excellent moderator.  Her caregivers there in Mexico are gifts from God, and I thank Him daily for them.

The girls were all excited today because Stephi and Lya took their math TAKS and felt that they should be rewarded.  We went by the grocery store and bought makings for a delightful salad and enough spaghetti to feed the population in the greater Rome area.  Stephi, Lya, and Molly then prepared an incredibly wonderful meal while I climbed up on my roof under the huge oak tree that grows up through our patio roof that connects our house to our garage and garage apartment.  There, I proceeded to blow off the sixteen tons of oak blossoms other arboreal detritus while I dodged raindrops and lightening bolts.  It seems that half the time I am on that roof blowing it off, I am holding my breath wondering if I will even hear the thunder produced by the bolt that zaps me.  (And, yes, you jokers that I can hear out there snickering, I used a leaf blower.  I don't care if you HAVE heard one of my lectures...)

We are supposed to get rain over the next few days.  We have had NONE for six weeks now, and we are DRY.  I have now learned that day before yesterday, we hit 108º F, and yesterday we were up to 105º.  Today, we only hit 80º, from what I can tell, and a beautiful cold front blew in this evening with a scarily lovely electrical display that scared the bejeebers out of me as I toiled on the roof under my oak tree and just enough rain to make me think a time or two that I was going to slide off the roof...  Hopefully, we will end up with several inches of rain before all this is over.

Some updates on some of my folks.  Kacy has been in Thailand for several weeks now receiving additional training to return to Africa where she will be working with the Muslim tribe.  Chris and Michelle are back in China where they are spreading the Word.  I would really ask for your prayers for these folks and the teams they are working with.  Then I saw Reatina Rogers this evening and got caught up on several of my Lipanders -- especially the Wrights (for some reason...)  [LOL -- and Tara, you had better write me!!!] 

We are so richly blessed.  Last Sunday, I basked in watching the Everetts at church.  Little Kylie is so beautiful -- and I am so reassured seeing how she has recovered from her devastating brain injury.  [ kgeverett]  Lorena's miracle is continuing.  Much too slowly for me, but I am Mr. Impatience.  She is improving, and her laughter is balm to my very bruised spirit.  To God be the glory.  Thank you.   

Lya had a big time this last weekend with Allison, and they took 2.75 tons of pics, I think.  Here are the two little swingers...

Michael and the girls running circles in Stephenville.  We are in the middle of our statewide testing here in Texas -- and it is a really fun time.  For all of us...

We are well, though, and quite warm.  Yesterday, at 4:30, the Chamberlin Elem. Sch. marquee showed the temperature to be 103 F.  Today, we were supposed to go over 100 F again.  Both of these were record setting temperatures.  (Yesterday, it was 107 F in Laredo, and many of the folks down there, especially in Nuevo Laredo, don't have air conditioning.  I haven't gotten to talk to Lili and Sergio in Monterrey, MX, but I am sure it has been hot down there as well.  At least, they do have an air conditioner.  We have not turned our AC on in an effort to save as much money as we can, so it has been a little cozy here in the house.  The girls LOVE it!!!  [It is good for them...]

My life the last couple of days, outside of school, has revolved around shopping [which rates on my favorite activities scale just below having a root canal without anesthesia.]  Stephi hasn't had any dresses, I am told.  I don't know if she is eating them or not.  She has another prom to go to.  Lucky me!!!  She is going more casually to this one.  Anyway, she is now in no danger of being arrested for indecent exposure.  Of course, I am now in danger of being arrested for living beyond my means.  Excuse me, but I should have accused myself of EXISTING beyond my means.

Actually, we are doing well.  We haven't had any luck getting through to Lorena again, but everywhere we went today, we were besieged by folks wanting updates on her status and asking us to pass their greetings and special messages along to her.  I am continually amazed at how many loyal friends she has...  And everyone always mentions special anecdotes and memories of her along to us.  I really wish you folks would leave those memories and anecdotes on here as comments so that she, and we, and everyone out there could share those with you.  Sometimes she seems so distant to us now, but those special memories, usually delivered to us laughingly and glowingly, make her seem so close and so alive to us once again.  I know she would like to hear them from you.

Well, it is late once again, and I have to get up and baby sit again tomorrow...  Take care...

Michael here in Stephenville.  Today was an emotional
day.  Dena and her group had taken the RV to Lake Whitney and had
asked me to come out there and spend the weekend with them.  I and
the girls really wanted to go to Holder to spend Easter with Jerome and
Ruth.  Joey's family and several others here in Stephenville
invited me for Easter dinner.  I had so much that I needed to do,
though, and I really didn't feel like socializing, so I stayed home,
made me a batch of cole slaw so my cabbage wouldn't ruin, and that was
my dinner. 

This afternoon, Tom Post called, and we had a wonderful, happy, sad,
laughing, crying visit.  He is such an incredible man, so much
stronger than I am.  I hurt for him so much, but I was pleased to
learn that Ann's passing was as gentle as it was.  They were
married 31 years.

Yesterday morning, I had a bizarre experience.  I woke up
to find Lorena already up and gone.  I really needed to give her a
hug and to tell her something, so I jumped out of bed and dressed
quickly to go looking for her.  She wasn't in the bathroom ... or
the kitchen ... so I headed outside to the patio where she often
had her coffee watching the birds feeding and bathing.  Just
as I realized she wasn't there, I remembered where she is, and it was
as if someone had punched me in the stomach...  The knowledge of
her condition and our situation was bad enough, but part of me flashed
back to my sleep deprivation days when I seriously wondered about my
sanity sometimes.

At church this morning, everyone was asking about Lorena again, but
some of their questions alarmed me a bit.  Lorena is still, for
all intents and purposes, a quadriplegic who cannot stand, talk, feed
herself, scratch an itch, or do anything for herself but breathe, spell
[using a spelling board and "uh huhs"], and swallow.  I take
that back.  She can indicate to the her nurses now when she needs
to use the restroom so they can set her up on the potty chair -- and
that is a HUGE improvement physically, psychologically, and
emotionally.  Oh, yes; she can laugh, and that is perhaps the most
important thing of all.  She can laugh.  Thank God, she can
-- and does -- laugh...

I am awed, humbled, and amazed at the incredible friends that Lorena and I have.  Duane Godwin came very close to reducing me to tears tonight just by talking to me -- just as Nony did a few days before.  The girls hate to go shopping with me because a dozen people will stop me each short trip to ask how Lorena is doing -- and how I am doing.  Lorraine excitedly informed me after Papá's funeral that Socorro and Javier Almeria were sitting behind her at the funeral.  (They are her godparents from the days he was Mexican Consul General to Germany, and she has exquisite artwork that they brought her from their days in the Mexican Embassy in Iran.)  I thank God every day for the friends and family I have.  I can never think of friends without remembering my Sri Lankan Tamil friend, Kanatna Sribalaratnam, a janitor in my school in Germany who had fled the Sinhalese/Tamil strife in Sri Lanka, coming into my classroom (just before I was to go to Mexico to marry Lorena), asking me if it was true that I had used all my savings helping some East German and Czech friends, and, when I admitted (rather dejectedly) that it was, plopping $5000 USD cash on the desk and insisting that I take it to cover wedding costs, travel, etc.  He did not even want to accept an IOU.

Kara Nicole, this is especially for you.  I pray that you find and surround yourself with true friends who would do absolutely anything for you and who value you more than they value their own lives with nothing asked in return.  I did not intend to make this posting on Easter, but nothing could be more appropriate today than a posting about love and friendship.  I love those old hymns, and it is true:  "What a Friend We Have in Jesus."  Not only did He die for us, but now He lives for us...  Would that I could live better for Him...

Greater love hath no man...

Thank you for the quotes, Asma.

Friendship Quotes By Famous Personalities

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."
Henry Ford

"To like and dislike the same things, which is indeed true friendship."
Sallust

"Have no friends not equaled to yourself."
Confucious

"True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their

worth and choice."
Samuel Johnson

"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own

reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company."
George Washington

 

 

"Can miles truly separate you from friends... If you want to be with someone

you love, aren't you already there?"
Richard Bach

"Tell me what company thou keep’s, and I'll tell thee what thou art."
Miguel de Cervantes

"The best mirror is an old friend."
George Herbert

"It takes a long time to grow an old friend."
John Leonard

"The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is

to be one."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends."
Jacques Delille

 

"One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives."
Euripides

"I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new

acquaintance."
Samuel Johnson

"Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must

have somebody to divide it with."
Mark Twain

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be

stupid with them."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life,

he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his

friendship in constant repair."
Samuel Johnson

"It is more shameful to distrust one's friends than to be deceived

by them."
Duc de la Rochefoucauld

 

"Too late we learn, a man must hold his friend unjudged, accepted,

trusted to the end."
John Boyle O'Reilly

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and

withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to

the appellation."
George Washington

"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident

knowledge that they will help us."
Epicurus

 

"Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose

inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own

accord will love you more than one whom you have been

at pains to attach to you."
Samuel Johnson

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm

and constant."
Socrates

"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together."
Woodrow Wilson

 

"Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires

a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success."
Oscar Wilde

"Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot

be friends with anyone else in the world."
Eleanor Roosevelt

"A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe

in yourself."
Unknown

"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends."
Aristotle

"A friend in need is a friend indeed."
Unknown

"A friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be

anywhere else."
Len Wein

 

"A true friend stabs you in the front."
Oscar Wilde

"Never hurt a friend, even in jest."
Cicero

"No man is useless while he has a friend."
Robert Louis Stevenson

"The friendship that can cease has never been real."
Saint Jerome

"The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have

of a man's success in life."
Edward Everett Hale

 

"Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn

unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes."
Unknown

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known

until it be lost."
Charles Caleb Colton

 

"The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no

wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him,

he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?"
Henry David Thoreau

 

"Friendship without self interest is one of the rare and beautiful things

in life."
James Francis Byrnes

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."
Helen Keller

"Happiness is time spent with a friend and looking forward to sharing

time with them again."
Lee Wilkinson

"A friend to all is a friend to none."
Aristotle

"Never shall I forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend,

as you will always find me yours."
Ludwig Van Beethoven

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may

not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend."
Albert Camus

 

I received this in the email of a Pakistani friend.  Thanks, Abid...

Michael in Stephenville.  It really is a new age.  For a decade, I lived and worked right in the middle of the Fulda Gap in Frankfurt, Germany.  With Frankfurt serving as the economic, transportation, and military center of Germany, and with Rhein-Main Air Base right outside of town, we knew that if the Russians ever attacked, we would never know it in all probability.  (If you haven't read it, Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising is an exciting read even if it is a bit dated, and it will explain what I am saying about living in the Fulda Gap.)  We had to have an emergency evacuation kit ready at all times, and, periodically, we would have to undergo emergency evacuation drills -- which everyone laughed off because conventional wisdom said that we were wasting our time.  We tended to be extremely fatalistic about the chances of escaping if there were an attack by the forces of the East.

The wall and the fence were incredibly chilling and somber.  Both were actually built inside Communist territory, so that if one made it over the wall or fence or if someone went out to help someone escaping, they were still in the bad guy's land so they were fair game.  Horror stories were told of escapees' misadventures.  On one of our trips to the border, we learned of a father/son team of which the father made it over the fence but whose teenage son triggered a mine and became entangled in the wire.  The father went back to try to comfort his mangled, dying son where he was recaptured for an unknown (but very unpleasant) fate.  Numerous markers and graves memorialized failed escape attempts. 

When we helped Lia Sipova defect from Prague through Berlin, Lorena and I had to go, in the middle of the night, to a home in West Berlin immediately next to the Wall to get her things that had been smuggled over.  (Don't ask me how.  I have no idea.  I just know that my activities ruined my chances for subsequent State Department service.)  Lorena and I were both extremely concerned for the other's safety because it was the most ominous, dark sistuation I have ever been in.  I could literally feel the evil of the place.

Crossing into and out of the Soviet Bloc was invariably a scary time although I was never actually threatened, but it really opened my eyes.  I could not have lived the way those people lived.  In Poland, a family fixed some friends and me a nice meal.  I enjoyed it, but it was nothing special -- until I learned that they had used several months worth of their rations for meat, sugar, flour, coffee, etc.  For me, it was just a nice meal; for them, it meant that they had to do without for months after I left.

Most people there had no concept of the outside world.  I don't know how many times I was asked about the Indian problems in Texas and if my family was safe from them.  Of course, everyone was determined that I lived on a huge ranch with oil and gas well, huge herds of horses and cattle, and was filthy rich.  It amazed me to learn that the thing I tended to be envied most for was the ablility to travel.  Those in the East Bloc could go (with difficulty and varying degrees of usually horrendous expense) to other Soviet Bloc countries, Cuba, Angola, Vietnam, and perhaps a few other countries.  It also surprised me to learn that I could use my Spanish on the streets of their major cities because their "guest workers" were invariably Cuban.

The reason I mention all of this is that this last week I mentioned the Iron Curtain several times in different classes -- to junior and senior level students.  Repeatedly, to my deep dismay, I was asked what the Iron Curtain was...  We have a great school system.  We do not have stupid students.  But far too many of my students are ignorant and don't have a clue...  That is incredibly sad -- and dangerous...

Lorena knew, and Lorena knows...  Even as a Mexican citizen, before she naturalized, she was a powerful defender of the U.S. and an advocate of capitalism and the free market system.  Thank you, Darling.  I would love to have more immigrants (legally) like Lorena.  It is too bad we can't kick out some of the Americans we have who abuse, disrespect, and disparage our values and our way of life.  Our way of life can certainly be better, and I want to work to make it so.  That said, I treasure my US citizenship -- and so does Lorena...

God bless the USA!!!

Jean Gilliam sent me this picture from the Jones/Boyd Reunion (taken in 1993).  Lorena is holding Lya, talking with my paternal grandmother, Flossie Jane Jones Thomas Boyd.  (My dad is wearing the plaid shirt, standing behind Grandma.)  These are three incredibly tough females.  Grandma lost her mother when she was three or four years old.  Lya has lost her mother to a great degree now as a child.  But all three of these ladies tend to laugh in the face of adversity -- and shame me in the process.  [Grandma was very proud of her Indian heritage, and she would tease Lorena by pointing out the irony of "I look more like a Mexican than you do."  Grandma was one of Lorena's very favorite people.]  Thanks, Jean, for sending me the photos...

We talked to Lorena last night, and it was marvelous!!!!  She was laughing and sounding great.  Stephi and I were telling her how much we love her and miss her -- and she would laugh delightedly.  I asked her if she had improved from the last time we called -- and she laughed.  We told her about all the family and friends who have been asking about her -- and she laughed.  We talked about some of the good times we had in the past -- and she laughed.

About the only time she did not laugh was when we relayed news about Ann Post, Tarleton professor and friend.  Ann instructed several of my family members, and I worked for years with Tom Post, so we all knew and loved Ann.  She died last week -- and Lorena cried when we told her that.  Our prayers and best wishes are with Tom.

Lorena really laughed, then, when the girls started telling on me again.  The other day, I was wearing some short pants when I encountered my gaggle of giggling girls in the kitchen.  They immediately began criticizing my lovely legs with such disparaging remarks as, "Which rock did those legs crawl out from under?"  "How many years has it been since those legs have seen sunlight?"  "I saw something like this on a horror movie once!" rejoined by "You sure didn't see anything like THOSE on a horror movie because you would be too young to get in.  THOSE are obscene..."  [From Rainey]:  "Lya, when Daddy was little, he didn't have to spend any money for kneepads; he had so much fur on his knees that he didn't need any more cushioning..."  "Daddy, we would be glad to wax your legs for you if you want us to.  That way, you won't offend people by being seen in public near as much.  Of course, there is nothing we can do about your knobby knees..."  And on...  And on... 

I am a tough not-so-old coot, though, so I just let their disrespect and sarcasm run off me like rain water runs off a slug in the garden -- and proceeded rolling up my shorts legs until it looked as if I were wearing some kind of hideous redneck thong as I reveled in their concerted cacophony of shrieks of dismay, disgust, scandalized sensibilities and indignation.  Smiling sweetly, then, I announced that I had to go to the store to get some things.  That REALLY elicited screams of "No you can't!" and "Daddy, if you go to the store that way, I am moving because I can never show my face in public around here again."  Lorena laughed.  Of course, had she been here, her protests would have harmonized nicely with theirs...  [What is it that they say about absence and the heart???]

The irony of this weekend it that Phil Sudman, my brother-in-law, is in Colima this weekend at the Southwest Association of Naturalists meeting.  Colima is the Mexican state just south of Guadalajara, so he is very near Lorena.  [I don't know if the organization has an anthem or not, but I plan to ask Phil.  If they do not, I would like to compose one.  Unfortunately, I would not be able to compose any more, because that first anthem would be my SWAN song...]  Last night, I went over and had a very nice visit with Diane, and I got to talk to Jenni and Aaron for a while.

It really was wonderful, though, to hear Lorena laugh, and it gives even more special meaning to Easter.  Her miracle continues.  To God be the glory.  Thank you all for your prayers and your support.  We love you.

Michael and the girls here in Stephenville.  We tried to call Lorena again last night, but she was on a ride around town.  Later today, we will try again. 

However, last night we did get to talk to Rafael where we learned that Mya Naomi arrived yesterday morning.  Weighing 3.425 kg, she is healthy and beautiful (if not necessarily happy.)  Minelli is doing great, and the family is understandably ecstatic.