We are the De Jong family six; Shawn, Tonya and our four boys. We live on a farm in rural Iowa and our days are full of life. Having all boys means we are active!! We enjoy the outdoors from summertime camping and swimming to the Iowa winters sledding and snowmobiling. Our boys raise show lambs, cattle and chickens and (a couple goats). We love to watch and play football, GO HAWKS!! In the months November to February you will find us in the bleachers cheering our wrestlers on to victory or helping them through defeat. This is our family summed up like the photo above, but what the photo above can’t say is how we got here…
We were High School sweethearts and after 3 years of marriage, I, Tonya was ready to throw it all away. Having listened to the lies of the enemy of my soul, then believing them and ultimately acting on them, we should have been yet another statistic, but the Lord had other plans for us. It was out of my husband’s love and commitment to me and endless nights of prayer that our marriage was saved.
And yet the journey of our life together has not been with out obstacles. We’ve experienced the emptiness of the loss of a dear friend, brokenness in the struggle of conceiving a child, the hurt of being rejected in our church, a deep void with the loss of our nephew at the age of 10, grappling with raising of our children and the busyness of life sometimes leaving us so lonely for each other. I know what you say, “It’s just life.” but was life, ever meant to be negative? If your answer is YES, then you are living in the muck. We’ve been there but we have learned how to get out of the muck and to live as dragonflies through the obstacles.
In 2012 we had the amazing honor to marry two dear friends of ours. Knowing that weddings are fun and marriage is hard, we decided to focus more on the marriage and less on the wedding. We spent numerous nights together helping them learn how to love and respect each other and how to fight for what God has brought together. We used our life experiences both past and present to give them the “tools” that they needed. It was also during this same time we had friends just throw away their marriages and ultimately their family. We watched our children struggle to understand why their friends families fell apart and this broke our hearts. I know, I know, they say children are “resilient” but so are cars and airplanes but it is never a good idea to crash one.
Desiring not to see another marriage and family destroyed, Hearts Cry Dragonfly was born. Let us join with you and guide you to be victorious over the muck. The fight is real, but it really is worth the fight.