From my dad:
"Stine, here’s a bit of exaggeration and hype and make-believe fun from a doting dad, wishing happy birthday to a gorgeous daughter.
Frank and Berit Fortunato are pleased to announce the 30th birthday of their daughter, Kristine Fortunato Loughman.
Thirty years ago Kristine let the world know that she was in charge, and ready to take on life with vigor. Her nine months had arrived and she was still in the dark womb. It did not take long for this eager, restless, take charge baby to move into action—kicking in morse code the words “Now, Now.” Exhausted, she started coughing and swallowed fluids. The doctor moved into quick action, removed her surgically and placed her in an incubator for observation. Not knowing what had gone on, and discovering her in the incubator, her father sent urgent messages around the OM world asking for prayer for her. From every continent, people started praying for this little one. Heaven responded, and kept her alive and in answer to all those prayers she was endued with remarkable skills that blossomed from the start. Not everyone has the privilege of entering life with prayers from around the world focused on them.
Her early years were spent on a mission ship. When asked about her father’s role as the ship director, she wisely knew to protect his security and identity before hostile journalists, and answered “he reads books.” When probed further, she replied: “he drinks coffee.”
Kristine’s next chapter was in New Jersey in the mid-eighties. Here she discovered play dough, and obsessed with creating works of art. She made some of the world’s most original and stunning replicas of amoebas, knee caps, and used soap bars. On a walk with her father, a policeman pulled up in his police car and asked her if she knew the name of the man who was walking with her, holding her hand. Knowing she could send her father to prison as a child molester, she protected her father yet again, and simply stated: “his name is Daddy.”
Moving to Georgia, Kristine started re-discovering her special skills and take charge vigor. She won a prize for the most books read over the summer. It is reported the number of books was just under 10,000 volumes. Owing to years of being home schooled under the careful tutelage of her world-class mother, Kristine entered public school and breezed through middle and high school never having seen anything but “A’s” on her report cards. She graduated with salutatorian honors. Ever the savvy one with money, she knew how to stretch her allowances, and early on became an amazing financial planner. Rumors are out there that she loved buying Starbucks, one per year.
Into her collegiate years Kristine was ever the take charge wonder woman. Again her report cards were saturated with “As” despite the fact that she was in a very demanding journalism school. She graduated with high honors. It was during her college years that her take charge craft resulted in her planning and staging a series of break downs in her apartment, pulling out wires, smashing fuses and the like, hoping the men in a nearby apartment would come to her rescue. Sure enough, before she put into place her ninth breakdown--set the house on fire--she met and married the man of her dreams, Matt Loughman.
As she entered the workplace, she landed a job at a “Ma-n-Pa” local newspaper and had to work during all holidays, work without sick pay, record the length of bathroom breaks, and the like. That did not hinder her from writing prolifically for the newspapers and managing a classy woman’s magazine.
Ever the take charge woman, she decided to both get a master’s degree while arranging to start a family at the same time. Knowing she brought in the world a new generation of an eager, take charge newborn, she had to decide between naming her Violent or Violet. She settled on the latter. From all indications, it appears the newborn is a chip off the old bloc, and the new “blog.”
Reflecting back over thirty years, her parents are bursting with joy and pride to watch how she has become a mighty, gorgeous, intelligent, delightful, skilled woman, bursting with life and the life of the party. How could it be anything less as she entered the planet under the canopy of people from across the planet praying for her from day one. We are eager to see what’s ahead for the next 30 years in the exciting life of this wonderful woman."
When you put it that way, Dad, turning 30 doesn't seem so bad!
