TRANSLATIONS: JEANNIE

What a fun challenge the TRANSLATIONS challenge was. I am Native American, my tribe is Navajo. My mom is full Navajo but chose to put me up for adoption in hopes of having a better life than what she thought she could give me. In 1993, I was blessed enough to find my birth mom. I have been in contact with her ever since. Here is what the journaling says on my page.

"Tséníjíkiní
House of the Dark Cliffs People

I feel very honored to be Native American. In 2004, my husband, all my children and I went to Ganado, Arizona, where my grandmother lives. It was my first trip to the reservation and it was a humbling experience.

Do I feel sad that I was not raised on the reservation?

Maybe, but it doesn’t matter because I wouldn’t change the outcome of my life for anything.

I am blessed to have 2 families, the family that raised me and that family that is my blood, my clan.

I am Jeannie DeGruccio and I am Tséníjíkiní."

I put a lot of work into this page. I do not usually use my sewing machine on my pages, but this page seemed to be the perfect kind of page for machine stitching. I took my color palette from a Navajo rug. I tried to keep the colors and patterns true to what I might use, if I knew how to weave. I really had a lot of fun with this page.