House #31

Dan & Jenny Blanchette Family

Hi - We are the Blanchette family!!!

My name is Jenny Blanchette. I have lived in Brookings most of my life along with my mother, grandparents and many other family members who have also lived in the area. I am the head housekeeper at the Staurolite Inn & Suites of Brookings.  My husband Dan is from Marshall, MN.  Dan’s mother Tereasa still lives there.  Dan has 8 brothers and sisters who live all over the U.S.  Dan’s mother was born and raised in Italy (Naples) so Dan is the 1^st generation in the United States.

Dan and I have been together for 18 years (married for 14) and are looking forward to the rest of our lives together!  We have 4 beautiful children -3 teenage girls and 1 boy. We feel so blessed to have this opportunity to having our new Habitat home.  We have had many challenges in our lives and we didn’t know if we would ever get to own our own home.  Dan had been in a hunting accident and had his leg blown completely off.  Dan was in and out of the hospital for many years with 14 surgeries’.  “They didn’t think he would ever walk again, but he did!”  In fact, Dan has healed so much that he started working as a carpenter for a local contractor for the past 10+ years.  Dan is currently employed with Star Circuits of Brookings in the maintenance department.

Our first born child’s name is Destony.  She was born 1lb. and 7 ¾ oz. at 24 weeks.  She is the smallest baby born in Brookings Hospital to survive.  She was taken to Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls and stayed in the ICU until her due date.  She had been given a 20% chance of living.  Now she is 16 and a happy healthy teenager.  We name her Destony because it was her destiny to live. Our second daughter is Amber.  She was also prematurely born at 29 weeks along and also in Sioux Valley until her due date.  She was only 3lb. 2 oz. Our third daughter is Nina Maria.  She was born at 7lb. so that was a lot different than the older two.  We were scared to death with this one!  We had become so dependent on the heart and breathing monitors that when this one came home without them we didn’t know what to do!  We had more sleepless nights because we were constantly checking her breathing.

Finally we decided to have one more child because my husband so badly wanted his hunting and fishing buddy. We saved the biggest for last weighing over 8lb.  We named him Chance because it was our last chance for a boy.

As you can imagine we have had our fair share of bills that seemed like it limited life in to many ways.  We have had to work hard to clear up all of our debt.  We feel so happy and blessed to not only have a happy and healthy family, but this opportunity to own a home.  We could have only dreamed of having this opportunity.