The Book...page 1

For years I have been told by many people that I should write a book. Well, I guess this blog will become the book I don't feel comfortable writing. Ha Ha Ha....

It seems that much of what I should write about are my children and all of the experiences I have had over the course of raising them.

We have a total of seven children. Six of them are adopted and one very special female child that I was blessed to carry in my body and birth and breastfeed for several years. She came into our life 14 months after we picked up her older brother from LDS Social Services. I have always said that they were supposed to be twins but that Mike was in a hurry and Dawn was moving at her own pace and missed coming to earth with him. Thus the reason that I finally got pregnant.

When Mike and Dawn were very little we were sent by Uncle Sam to Izmir Turkey. Not my favorite place on the planet. I remember that when we got off the plane after HOURS of travel Mike kept asking where the Turkey was...he thought we would see the bird. We arrived in Turkey several months after a period of unrest and the military were patrolling the streets regularly. They also were present at the airport when Mike was looking for the Turkey. 30 years later it is funny to remember but at the time I kept trying to get him to be quiet. I wasn't sure what the solders could understand and I was nervous surrounded by solders with guns.

We did have a rather pleasant time in Turkey. I have always been blessed with a loving husband that enjoys spoiling me and so I had a maid/nanny 3 days a week most of the time we were there. She would come and I would leave and come home to a clean house and clean kids. She especially loved Dawn and spoiled her rotten. (Dawn would ask me when she was about 5 or 6 when we were living in Germany when we would be getting a German maid because she didn't like to pick up her things.) We came away from Turkey with a modest collection of Turkish rugs, copper, and brass. We spent many evenings watching softball games at the American park, BBQs with friends, & nights of playing cards while kids played. Dave and I took a tour to see the Whirling Dirvish and the caves where Christians hid during the crusades. We traveled with the children along the coast and attended high school graduations at Ephesus.

Turkey is the location of the churches that Paul visited. I enjoyed reading about his travels both in the Bible and in a book or two that I had purchased before moving there. I found it interesting that the streets of Turkey were paved but still incredible dirty. Most nights I would have to wash my feet before I could get into bed because I wore sandals. As I would wash my own feet, my thoughts would often go to the story of Jesus washing the feet of his Apostles. I really think I might have been closer to Him during the days that I lived in Turkey than I had been before.

Day 1----PHEW

Well, this has been a day to end all days and I didn't even plan it as the starting point for this blog.

We are currently renovating our kitchen and it is beginning to finally come together after 6 weeks. We were getting some good work done and making progress when we figured out that our 18 year old (Scott) hadn't come home from school and he is usually home by 2:20 PM. After some phone calls and a trip to the school by our oldest daughter we began to think that he might have skipped his last class. Something he has never done before. We waited a couple more hours and then called the police to report him missing. I then took our 14 year old (Justin) to his hockey game. Finally, about 6:30 PM who should casually walk in but Scott!!