I am a speaker, author, teacher, and mother of four adult daughters. I give practical tips on raising children and help to encourage "mommies in the trenches" so that mothers can enjoy their kids at each and every stage.
How This Came To Be
I had wrestled with the thought of creating this website or writing anything — except to my own daughters. The external reasons are that I only learned these things because trial and much, much error led me to pray — and then God guided. Those errors have been jumping out at me as I write of His solutions or suggestions to my failed attempts.
But just today, in my devotional, I read once more how He takes the broken and the weak and the failures of our lives and uses them to make something good. He receives all the glory that way. So, again, I will brave the attacks — knowing that He is in the battle and directing every step. May His strength and forging of instruments that He can use in this fallen world, make an impact that will dare to fight battles through these feeble, yet eternally-backed, efforts.
A Life's Journey — In The Beginning...
I grew up near Fort Worth, Texas. Besides my family, my biggest love was my church and youth group at Wedgwood Baptist Church. After high school, I went to Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX where I studied elementary education with a minor in deficient vision and social work with Orientation and Mobility (O & M) of the Blind (cane travel) and in math. After graduating, I taught at the School for the Blind in Austin and at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Fort Worth. Then I became the O & M Consultant in the Region XII Service Center in Waco.
Hearing the Call
But having heard the call of God on my life for full-time missions, I left Waco in October 1979. I moved to Argentina to help missionaries with their work there, living in Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata. During that time I worked in an orphanage and Bible School. Hard work without modern supplies was made easier by having grown up hunting in the outdoors. Hand scrubbing floors, icy cold showers, and washing clothes on scrub boards outside during cold winters were all part of daily life there.
In July 1980, I moved to Asuncion, Paraguay to teach in the missionary school there (Asuncion Christian Academy). I taught at the school in the mornings and worked with the mission’s radio outreach in translations and as children’s director of church activities. The school was originally established to give children of missionaries an American English education. It was also appealing to others in the area that wanted the same education for their children. In the classroom were the children of diplomats, government and military officials, and leaders in business from all six inhabited continents.
Because the heat was unbearable there, school started very early and was out in the early afternoon for a a siesta break from the heat. After school, I worked in a mission that reached the poorest and least respected peoples of the area. The evenings were devoted to teaching at the University of San Lorenzo.
The mission spread words of hope through seven different radio stations that reached areas where paved roads were non-existent and running water, indoor plumbing and electricity were usually not available.
In spite of the difficult circumstances, the countryside was beautiful – with flocks of wild parrots and poinsettia trees covered with blooms. Follow-up visits to these remote areas were at best complicated, and were even worse when travelling alone by bus and I could not make myself understood in the indigenous language of Guarani.
A Life–Changing Adventure
This time truly was was a life–changing adventure, and an opportunity to fall genuinely in love with the Lord Jesus and see Him provide for my safety and all my needs in this difficult location. This included snakes inside the house (which I killed with a machete while it was striking at my bare feet), encountering parasites from mange to stomach bugs, and indescribable insects (mbarigui, pique, yrya, gargantuan palmetto bugs) in a country with no window screens, and many more oddities – even piranha in the nearby bay. Imagine a life where air conditioning was just a dream and there was no car, washing machine or any kind of phone. However, there was an abundance of mistrust of foreigners; thus, there was the time our apartment was searched after terrorists car-bombed an exiled dictator nearby.
Return to the US — The Journey Continues
In July of 1984 I returned to the US and settled in Atlanta, GA, where I received a Masters in Education with a focus on English as a Second Language and Early Childhood Special Education. In church in Atlanta, I met the love of my life, Robert. We were married Dec. 8, 1984 in College Park, Georgia. We have four precious daughters: Victoria (Vicki), Deborah (Debbie), Rebecca (Becky), and Jeannette (Jenny). We moved to Texas in March 1995.
From the birth of my first child in 1986 until the graduation of the 4th in 2011, I have homeschooled or taught Spanish in the Christian schools that the girls attended. I've sat through and participated in more hours of music and sports lessons and events than I could possibly count – including helping coach the track team through State competitions.
An Empty Nest — The Next Step in the Journey
My love for my husband and children — my devotion to my family — has defined me for those 25 years and will do so for the rest of my life. Along with that, my great love for teaching and my many students make up most of my personality. And now with the girls all grown, this website, writing down these words and life lessons, is a portion of the direction I now feel led to follow during this new stage of empty nesting.