I was raised in a home with loving, consistent parents, yet there was pain and friction due to alcohol abuse and other issues. Us kids were sent to Sunday School while my parents stayed home and I was also lucky enough to attend holiday camps run by Christians. At a young age I decided to become a Christian, and have been growing spiritually ever since.

I truly believe that God led me to my husband so that, despite our relatively young age, our marriage has been strong. Together we have sought God's wisdom in parenting our natural daughter (our miracle - we were told by doctors that our chances of having kids was zero) and the many, many kids we have fostered, mostly on a short-term basis.

I claim to have 2 kids as one of our foster kids kept "bouncing back", and when he was made a ward of the state it seemed the right thing to take him on long-term. He was living with us from 6 to 16 years of age, so we consider him to be our son. Raising him was extremely complicated, but certainly had terrific times. Sadly, as a teen, his determination for independence resulted in his moving out. He's made some pretty lousy choices (eg dropping out of school, wrong crowd, blowing all his money) and is now reaping the consequences.  We keep in touch and pray that God will give us wisdom as we aim to reflect His love to T.

Our daughter married a wonderful man in March 2006. At the moment they rent a unit nearby and are going through the ups and downs of house-hunting. It's a whole different level of parenting with grown kids.

I will never feel smug about any"good" parenting I may have done, and try not to weigh myself down with guilt over things I could have done better. I'm just so thankful to God for the opportunity to be a parent and for His help along the way.