I had a love and a connection to children from a young age. I started babysitting with my sister from around 12 or 13, then I started babysitting by myself at 14 and then I continued throughout college. I found myself connecting with kids and wanting to teach them. I even took an introduction to teaching class mynior year in high school. We would walk next door to the elementary school on Fridays and we would get to work one-on-one with the kids. And until college my dream was to become an Elementary School teacher. Well as you probably read in my previous blog because of a college guidance counselor my dreams of becoming a teacher were crushed. Before I met my husband, I never really thought about having children of my own. Well that’s probably because I never thought I would get married. But that all changed!
I have a very unique family and I take pride in that!
It all started when I got married on May 11th, 2002. We had a beautiful wedding but when you come the think about it, it was rather short. I should have known that things were going to get rather crazy when we got word the night of our wedding that my step mother in law went swinging like Tarzan from the ceiling; ruining decorations at the reception hall. It cost my parents a few hundred dollars for the damage and that was not a good way to start off my marriage. Well that is all in the past and everything is great. You know what they say, “Que Sera Sera, whatever will be, will be. The future’s not ours to see.” Isn’t that the truth!
We built our first house right around the corner from Mark’s grandparents, on a piece of land that he acquired. We had arranged for the house to be finished by the time we returned from our honeymoon. Some may say how we came about the plans on building the house was a little odd ( he drew it out on a napkin in McDonald’s) but as everyone knows, we don’t do anything easy. The house was 1200 square feet with a large master bedroom and bath and a large living room. The two spare rooms did not have closets & were small and because there was no prospect of children, that was really no big deal to me. I was 25 years old and had just gotten married and built my first house on an acre of land. Life was good! My husband worked as an EMT, intermediate. He loved his job and working with others and had a heart for helping people!
One fateful night, I believe it was in June, I got a phone call from my sister in law informing me that Mark’s four half sisters were removed from their home. And out of respect for them I will not divulge the reason they were removed. I then called my husband at work and told him to hurry home, that we had some major issues to discuss. So he came home and after some discussion, we decided to take in all four of his half sisters. After many days in court the judge said that Mark and Christie would take the kids until they are 18. What the heck? We just got married and built a rather small house. Things were not easy by a long shot but you know the saying, what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger! I had been resigned to the fact that I would not have children of my own, so to me this was a dream come true.
I had a heart for children and I wanted to give them a better life, a life full of traditions and things that they didn’t have before.
The oldest was sixteen, then there was the twelve-year-old, then there was the eight year old, and lastly the baby at seven. Talk about a ready made family. But we did what we had to and enrolled them in school. I would make their doctor appointments and their dentist appointments, and because my mother was a dental assistant for almost my entire life, good and straight teeth were very important to me. Mark worked four jobs just to pay the bills. We didn’t know how to be parents but we made it work. I remember telling Mark the night I got that phone call, we cannot let those kids go back!
We quickly outgrew our little 1200 square foot house with no closets! So we decided to move further west to Loranger where the schools were supposed to be better. We sold our house and thenn6 moved into a very tiny two bedroom, one bath apartment while our bigger house was being built.
We then moved into our forever home, 2100 square foot on 2 acres of land, four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and 13 closets in February 2005. I would say we moved up! LOL! The oldest had moved out by then so we only had the three girls at home.
We had some really good memories with the girls in this house: homecoming, prom, graduating high school, and sending two of the three off to college. The oldest had decided to go to Beauty School.
All six of us remained close; we still took annual pictures together and we spent holidays and holiday dinners together and family vacations together. Just making good memories! Then when I thought life couldn’t get much better, something totally unexpected happened….