---- Nancy Sturm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Sorry about that last e-mail: My fingers slipped off the keypad and somehow, I managed to re-send Nancy's post. . . Grrrr!)
> How very cool! Is she a Shiner's Hospital patient? We thought about Shriners (in Chicago -- about 1.5 hours from us), but with a prosthesis, there's a lot of weekly (or more) visits tweaking and adjusting things, especially initially. So, we decided to have everything done locally. Our prosthesist is awesome. He's been building limbs for over 30 years and his experience and insight into the psychology aspect of amputee's issues has been VERY helpful for us. There have been so many things I never would have thought of or considered, that he has brought up and educated me on. He's worth his weight in gold IMO. > > We are also an adoptive family. Oh Nancy -- I must confess: You've been my hero for quite some time. I have peeked in on the list here and there over the last year or two I've been gone and have become quite a fan of yours. I want to be like you when I grow up. <smile -- I'm 45 by the way> We have three birth children - all grown up > with families of their own. Our first two adopted sons came over in 1975 or > maybe it was 1976 in Operation Babylift from Viet Nam. They were 8 and 13. > Many years later, after the first five had grown up and left home,< Oh my! I knew you had the three, grown, bio kids, but I didn't know you had GROWN adopted children as well! Yours is like a family we have at church -- 3 bio's, 2 from Korea, and one from Mexico, (the only one who is still at home). They had an awful ordeal getting the daughter from Mexico out of the country -- talk about red tape and corruptness in the system . . . Anyway: Laina and Charlotte are our only children. We've been married over 20 years, but never tried to have bio. kids. We're wierd, I guess My husband just didn't want to have kids initially, and I have this hang-up about the earth being over-populated and not wanting to add to it. But raising some that were already here has always had GREAT appeal to me. It took me 7+ years to convince my husband we should adopt, that he was prime daddy material and no, he wasn't too old at 42, before we applied to China for Laina. You should see my husband now with these little girls: The sun, moon, and stars rise and set on their little shoulders for him. (And I kinda like 'em too. . . <wink>) > With 9 kids, I sometimes tell people there's a reason I took up distance > riding. Oh the distance riding doesn't amaze me. . . But I DO think it's amazing that you always turn around and come back. <SNORT!> By the way -- what's your secret to escaping to ride? Do you have someone that comes in and helps you during the week? -- Renee M. in Michigan