With 40+ critters and eight 2-legged types in our family, I could make nearly an entire year's worth of posts introducing a person or a critter each week.
And that's just what Imma gonna do.
My siggy line on my e-mails reads something like this:
Anne,
Wife of Fred for 23 years
Mom of:
Patrick (16)
James (16)
Bella (13)
Rosie (13)
Julie (13)
Daniel (11)
My children around the world:
Milly in Taiwan
Felice in Hong Kong
Eun Hae in South Korea
Nadya in Germany
Obrin in New York
And our critters Annabelle, Fiona, Sunny, Sophie, Cindy-Lou and Blue; Mamfy, Mali and Punkin; Nick; Frog 1 and Horny Toad; Charlie and Dizzy; Minnie and Alice; Elfie, Frex, Crope, Tibbit and Ozzy; Genevieve, Pippin and Finnegan; and a dozen or so chooks.
I'd like to ask God why He allows
hunger, poverty, and injustice
in the world,but I'd be afraid
He'd ask me the same thing ...
So starting today, I will go through the list one at a time. The interesting thing will be seeing whether the list can make it through a whole year without any changes.
Unlikely.
First on the list? That would be me. Anne.
That's me in the most recent picture of me that I could tolerate.
A few (OK, a lot of) bullet points about me:
* I am 46 years old. Yes, I just said that out loud. Well. Kinda.
* I was born in Louisiana. Still have some family down south. I didn't live there long, but I miss it and still consider myself southern.
* Grew up mostly in NJ, but spent a little time in FL and KY.
* Parents divorced when I was eight and from then on my Mom raised myself, my two younger sisters and one older brother at a series of rental houses at the Jersey shore. Kind of like how I still consider myself "southern", I also consider myself a "local" when I take the kids to the beach, though I haven't lived there in many, many (many) moons.
* In high school I was in the color guard (flags) of our band and loved it. Yes, I am a geek. I worked an exciting assortment of jobs throughout my teen years, including chamber maid, waitress, rental cleaner, babysitter, taco-assembler supreme at a little joint called "Taco Island", cashier at a movie theatre, and salesperson at an MAB paint store.
* Though we had had classes together since 7th grade, I didn't start dating Fred till we started working at the theatre together our senior year.
* Went to college in NJ and got my bachelor's degree (magna cum laude, yay me!) in Occupational Therapy.
* Got married.
* Worked as an OT for about nine years.
* Had my first baby when I was 30.
* My big brother Donald passed away from brain cancer. I miss him. I grieve that only one of my children ever got to meet him.
* Quit work and popped out two more kids.
* Adopted our first child.
* Started hosting exchange students.
* Moved to a bigger house out in the country.
* Accumulated more than my fair share of animals.
* Adopted two more children.
* Started writing. Kinda like it. Published a few things.
And here we are. All of the above could have been abbreviated into I am a 40-something Mom to six kids both by birth and by adoption that has been married a long long time and who has untold numbers of animals and enjoys reading, writing, artwork and critter-caretaking and is considered by most to be insane.
Why is that such a difficult thing for me?
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