About Me

I am a stay at home mom of 3 biological children and the wife to an incredibly patient and loving man.  I really can not say much about myself and who I am without including them because they are so much a part of me!
 11 years ago in January, I learned (through the director of the Crisis Pregnancy Center) that there was a team of women who would be going to Romania to snuggle abandoned babies at a hospital in Bucharest.  I immediately felt that I was supposed to go, but had about 2 months before the trip and was making $5.25 an hour and working 20 hours a week.  How on earth was I going to make enough money to pay for this trip in less than 2 months?!?!  I didn't know, what I DID know was that was what God was calling me to and I moved forward in faith that whenever money was due God would provide it.  I honestly cannot tell you how I came up with the money to go because I'm really not sure - except that when it was due I had enough....and then some!   A week before I would fly out I was a maid of honor for a very close friend's wedding where I met a really "nice" guy named Todd.  We laughed a lot and hung out a lot during the weekend, and I remember thinking "He would be a good friend if he didn't live in NORTH DAKOTA!"   Well he went back to North  Dakota and I flew to Romania.    The first night I arrived in Bucharest I got a phone call from my dad telling me "this guy" had called and said he wanted to begin calling me with the intention of courtship.  (Feel free to ask me about our courtship anytime - I LOVE sharing about it :D )  Well,  Todd had to go on the back burner because I was in Romania to minister to precious little ones who had been abandoned and that was going to be my only focus while I was there.
    Our team took the metro every day to the hospital where we helped bathe, change diapers, and feed the children/ babies.  Our team leader had encouraged us that it was OK to have special bonds with certain babies and boy did I!   There were 2 little ones that stole my heart and I will NEVER forget.  The first was Lievu,  this was a little boy who was maybe 6 months old but weighed almost nothing...he was literally skin and bones.  I don't know really what his medical condition was, but he would never scream or fuss, he would simply contort his face and let tears stream down his sweet little gypsy cheeks.  Ah,  my heart breaks remembering.  The second was another 6 month old gypsy, Georgianna.  She was in an ICU area of the hospital tied to her crib so she couldn't pull out the tube which was draining fluid out of her lungs into a little bottle on the floor.  She was one of the happiest little girls I have ever seen!  I visited her every day and sat in her crib next to her playing with her hair, holding her hand, or stroking her face.  She smiled whenever I came into the room and stole my heart completely!  I wasn't allowed to hold her because the nurses, who were smoking in the hallway outside her room, told me it would make her worse.  On the last day we were there, though,  I received a gift:  I got to hold and snuggle Georgianna! I came home forever changed.  Emotionally drained and tired, relieved to be home, and heartbroken to have left Romania all at the same time.  I wanted to go back and bring those babies home!
  Well,  I had a pressing matter to consider once I was home:  Todd.  He was patiently waiting to hear back from my dad about whether he could even begin calling me!  After much deliberation and a few more weeks, I said that he could begin calling and less than a year later we were married!
   In the almost 10 years that we have been married, we have moved A LOT, and had 3 beautiful children!  Our children bring us such inexplicable joy that I cannot begin to describe the blessing they are.  The Bible tells us "blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them"  and while we don't feel that our quiver is full yet, we certainly feel His abundant blessings each and every day through one another and through our children.
   I homeschool, cloth diaper, and coupon.  I sew, knit, and crochet but usually in waves.  I commit to some project and work tirelessly until it's done and then never want to see a sewing machine, crochet hook, or knitting needle again ;-)    I do NOT care for vegetables and have spent the past several years learning how to "sneak" them into desserts...if you haven't tried spinach brownies or bean cookies you are getting your veggies in the hard way!
    So this is about me in a nutshell.  I intend to add a page specifically to describe our decision to adopt soon, until then please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments!  schmitty377@aol.com