My parents moved, for health reasons, to San Diego, California, the summer of 1954, but missed Iowa and moved back to a farm near Ladora, Iowa, the following year. I graduated from Ladora High School and attended Cedar Rapids Business College. My brother Gary lives in the Ft. Worth, Texas, area, my sister Connie (Jo) lives near my folks in Victor, and my youngest brother Jim lives in Cedar Rapids. My folks live on their farm near Ladora and rent out the acreage. Dad suffered a stroke the end of 1992, but has regained most of his health.

I met Jim in San Diego and we were married December 28, 1957. Our daughter, Stephanie, was in Phoenix, Arizona, on our first wedding anniversary. Jim graduated from Grand Canyon College in 1960.

Sandy was born in 1960 in San Rafael, California, north of San Francisco and Steve was born in 1966 in Lamesa, California, east of San Diego. I worked for title companies in Arizona and California. We left California in 1966 and moved to Garland, Texas. Then followed several other job-related moves for Jim to the NASA area (League City, Texas, where our children grew up--I worked at Celanese Chemical Co.), Beech Aircraft/Boeing in Wichita (I worked for a pre-school for handicapped children there), and our last move to Lubbock, Texas, ten years ago to be of support to our daughter whose first child has cystic fibrosis.

Our eldest, Stephanie, has two girls and two boys (Emily, Tyler, Callie and Ryan). She is a nurse part-time and home schools. Her husband is a building contractor. Our granddaughter, Emily, has sustained good health with new medical treatments and hopefully, a gene therapy cure in the near future.

Our second daughter, Sandy, has six boys (Josiah, Jesse, Jared, Joel, Jordon and James) and lives on a ranch near Bozeman, Montana. She gardens and home schools. Her husband is a guitar maker and roofer, fisherman and hunter. Their new son, James, was born with heart problems.

Our son, Steve, lives near Concordia, Kansas. He is a maintenance electrician and home remodeler like his dad. They have two girls and twin boys (Jessica, Trista, Kyle and Justin). His wife also home schools.

We have been active in our local churches. Jim has remodeled most of the homes we have lived in. We both retired on May 1. Now we are looking forward to traveling (a two months trip to Alaska this summer) and spending more time with our children, grandchildren and parents.

The last 2-1/2 hears of full retirement have probably been our busiest yet most satisfying. We are grateful for good health and currently volunteer with two organizations--YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and SOWERS (Servants on Wheels Ever Ready). We have worked in Christian camps and children's homes with SOWERS in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Minnesota. In February and March of this year we worked with YWAM at the University of the Nations in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii and also at their base in Cimarron, CO last year.

We have also enjoyed much travel, including a recent tour of Europe from London to Athens. We sold our home in Lubbock last year and are now living in a small retirement community in Desert Hot Springs, CA, where we enjoy their hiking group, the mountains and hot mineral pools. Spending time with our children and 15 grandchildren in Texas, Montana and Kansas; my folks in Iowa and Jim's folks in Oklahoma is high on our priorities. It's hard to believe that seven of our 15 grandchildren are now teenagers (next year that will be 11 of the 15) and two are in college.

Our permanent address remains Lubbock, Texas, so our daughter can forward mail to us wherever we might be. We can be reached through her or our e-mail address.

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