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Dear Bart: A Letter Of Encouragement, As Written By Louisiana Sandusky... by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Saturday, June 4, 2005
Rated "G" by the Author.
Louisiana writes to a grieving single father of three boys after he has written to her. Bart Simpson lives in Mansfield, Ohio.
Saturday, June 4, 2005, 10:16 a.m., C.D.T.~
Dear Bart~
Thank you for telling me about yourself and your boys. You sound like a very loving father who just happens to have been going through a very hard time.
Please accept my deepest condolences on the death of your beloved Annie; how awful!! You are so right: necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh-eating disease, IS bad business. Being a nurse, I have worked with patients who have had it on several different occasions, and it is always a scary time for BOTH patient and caretaker! But I am happy to say that some of the patients I have cared for who had it have survived, and they are doing (fairly) well. But there are others who haven't made it, and their deaths hit me deeply, and I still cry whenever I think of them.
I am happy that Zebediah is doing well, even with living with HIV. I pray he doesn't get AIDS. AIDS is such a horrendous, insidious disease, and it doesn't care one iota whose life it destroys or whose life it touches. Somehow, in today's society, we all know someone with AIDS, and like necrotizing fasciitis, AIDS is such a cruel, heartless disease. I am also happy that Jack and Kenny are doing well; how wonderful that you and Annie gave them a home and the love they have probably never had! I have two daughters myself from Africa, Lightning (23; she is my oldest, and she is now living on her own, with her husband and five children, near Loveland, Colorado) and Melizza (22); she is living with her sister, Dianna, 21, in an apartment complex for people with disabilities not far from where we live. Both were adopted when they were over the age of 12, and both came to us from Kenya, in Eastern Africa.
Bart, I am glad you enjoyed my books. That was why I wrote them because people do NOT know that much about adoption except what they hear on the radio, see on television, or read in magazines; and too many times, people have misguided misconceptions (as you put it) about adoption and the whole adoption process. But hopefully people like us, people who HAVE adopted kids, can teach those misinformed people about what adoption is REALLY about! Thank you for all the nice words you said about my books; your positive comments are really much appreciated!
To tell you a bit about myself, my husband, Bill, and myself have been married for nearly 14 years (it WILL be 14 years come June 26), and we had three kids of our own, but two died while still infants, and the other one died on what would have been his fourth birthday. If they were still alive today, they would be teenagers now, and I still miss them all very, very much. The first child we adopted was a baby boy from Germany named Johannes (now known as Johnathon, or "Johnny"), and not long after Johnny, we adopted a bi-racial infant from Louisiana named Ronee'. Now they are both nearly 12 1/2 years old, and they have both grown into beautiful youngsters with a bright future ahead of them! Both face serious physical disabilities, but both have triumphed over their disabilities with the heart of a lion, and they are blessing others with their courage and strength!
Not long after Johnny and Ronee' came seven more waifs into our home, instantly swelling our family from a family of four to a family of 11, and we were very glad to add them into our lives! We have since added 41 more chlldren into our "International Family of Miracles", and it is a very busy, if slightly chaotic, household at best! LOL Our children, as you read in my books, come from places like the United States of America, Canada, Latin and Central America (Mexico, Guatemala), Germany, France, Italy, Bosnia-Hergozovina, Iran, Malaysia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Africa (Kenya), Russia, and Sri Lanka, but by adoption, they are now brothers and sisters, permanently and legally. It has gotten to the point to where we can't imagine our lives without ANY of the chlidren, and they have blessed Bill's and my lives in ways you can't even BEGIN to believe!
Bart, I don't know WHY Bill or myself adopted so many children, but once we saw their faces and read their stories, we could NOT say no, and so they came into our lives and became our own. Johnny and Ronee' were the two who got the ball rolling, and it seemed that the rest just sort of followed behind, and the whole thing went out of control! LOL As for time management, we have a schedule we strictly adhere to, and each child has a turn at different chores. And the older children keep an eye out on the younger children, and they are always in touch with us, lest a problem with one of the more seriously disabled ones should happen to crop up unexpectedly. We have built-in babysitters, and if Bill and I want to go out for a break or out for the evening, we can because someone is always with the children, be it my father or my step-father, or even a neighbor, who checks on them regularly. Or we take them with us, and people always stare! It isn't every day when they see a family like ours, that is for DARN sure! LOL
I am glad that you are working to try to "keep ahead" and that your mother is there to help out. So many others aren't as fortunate, and you had best get down on your knees and thank God that you DO have people who care! But I worry you may soon burn out; please talk to your mother or someone else who will listen! It sounds like you are running on both cyllinders, and they are soon to give out!
Well, Bart, I thank you for writing, and for commenting on my books, "A Family Made out of Miracles and Rainbows" and "...And The Miracles Continue". I am glad you enjoyed them! Do write again soon, I would love to hear from you again!
Take care, Bart, and know that I will be praying for you! Again, please accept my condolences on the death of your wife, and may God bless you and sustain you during this time of grief and hardship in your life!
~Most sincerely,
In His Sweet Holy Name,
Your new friend in Nashville, Tennessee, Louisiana Mayrah Therese Sandusky (Mama to 52 Miracles!). :)
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Saturday, June 4, 2005, 10:16 a.m., C.D.T.~
