Tuesday, January 17, 2006~

Dear Rachel Elsworth~

I was most happy to have heard from you; thank you so much for writing! I was especially relieved to hear that your friends Wilma and Fred Gardner (whom I got an email from the other day) are safe. I heard that they lost their homes (and all their belongings) to a wildfire that has been plaguing their region, but they are now with you guys in Kansas. When I heard the news, I creid, I absolutely CRIED! But I AM grateful to God that they they were not injured in any way and they got out ALIVE. It could have very easily been so much worse!

Yes, we DID adopt a lot of children, most with special needs. It has been a roller coaster ride: many thrills, with unexpected twists and turns, ups and downs all the way! :) Many of our kids DID come with disabilities, but to us, their disabilities, no matter HOW obvious they may be, do NOT matter. They are CHILDREN, first and foremost! :)

Our children now range in age from one-and-a-half to 23 1/2, 15 boys and 38 girls. They come from places like Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Arizona, Utah, and Connecticut in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Iran, France, Germany, Korea, Vietnam, The Netherlands, Malaysia, Japan, Sri Lanka, India, Africa, Bosnia-Hergizovina, Russia, and Romania. We adopted the children we did because we lost our own three babies, and it broke our hearts to even THINK of trying again. See, we had an awful lot of love in our hearts. That was when we turned to adoption because there were many children who don't have the luxury of having loving parents in their lives. We wanted to fill that gap in their young lives and become the parents a good many of them never even had.

We have had many bumps and bruises along the way, but we are NOT sorry in taking in the children we did; it has since become our ministry. Iin kind, we are helping other parents with their adoption journeys, and I am also a part of an active adoption community, where we email each other and talk about the joys/benefits that adoption, as a whole, has brought us, and we support one another fully.

Some of the parents are just starting out while others (like yours truly and also myself) are seasoned veterans! :) I also have written three books, two about our family, and there may be more books in the future, the way things are looking right now! :)

Please send us a picture of yourselves; we would love to see what y'all look like! :) I bet your children are BEAUTIFUL! :)

I will be sending you a recent picture of us that was taken in our backyard; we have to go outside to get everyone in the picture! :) I'm the little woman with the wild, black hair holding our youngest (that's Arjun!), and my husband is the very tall, skinny guy directly behind me. His name is Bill, and we have been married for 14 1/2 years now. Enjoy! :) I will also be sending  you a copy of my first book, "A Family Made Out Of Miracles And Rainbows: The Sandusky Familly Story--A True Story Of Love And International Adoption" [FREE of charge, and also autographed!], so you will be able to read it. Enjoy that, too, when it comes to your door! :) )

How do I handle rejection, you ask. Well, I DO get upset (as any poor, frustrated writer would! :) ), but then I remember that even top-rated writers like Toni Morrison, John Grisham, Stephen King, etc., get rejected, too. As an example of this, did you know that Margaret Mitchell (who wrote the epic "Gone With The Wind") got rejected 47 times before she got her story published?? It's TRUE!! So it is enough to give us amateur (or obscure) writers a sense of hope! :) Even the TOP writers get rejected at times! :) I have always enjoyed writing; I can't get ENOUGH of it! I absolutely LOVE to write!! :) Now that I am a published author (THREE times), writing has especially been enjoyable and fun for me! :)

Well, I will shut this down before you think that I must be some type of windbag who doesn't know WHEN to shut up! LOL Take care, and do write soon; I would LOVE to hear from you! God bless you always! :)

Love, a new friend in Tennessee, Louisiana Mayrah Sandusky (mama to 53 Miracles!). :D