Friday, February 10, 2006, Nashville, Tennessee~

Dear Jerilyn Lotz~

I am sorry for the very long delay in responding to your letter. It is not because of your not being religious; it's only because I have been so incredibly busy. I am not offended by what you have written. At least you believe in God. That is good. I can understand your feelings about people termed holy rollers; but I happen to be one of them! But if you don't want me to preach to you, I won't. I will leave that to someone else. I don't want to jeopardize our new friendship, and I don't want to bring religion into this letter right now.

Thank you for being so honest and open with me. I will try to do the same for you. Thank you, too, for telling me about Doug and your sons, Daniel, Miles, Peter, and Nigel. They sound like cute kids! I have kids myself (BOY, do I EVER!! LOL), fifty-three of them, and they keep me hoppin'! I have kids from Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, France, Italy, Bosnia, Russia, Romania, Africa, Malaysia, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, and the United States of America in my family, and they range in age from one-and-a-half to 23 1/2 years. It has gotten to the point to where Bill (my husband) or myself canNOT imagine life without ANY of them; we have gotten to love them that much!

Our kids are mostly disabled in one way or another; not all of them are, but the majority of them happen to be. Their disabilities range from the very mild (or barely noticeable) to the very obvious or severe; yet, to us, they are KIDS first, and we try not to focus so much on their problems (at times, this is difficult, but I am trying to work hard to overcome this!). They have brought us many countless hours of joy (and tears), and God has blessed us by bringing these kids into our lives!

I work at a hospital here in Nashville (I am a RN), and I am married (have been for nearly 15 years now). My husband, Bill, works, too: he works at Wal*Mart, where he is a greeter. He is the person who greets shoppers when they come and leave the store, and he is quite friendly and courteous to the people. Some of my kids work too, and five of the kids (all girls) live away; only two live here in Nashville, not far from us.

I am also a grandma: I have five grandsons and one granddaughter IN addition to my own fifty-three kids! LOL

Well, do write if you so choose; I would love to hear from you! God bless your family, and hope to hear from you soon! Again, I am sorry for the long delay in answering. I do hope you understand why I haven't written. I write to people in Kansas, Alaska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, England, Finland, Wisconsin, California, Arizona, and Arkansas. So my email box is always full, and it is almost a Hurculian task to get the emails caught up! LOL But I WILL try harder to write to you sooner than I did!

Love, your friend in Tennessee, Louisiana Mayrah Sandusky (Mama to 53 children!!). :D