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Dear Margot: Thanks For Writing; It's Nice To Hear From You! (Louie Writes) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Rated "G" by the Author.
Louisiana writes yet another e-mail, this time from a second woman in Minnesota. She is excited because tomorrow the four newest children to join the family arrive.
Thursday, February 15, 2007 (4:33 p.m., C.S.T.)~
Dear Margot Hamblin~
Hullo! Thanks for your letter; it was nice to hear from you! Thanks for taking the time to write to me, and thanks for the good reviews you said about my books! I am glad you enjoyed them!
Today finds me extra excited: tomorrow our four newest Miracles from Iraq (Emir Muhammed), India (Habir Vijay), China (Opal Mae), and Vietnam (Emma-Ruth) arrive. We will have fifty-nine children. It seems hard to believe we have adopted so many children, but once we saw their faces, we could not say no! As each child comes into the family, it gets to a point to where we can't imagine the family without any of the children, and once we see them, it's hard not to fall in love!
To tell you a bit about myself, Margot, I have been married to my husband (William, or Bill, as he is more commonly called) for nearly fifteen years (it will be fifteen years in June of this year). We did have three children of our own (L'Acadia, Pierre, and Aron Jakub), but unfortunately, all died, two while still babies (the third one died on what would have been his fourth birthday). After we got over the initial losses of our children (we still miss them today), Bill talked me into adopting. We adopted a boy from Germany and a multiracial girl from Louisiana; soon after that, seven more came, instantly swelling our small family from a family of four to a family of nine seemingly overnight.
It didn't take long before more children came; it now numbers into rediculous numbers, and now we are one away from sixty children! LOL Our children now range in age from one and a half to 25; most have special needs, but to us, they are our children first; their disabilities don't matter, even when they are so obvious. They can do anything they set their young minds to, and they are succeeding very well in a world not geared for them. We are very proud of each and every one of our children!
For example, our eldest daughter, Lightning, is married and has given us six grandchildren. As another example, several more are attending college, and are doing very well in their studies. Yet another example is our son, Johnny, who has outlived doctors' predictions by nine amazing years, and he continues to thrive despite having Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. Our daughter, Ronee', who is now a teenager, is well on her way to becoming a country/Cajun singer; she wants to be as well known as Loretta Lynn, who happens to be har favorite singer--all this despite having juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
We have a daughter who is a little person (and a quadruple congenital amputee; yet you forget all about that when you see her swim or run on her walker or play on the disabled baseball team in the summertime). We also have a daughter who was born with no arms and paralyzed legs who is a gifted singer as well; she wants to be a gospel singer. We have a son who beat cancer (twice!!), who is studying to become an evangelist. So our children, even though most may have special needs, are making something out of themselves, and we couldn't be any more prouder than we already are!
Our children come from places like India, China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Bosnia Hergezovina, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, France, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, the continental United States of America, and Africa. Yet through the Miracle that is adoption, they are all brothers and sisters, and we have grown to love them all unconditionally. They are our joy!
We decided to adopt children with disabilities or children who were older or children who are multiracial because these are the children who are most often overlooked or forgotten when people adopt, and we wanted these kids to know that we cared about them. We haven't regretted it one bit! Sure, some of the adoptions were tricky, and yes, we have had problems in the past, but they are our children now; nothing can ever take them away from us! They are ours, legally and permanently! :)
The kids have disabilities ranging from juvenile arthritis to muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and mental retardation to autism, blindness to deafness, learning disabilities to spina bifida, and most everything in between. Some of the children have what is known as "hidden disabilities" (autism, learning disabillities, deafness, epilepsy, etc.), but others have disabilities that are quite obvious once you first see them. Yet they are children first, and we would rather keep it that way!
Well, Margot, I am going to get supper on. Tonight we are having chili with egg noodles. Something warm on this cold wintery day. We did get some snow, but nothing to the amount that y'all did up there in the Midwest and in the Northeast! We got more rain, but then it changed over to sleet and snow, and we ended up with about five inches or so. Now it is clear, but very cold here. Hope it warms up there; here it's in the twenty-to-thirty degree range (with wind chills in the single digits). Brrrr!! That is too cold for me: my Cajun blood can't take it!! I was born in Louisiana; it gets below 30 degrees, and I absolutely freeze!!
God bless you too! Write back when you can; I will answer when (and if) I can get through this ever growing mountain of mail! I get a lot of mail in my inbox, and I am also involved with my adoption community and helping other families with questions or the adoption process as they start their adoption journeys! In addition, I have my own "village" to take care of (plus my parents and my hubby)! Add to this my books and my writing! My free time is very limited! I hope you understand why I won't answer as soon as you'd probably like; my life is full! LOL (In more ways than one! LOL)
(((HUGS))) and much love, your new friend in Tennessee, Louisiana Mayrah Sandusky (mama to fifty-nine children, all adopted). :D
These timeless quotations culled from the celebrated corpus of writings by W.E.B. Du Bois are presented with illuminating introductory essays by Aberjhani. Narration of the Audible book performed by Catherine Byers.
Reflections and Nature Watercolors is a collection of Margaret's spontaneous positive thoughts in celebrating and reflecting on life and her nature watercolors.
