Dear Kiddos,

I thought you all might enjoy reading a quick glimpse into your Momma’s life: who I am, where I’ve been, and what I’ve done. Thus, the reason for the title of this page, “About Mom!” I imagine I’ll expound on much of this in future letters, but this gives a good starting point for you to always go back to, if desired.

Throughout all of my younger years, my family lived in the beautiful state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest. My parents were married in 1972 and had four kiddos: son, daughter (me!), daughter, and son. I grew up in a strong multi-generational Christian family, which was such a blessing on many levels. My favorite childhood memories revolved around family dinners (usually having spaghetti or mac ‘n’ cheese with peas and applesauce), Sunday morning DWFT (Dad’s World Famous Toast), extended family gatherings for birthdays and holidays, sports team practices and games year round (I played soccer, basketball and fastpitch softball), spoonfuls from a double-batch of raw cookie dough right out of the bowl, Little House on the Prairie in the early hours of the day, Church on Sunday morning, homeschool co-op on Mondays, youth group on Wednesday nights, Thank Goodness It’s Friday (TGIF) family sitcom shows, camping along the Oregon Coast every summer at camp Wi-ne-ma, road trip to CA with our cousins in May of 1992, playing Super Mario Bros on the original gray box Nintendo, coming up with “shows” to perform for the adults, and playing outside (riding bikes and scooters, building forts, playing games in the basement), after finishing our homeschooling assignments for the day.

I am someone who has always loved to organize. Even as a child, I would often be found in the kitchen organizing and labeling everything in the cupboards and fridge. I love checking things off of my to-do list, even if it means writing something I have already completed, just to check it off! Is that cheating? HAHA! I enjoy planning in order to see the big picture, but I always bring it back to the details so I know the steps to take to get to the end goal. I am not one with a naturally creative mind, but I am a good problem solver. I tend to be very practical and level headed as opposed to emotional. I do well in high stress situations (think car accident or traumatic event). Here are a few nicknames or words used to describe me while growing up: “Mother Mandy,” “bossy,” “compassionate,” “servant,” “thoughtful,” “controlling,” “hard worker,” “good listener,” “loud,” “loyal,” “detailed”, “Mandy Stories” (long, rabbit trail stories with seemingly no point), and “smiley.”

Eventually, I did grow up a bit. Dad and I were married in November 1998. We got to know each other a little while at a church college retreat when I was 17 years old and just about to graduate from high school. Dad was 23! I began serving in the 5th and 6th grade youth group he was leading and got to know each other well through this avenue. A few short weeks after the college retreat and helping with AFG (All For God) youth group, I turned 18. Dad describes the process of my becoming an “adult” as “the scale falling from his eyes” and he truly saw me for the first time (as it was now “legal” to date me, haha). After two-and-a-half years of capture-the-flag games (Dad rescued me from jail often!), foursquare, late night trips to TGIFridays with the college group, family gatherings, and various AFG events … we were married at the young ages of 20 and 26.

A year after we married, we were shocked to learn I was pregnant! Our first son was born in 2000. He would not stay an only child for long. Between 2000-2005, we had given birth to four kiddos, with one precious baby in heaven (miscarried at 6 weeks gestation in 2002). Having two boys and two girls, all was going according to our plan. Yet, with the rapidness and ease in which we were growing our family (four children in 4 1/2 years), we panicked a bit. If we didn’t do something, and quick, we would have “a million” children! Ultimately, we made a decision to “permanently” keep us from adding to our numbers.

A few years later, in Oct 2008, as we lay awake in the dark early morning hours, we both wept at the decision we had made and grieved the children who could-have-been. We felt our family just wasn’t “done,” though we didn’t know what that looked like in reality. During this process, we opened our hearts up to the Lord to restore and redeem our situation, however He desired.

Open hands.
Willing hearts.
We wanted His plan, not ours.

In April of 2009, we moved from the Pacific Northwest to the beautiful Hawaiian islands with a job transfer. Dad went from being on the “sending” end of shipping building supplies to the islands, to being on the “receiving and distributing” end of the business. Never in our wildest imaginations did we imagine living on a tropical island, yet this is exactly where the Lord led us. We packed up the shipping container and the six of us moved across the ocean expanse to settle into a new life. We knew no one upon landing. Yet, the Lord gave us vision to plant ourselves wherever we were, allow our roots to go deep, and open our lives up to this new and beautiful community.

Long story short, this physical transfer and spiritual surrender eventually led us to doing foster care in 2011, with the openness and willingness to adopt. This was a part of our journey I had not ever envisioned, yet here we were traveling along this path and the Lord was leading us every step of the way.

Between 2011 and 2017, we fostered eight precious children. Out of those eight kiddos, we adopted two of them: one boy and one girl. Our lives were and still are full in all the most beautiful of ways. I can’t imagine our family being any different.

God. Is. Good.

After 9 years of living the island life, we felt a nudge from the Lord to move back to Washington to be near family again. Just as I have said many times before, we do not know what today or tomorrow will bring, it can change in a flash, and we knew it was time to be physically closer to our families, especially our parents. No regrets. In July of 2018, we bought a house in the Pacific Northwest, packed all of our belongings again into a shipping container, and sent our white Expedition back across the Pacific Ocean. It’s incredible how we can be in Hawaii and be home … while simultaneously going back home to Washington.

As I write this, we are living in the beautiful state of Washington in a truly perfect home for our family of eight. You kiddos are 18, 16, 15, 14, 10 and 6 years old. We are a fun, crazy and full-of-life family of eight, and I absolutely love it. I anticipate we will live here forever … but we’ve learned to never say never! We’ve said “never” before, and the Lord seems to enjoy pushing back on those bold statements. So here we remain … until He leads otherwise …

Open hands.
Surrendered hearts.
Trusting always.

To God be the Glory!