I am the youngest daughter to two wonderful parents who have been married since 1966. After 5 years of marriage, their first baby (my older sister Kristi) was born in 1971. My mom stayed home for a few years to raise her while my dad worked as a teacher to support his family. Then, my mom decided to work outside the home and put her teaching degree to use. Then, in 1978, they decided that they wanted another baby. As a result of that desire, I was born in March of 1979.
I was very fortunate to have been raised in a very loving home. We were a typical suburban family. I attended church every Sunday, children's church activities every Wednesday, vacation Bible school every summer. I took piano lessons for 12 years, sang in our church choir, and played the clarinet in school bands from 4th grade until I graduated. I was involved in dance classes and girl scouts. You could say I had a very full childhood. Growing up, I always knew I was loved. And looking back, I realize just how fortunate I was.
When I was a freshman in high school, my family moved from my hometown to another nearby town. It was at this school that I met my first serious boyfriend, a sophomore named Tim. By the end of my freshman year, we were pretty serious. Over the next 3 years, we just became closer and closer. When I went off to college at a state university (about an hour away from home) in 1997, we agreed to continue our relationship long-distance, with lots of visits back and forth. In the winter of 1999, we got engaged. We were married in August of 2000 and have been happily married ever since.
Since we were married at a relatively young age (I was 21 and Tim was 22), we decided to just enjoy being married for a while. I wanted to get established in my career as a civil engineer before having kids. Plus, we wanted to get to a point where our finances were more secure. And we thought that we were so young, we had plenty of time to start a family and why rush it. So we waited. Had we known just how hard it would be to get pregnant, we may have made very different decisions.
