Who am I?

I realized that I haven't told you much about me. So here we go.....

My dear husband and I started dating when I was 16 and he was 17, so we've been through it all together-high school, college, med school, residency...This year will be 22 years that we have been together. We have been married for 14 years. We became Christians in 2002. We have 2 wonderful sons, ages 10 and 8, and an amazing daughter we adopted from China in 2006. You can read about that journey at www.journeytoshaoey.com .

This is our 4th year homeschooling and I have come a long way. My degree is elementary education and I thought homeschooling was school at home...WRONG! My oldest and I had a rough first year or 2 until I figured out how to relax, but that's another post.

The past year and a half have been rough, which is part of why I'm so out of shape (not that I'm excusing it). We travelled to China and adopted our daughter in Nov. 2006. My mom went in the hospital for surgery in February but didn't have it. They did keep her for a week to get her ready for surgery. Then she went in for the surgery March 29th. She never came out. She went to ICU for 2 weeks and then we transferred her to a long term acute care facility for the next 2 months before she passed away on June 10, 2007. During this time our daughter had surgery to fix her palate. She was cleft lip and cleft palate-the lip was repaired in China. I also have sister who is 30 years old and mildly mentally retarded, hearing and vision impaired, and cerebral palsy. She lived with mom. So since mom passed (and while she was in the hospital) I am in charge of Charlotte. I have hired sitters to watch her during the week at "her" house and she comes to our house from Friday to Sunday and holidays. She works at a special center during the day. Our daughter is very attached to me and I don't get out often. Thankfully that has started to change the last 2 months.

Looking back, I have seen how much I have neglected my own health and wellbeing. It's time for that to change.