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| Join me along my path for awhile and glimpse at some of the beauty I have been blessed with. |
| My oldest daughter, Melissa. She is 22 and has been my saving Grace many times. ~If I could have chosen any girl in the world to be my daughter, I still would have chosen you.~ |
| Melissa is a very talented young woman. At 12 years old, she had one of her poems published in "Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans", 1993 Edition. This book was published by the American Academy of Poetry. She also had a play she authored her senior year in high school entered into a fine arts festival. It was chosen to be performed onstage in a city-wide arts festival.(We live in a city of approximately 80,000 people!) She continues to write in her spare time...and to excel in most everything she chooses to do. |
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| My only son, Eric-the oldest of my twins by one minute! |
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| At 17 years old, Eric is over 6 feet 2 inches tall. He is my in-house computer wiz, the quietest of my three children, usually very good natured, and endlessly hungry!!!LOL He is also the only one of my kids with a shy bone in their body. He is interested in old cars, muscle-era cars to be more exact. He has a 1989 Mustang, a 1985 Trans-Am, and a 1964 Bonneville. He is a senior in high school, and the apple of his mothers' eye. LOL |
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| And at last, my youngest daughter Nicole. She is my baby. |
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| Nicole was the smaller of my twins and my last baby. She helps me maintain my sanity and brings sunshine into my heart every day. She is very out-going and excels at bringing laughter with her wherever she goes. She is my compassionate child- I often think she must have a very old soul. She is also 17 and a senior in high school. She works at a Chinese restaurant. As with most teen-aged girls, she loves clothes, make-up, and most of all-BOYS! Of course!LOL |
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| Where are all my children? The Nations of my blood, A myriad thousand voices, Devoured by angers flood, The Spirit of the Ancients, Cry out in woeful pain, My babies are all dying, Their mothers have been slain, This land I did set aside, So bountiful and free, The fruits of my devotion, Must last for eternity, Who speaks for my children, When words dry out in the sun, Promises spoken so softly, From the end of a smoking gun, My people are forsaken, Where greed rips them apart, I cry for all my children, Who die in my broken heart, The dust of my creations, Gather within the streams, The souls of Native children, Echo silent screams, The chains that bind so slender, Lay coroded in the sand, Stained with innocent tears, For this my Native Land, The wind cries out for mercy, But falls upon deaf ears, Shame be put upon us, For all the Trail Of Tears Author Unknown |
| By 1931, over 75,000 Indian children were enrolled in white-operated educational facilities including boarding schools. Away from home and parental influence, and more often than not stolen from parents with legal decrees and threats of imprisonment (or worse), children were held for years at a time in these missionary-operated facilities where they were removed of their culture, their language, their religion, their dress, and their names. Children who participated in their previous lifestyle, such as speaking their own language, were often severely punished. On September 8, 2000, Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover admitted to such boarding school atrocities at the 175th anniversary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. "After the devastation of tribal economies and the deliberate creation of tribal dependence on the services provided by this agency, this agency set out to destroy all things Indian...This agency forbade the speaking of Indian languages, prohibited the conduct of traditional religious activities, outlawed traditional government, and made Indian people ashamed of who they were. Worst of all, the Bureau of Indian Affairs committed these acts against the children entrusted to its boarding schools, brutalizing them emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually...The trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the next, and manifests itself in the rampant alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence that plague Indian country. Many of our people live lives of unrelenting tragedy as Indian families suffer the ruin of lives by alcoholism, suicides made of shame and despair, and violent death at the hands of one another. So many of the maladies suffered today in Indian country result from the failures of this agency.Poverty, ignorance, and disease have been the product of this agency's work..." Author unknown |
| The Children |
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| My husband and I several years ago. |