2023 Bio Update

It has been 8 ½ years since I wrote the bio below, so it is time for an update. My husband and I sold our graphics business last year. We have a few more years we need to work before we can retire so have each taken other jobs. I am working in the business office at a local University and my husband has taken a job with an HR company.

We are delighted to have “less on our plate” than during the business ownership years. In a business, our time was not really our own; it was more truthful to say that the business owned us rather than we owned the business. Because we are both rather driven, we worked most evenings and weekends, especially the last couple of years.

Now, we both have structured days and leave work in time to do other things in our lives. I walk in the mornings now, hike some weekends and in general am trying to incorporate more writing in my day-to-day life. I will always be proud of what we both did with the business but I love the freedom that I have now.

2014 Bio

My husband and I own a small business in a metropolitan city in the Southwest.  We are parents to 5 kids including 3 biological sons and 2 adopted daughters, one from Korea and one from China and ranging in age from late high school to mid-twenties. The oldest three are out of the house now with just the youngest two still at home.

For twenty years, our family has been a mix of Caucasian fair skin/strawberry blond hair and Asian coloring/black hair.  What makes our family different from most though is not what we look like on the outside but some painful family dynamics on the inside due to one daughter and her extreme mental health/behavioral dysfunction.

I share our story in greater depth in the “My Story” link.  I am purposely writing this blog anonymously as I wish to avoid identifying either the dysfunctional daughter or her siblings who already have to deal with the fallout from their sister’s behavior.  For now, my husband is the only family member that knows I am writing this blog.

My heart goes out to other parents…either adoptive or biological…who are silently fighting for the mental health of their child, perhaps while also trying to maintain healthy family dynamics with their other children.  The stress on the parents and on the family can be overwhelming…I know, I have lived it.  My hope is that as I blog towards “better” and away from “bitter” that other families will join me in that journey and embrace the knowledge that when we are in pain, we have a choice in what we do with it.