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Our Backwoods Life

Our Backwoods Life

And in the thick of the trees I’ll plant my children; I’ll sit upon on my porch and watch them grow.

Our Adoption Stories

Our Adoption Stories

Six of our eight kids come to us from other woman’s wombs, carrying baggage most people don't want to deal with. All of them are ours.

Our Alaska

Our Alaska

The world is so wide here, I can see clear into yesterday from where I stand.

New Babies!

By admin On May 16, 2013 · Add Comment

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Into The Woods

By admin On May 16, 2013 · Add Comment

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Winter has finally succumbed to spring here in south central Alaska, though that is debatable since we are forecasted to get snow on Friday. But most of the snow has given away to mucky mud and for some reason we are all excited to see it.

I’ve emerged from hibernation ten pounds heavier, lethargic from the long winter and eager to find dirt under my fingernails and sweat on my back once again. The kids are battling the cabin fever and I’m battling the children. It’s time.

Yesterday I began our much anticipated ‘list’ of things to do this summer. The list is not as long or as expensive as it was in the past two years when we put thousands into gravel, building supplies, a well, septic, sawmill, generator and inverter, and excavating. We’re down to the details of the [...]

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Just Another Scenic Sunday 5-4-12

By admin On May 4, 2013 · Add Comment

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Just Another Scenic Sunday 4-21-13

By admin On April 20, 2013 · Add Comment

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All He Needs To Know

By admin On April 9, 2013 · Add Comment

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My boy, Billy, turned eighteen in November and a month later his brain fell out of his head and rolled into a deep ditch somewhere. I imagine his brain has company in that dark place and other parents know the pain of watching that fall.

That transition into adulthood is a twisted path for many, two steps forward, one step back. And for a kid with Billy’s background, it’s a dangerous edge to walk. Solidity to one side, a bottomless crevasse to the other, and broken tools with which to cling.

Honestly, when he came to us, we didn’t think he’d make it to eighteen without some kind of incarceration. There were times, I admit, we thought of giving up.

‘Mommy’, he often called me in those months approaching his birthday, this man-child who’d come to us nine years before. Half of his life he’d been ours; the [...]

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Frozen Assets

By admin On March 30, 2013 · Add Comment

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This afternoon I drove down to HOOKED ESPRESSO here in Ninilchik, Alaska. Hooked is the coffee shop owned by my teen daughter, Destini.

(Read about that HERE and this story will make a lot more sense.)

I’ve not been down to Hooked in several months though I’ve driven by a thousand times. Destini is closed in the winter while off at college so there has really been no reason for me to venture down. But sometimes the desire for creamy coffee concoctions can lead to desperate measures, including forging snow drifts in search of a flavor.

The first thing I noticed is that the portable coffee shop which sits up on a trailer with wheels, seemed to have shrunk. The front door was shorter, the drive-thru suddenly easy access for children or small animals. I unlocked the door and it didn’t budge. [...]

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A Moostacle Course!

By admin On March 24, 2013 · Add Comment

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Aurora Borealis March 2013

By admin On March 17, 2013 · Add Comment

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More Winter Beach With Kids 2013

By admin On March 14, 2013 · Add Comment

Battled the wind in Homer, Alaska to snap this immature eagle devouring a sea otter carcass today.

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Ninilchik, Alaska Beach Of Winter

By admin On March 13, 2013 · Add Comment

Six of the kids on the beach...

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Broken Billy

By admin On March 7, 2013 · Add Comment

Billy Cast

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Six Seconds

By admin On March 6, 2013 · Add Comment

Make a difference

I stood in line at a Carl’s Junior restaurant in Palm Desert, California, eager to order my Chicken Fried Steak sandwich and strawberry shake. Sixteen years old, pregnant but not yet showing, my parents had whisked me away from hometown shame and embarked on a sudden cross country trip. A modern day escape from ruination.

Several people back in the long line stood a girl of dark complexion, luxurious black hair hanging down her back and a young man at her side, one hand rested on her lower back. He was handsome, but it was her I noticed. She was fantastic looking. Exotic. I glanced back a couple of times, uncomfortable with eye contact, completely submerged in shyness through my teen years.

I stared at the menu when I felt someone next to me, turned , and the young woman was there.

“I just had to come tell [...]

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Surprise Dorm Inspection

By admin On February 24, 2013 · Add Comment

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Abby Loves The Kitty!

By admin On February 19, 2013 · Add Comment

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Just Another Scenic Sunday 2/10/2013

By admin On February 9, 2013 · Add Comment

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A Day At The Races

By admin On February 2, 2013 · Add Comment

Unplanned fun is the best kind, and so when my phone woke me this morning with Billy on the other end asking me to bring snowmachine oil 16 miles up an ice mountain road, I thought…why the heck not? It was a warm day, in the 30F’s, the sun was popping out from the clouds, and there was a dog sled race at the destination. My only disappointment of the day is that we didn’t bring the kids. (or maybe not so much…it was so quiet)

So we drove up near the end of Oilwell Road in Ninilchik, Alaska at Freddy’s Roadhouse and watched a stopping point of the Tustumena 200 sled dog race. Ate lunch with friends, enjoyed the sweatshirt weather and loved on the dogs.

P.S. Anyone who tries to claim these dogs aren’t having the time of their lives, has clearly never watched them run. [...]

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