Sarah was born in 1975 after the doctors told us that we wouldn’t have any children, and we ended up with eight total. Raising our kids was the center of my life for year’s and then they were all gone and have been now for a number of year’s. Sherri and her husband Thomas and their son Courage live with us so I get to see them every day, and they are perfect in every way. Our daughter Sarah and her family live just 30 minutes drive from us and we see them close to weekly, the same with our daughter Sandee and son Sam, and their families. We do things with them socially on a regular basis. Last Sunday evening we went to Sam’s church in Stayton and listened to him preach, it was awesome. We went up to Fairbanks, Alaska, and spent a week with Shelly, our seventh child, and her awesome family during Christmas, and had fun ice fishing. Then we went to Hawaii and spent a week with Sally, our youngest, and her family and spent some significant time on the beach with them. That was quite the weather change from below zero to 80 degrees.

Tomorrow we are driving to Idaho and are going to spend 5 days with our son Seth, his wife Aimie and their four wonderful kids. Then in a couple of weeks, we are driving in a twelve-passenger van with our daughter Susanna and her husband Kyle and their three kids to Palm Springs and spend a week with them. I am planning on beating Kyle in golf numerous times.

I enjoy many different things like fishing, hunting, working on cars, and riding my bicycle, but nothing comes close to the joy I feel when we are spending time with our kids and grandkids. They are indeed the most significant source of joy in my life, apart from the Lord.

Patty and I are amazingly blessed with eight kids who love Jesus, love each other, and love us. We have a very loving and unified family that genuinely enjoys each other.