Introducing Ruth

Ruth's parents took her, as a 7 month-old baby, to Liberia, West Africa on a freighter. She grew up in a house across the "road" from the Atlantic Ocean. Her brother Harold was born several years later, but there were problems with the pregnancy, and with the birth. Fortunately, both her mother and Harold survived. But Harold showed delayed development. After many medical tests, he was diagnosed as having brain damage with autistic-like symptoms. As U.S. citizens, Ruth's parents were required to return to the U.S. for at least one year  of every five. Upon determining that they could not get the services they needed for Harold in Liberia, they decided to move back to the U.S. So, at age 12, Ruth came to the U.S. with her parents, and learned they were not going (to her) "home", but were going to stay. After a difficult adjustment to U.S. culture, she finished high school and went on to college. After finishing college, she stayed on to work in the area of Financial Aid. Some years later, she met me - also working at the college. We married and about 10 months later, we moved to Indiana for her to take the job of Director of Financial Aid at a local college. Shortly later, our first son was born - David. 18 months later, James was born. Nearly three years later, Joy joined our family. Ruth moved to a different college in the same position, and when Joy was just over a year old, left academia to work as co-director of a child care ministry. Many years later, she left the child care ministry and became a full-time stay at home mom, as well as working part time with Creative Memories. Obviously, there is a lot more to her story, but it is one of the high privileges of my life to have known this wonderful lady, and there are no words to describe the honor of her being my wife.