Once you have one child, what's another right? 3.5 years later we were joined by Jessica. Now armed with 1.5 children, we're catching up to the normal sized family. We found a bigger home that had an empty 3rd bedroom, we just had to fill it. Our family was complete and we were getting deeper into the parenting pool. We obviously didn't know what we were doing, but started by making sure our children had everything, especially everything we didn't as children. But most of all, we did pour love on them.

After moving to our newest home and palace for life, it seemed like one to us anyway, we met John & Judy Hubers who introduced us to boating, taught us to ski and tube and stuff. They were very well travelled and successful people who we just fell in with and with whom we enjoyed spending time together. Soon after catching the bug, John and Judy moved to Illinois and took our favorite boat with them... so we bought our first boat. The kids loved it, we learned to ski and mostly it was a great family time... and we adults imbibed quite a bit. It never occurred to us that we may be putting our children in dangerous situations and I remember many a day, coming back from the river with an open beer in the truck. However, we survived without a scratch.

Somewhere in this period, me being an athiest... which makes this decision weird, I decided we should be taking our kids to church on Sundays. I did feel compelled to at least expose them to it and let them decide someday for themselves. With Bonnie's church background and upbringing, it didn't go over very well. She'd be the first to tell you that she believed in God, but just didn't want anything to do with Him. He was afterall, a mean, megalomaniacal and controlling God who only wanted us to bow down and not have any fun. The idea of atttending the church really started with Gretchen who we had enrolled in a local church pre-school program. It was always talked about as the best pre-school in the area and was extremely affordable. We had Jess in that school then as she was old enough and we attended the church a few Sundays a month. It seemed harmless to me and we just said hello to a few people we knew there and didn't get involved. I didn't think it would be wise to let anyone know my "secret" and if I got to know them too well, I'm sure it would come out. I'm not sure if I protected my secret for mine or their benefit... but I now think it was for mine. Of course, its' all about me!

With Sunday open houses every week... it was a hit and run, when we did go. Some Sundays, we'd just drop the kids off for their Sunday school and bag church ourselves. After a year or so of this, our friends and our kid's Godparents asked us to attend their church. A more contemporary non-denominational church. They were fairly new and were meeting in a school. This appealed to Bonnie, not meeting in a church building seemed more inviting and not so churchy to her. We started attending and it did seem better. The music was actually more like rock and roll and it seems funny to me now, but I had a little difficulty equating this music as Godly especially since I wasn't familiar with any of it. The sermons seemed more like common sense with a wise way of dealing with life today. I still didn't believe the stuff connecting it with a God, but whatever, it didn't hurt too much and our attendance skyrocketed to 3 out of 4 Sundays.

Our business was growing and in 2000, we got the bug to build a new home. The girls got involved with horses and didn't seem to be losing this desire, so we looked for land we could have horses and build our dream home. We had purchased one horse and was boarding it. The cost and time spent going and coming just added up and if we could put it all together, everyone would have what they wanted. Logical. I had grandiose dreams of owning several magazines and would need office space, we wanted a pool and a place where we could PARTY and most importantly, get away from people! I lived by a saying in those days... "Life would be so much easier if it weren't for all these people!" So this house was completed in May of 2001.

My ambitions came to a screeching halt that September 11th... suddenly, I started to look at my life and decided it was more important to be around to see my family more and making more money in one fell swoop seemed totally unimportant at that moment.

I'll never forget the morning of 9/11/01. We had just sent off our latest publication to print and were looking forward to a beautiful day on the lake, skiing and relaxing... drinking a six pack or two... the boat was loaded and hooked up when a friend called and told us a plane just hit the Trade Center in NYC. So we turned on the little 9 inch TV in the kitchen, sat down and watched in horror as the next plane hit, then the Pentagon and the field in Western PA. We were frozen in our tracks. We have a beautiful 65" HD tv in our living room... but we watched every second unfold on that tiny little screen. It never occurred to us to move. We never did get out on the boat that day. This was the beginning of the end of the old people we once knew.

I am on my way tonight to go visit with my old friend John Hubers this weekend. I am driving out with another friend of mine and John's, Rich Keener, to spend the weekend with him. Along with his amazing and miraculous recovery this will be the first time we see John as a fellow saint and brother in Christ, I'll try to find time to write out Part 3 The Holy Spirit works... upon returning. The connection between John, Rich and myself is nothing other than God doing His people weaving thing... no man could ever arrange what has come about between us 3.

Jeremiah 1

⁵ "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
       before you were born I set you apart;
       I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."