Addiction, Adoption,  & Autism

That’s my life.

My name is Cammie and I’m at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation.

I have six children.  Four sons which are all adults and two teenage daughters.  I’ve been married for 30 plus years and I believe I have seen and experienced many difficult, amazing, life changing experiences in my life.

I have seen first hand the difficult struggles of addiction in my family.  This addictive gene has plagued my family as well as my husbands family.  I’ve realized that we can be addicted to almost anything.  We usually think of addictions as drugs or alcohol but what about electronics, food, pornography, exercise, plastic surgery, and unhealthy relationships.  I’ve realized addictions come in many disguises.

After having difficult pregnancies, early deliveries and a hysterectomy at age 33, adoption was the next step for our family. We adopted 2 girls.  The first was adopted from South Korea as a baby and the second daughter was adopted from Guatemala at the age of 4 1/2 years. What a blessing they have been in my life.  I’m so grateful for their amazing birth mothers.

 My fourth son was born premature so we have had a life time of challenges but along with his early birth came the diagnoses  of Non Verbal Learning Disorder which is under the autism spectrum.  He has overcome many of his challenges and overcome great hurdles.  We are now at a new place in life having an adult child with Autism.  And learning new skills to assist him.  As my sons have started having their own children we are now faced with our first grandson diagnosed with Autism.

 I love traveling, meeting people and seeing the REAL world.  My eyes have been open to see how the real world lives.  We traveled to South Korea and Guatemala to pick up both of our daughters and visit their birth countries.   We have traveled for six weeks in the South Pacific with our five children. We stayed in a house on the Osa peninsula in Costa Rica enjoying the food and relationship with the local people. We have traveled to Peru to rebuild a home after the earthquake of 2007.  We have traveled to Honduras to help improve the local orphanages.

A passion at our house is cooking and eating.  Our whole family enjoys getting together and trying new recipes and of coarse tasting them.  Our kitchen has always been a gathering place in our home.  We gather to eat, visit, and enjoy one another.  All six of my children can cook.  Some enjoy it more than others but I have tried to involve them in cooking from a very young age.

This is my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything but it has definitely not been what I expected.  Life is a journey and I could not have made it thus far without my family, the knowledge of God and daily prayer.