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Gene, Marie and Lynda,
 
My husband and I have done our best to raise children we like as well as  
love. We decided to homeschool because we felt it the best method of  
education 
for the children, as well as our wanting to be around each other.  We have 
done 
this despite my having worked full-time all these years. We  homeschool 
through high school. I never understood the "Thank God, they're back  in 
school!" 
attitude so pervasive among parents I know, either.
 
We've always taken in "orphans and strays", too...of the human AND animal  
kind. Gay, straight, race, creed matters not to us. But what DOES matter is 
if  
the person is interested in making a better life for themselves. It makes 
life 
 richer for us as well.
 
And people do seem to tell us what great kids/people we are raising/have  
raised.
 
Brag alert:
 
Oldest son is doing a paid internship for the House Committee for  Science 
and Technology. He wants to be an honest politician, which I keep  telling 
him 
is an oxymoron. He is in his last year at George Mason Law, and is  co-editor 
of the Law School Newspaper.
 
Second son is a supervisor for UPS and is a homeowner at 22, having signed  
on to buy a condominium. He got a rent-to-own deal, which converted to a  
mortgage in August. He's also an Eagle Scout. He opted not to go to college, 
but  
seems to be doing just fine anyway.
 
Third son is a kind, quiet kid who LOVES volunteering at the local museum,  
and would like to major in computer science at college.
 
Youngest and only girl loves all creatures, great and small, no matter how  
gross her mother may find them. She is a natural-born veterinarian or perhaps 
 
entomologist. Of course, we are in Hormone Hell together, she being 12 and I  
being 47, but it seems to be helping us to bond even more.
 
I miss having little ones underfoot, but perhaps someday we'll have  
grandchildren to spoil.
 
Tammy in Colorado



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