Childhood

I feel that overall I had a happy childhood.   As I previously blogged, we had a large family and I felt like my brothers were my friends and "partners in crime".  Ha, ha!   My sisters came later, one is 4 years younger and my youngest sister is 12 years younger than I, so I was like her second mother because since I was the oldest girl, I took that responsibility.

Since my parents were missionaries, church and the church ministry was what our life revolved around.   So, most of our close friends were from church.    We always had alot of neighborhood friends we played with, but we moved ALOT, so that meant always leaving old friends and trying to make new ones, which was the most difficult part of my childhood in my opinion.   Up until I was 14 my parents never owned a home, they always leased, and when the lease was up, we moved.   Not really sure why.  Maybe the rent was going to increase?   I don't know.  The result was that, without exaggeration I attended around 12 schools in my 12 years of school!  That was hard and I don't think my parents thought too much about how that would affect us.   It was especially hard for me because I was very shy and quiet.    So having to go to new schools all the time was brutal.    During 6th through 8th grade I attended an American school in Brazil for missionary kids.   It was a great school.   I had close friends and we loved school and always competed to see who made the highest grades.   Yeah, I was a nerd. 

Then when I was 14, my parents decided to move "for good" to the U.S.   I cried for weeks when I found out. (I wont go into all the reasons for that decision).  The worst part was that we moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana which was such a foreign culture to us.   Anyway, I attended a public high school there in the mid seventies.  To explain a little about the history of education in Louisiana,  the schools there had just recently stopped segregation in the early 70's.   So there was still alot of racial divide there and I was not accustomed to that at all.   During my Junior year, the Ku Klux Klan infiltrated the school and incited a huge riot and kids were stabbed in the cafeteria.   It was bad.   The following week, the KKK marched and burned a cross in front of our school!    And I felt so out of place there and like I just didn't belong.   I didn't have any friends during high school at my school.   But we were very involved with the church we attended there so I did have friends from church.    My father had returned to Brazil and my mother was raising us alone for several years during that time and I don't think she was aware enough of the struggles we had as teenagers.    I was a very academically gifted student and feel like I never had the opportunity to develop my true potential.   I guess that's why I have always tried to be so in tune to my children's gifts and I am blessed that they are all very academically and musically gifted and so I have made sure they attend a magnet high school for gifted and talented.   They love it because they feel like they are in their element.   Later, after I was in college, my parents returned to Brazil with my two sisters.   My brothers had all left home by that time also.  (I attended TWU right out of high school, in the mid seventies, for two years).

My family is still very connected to Louisiana and my oldest brother lives there and now that I am older I appreciate the culture there more and most certainly the food!

My mother was an awesome mother.    She was and still is the glue that kept us all together and she had alot to deal with.   She had to raise six children in a culture that was very foreign to her with no family of her own anywhere near.  She also was very involved with the ministry and the people in the church loved her like she was their own mother.    She's that kind of person.   She was definitely the most important person in mine and my siblings' life.  My father was there but gone so much in dealing with the ministry and she kept the home fires burning and took care of us.    We loved and respected our father and he would cut up with us sometimes but he left all the responsibility of child rearing and the home to my mother.    My dad came from a very patriarchal, Latin macho upbringing and so that was his personality.

I think that growing up in two very different cultures and the constant moving is something not everyone experiences.   It wasn't all bad, it made a gypsy out of me, but sometimes I think it would be nice to have that "home I grew up in" as a touchstone.

Especially now that I am a parent, I understand that parents often make life decisions without much thought as to how that decision will affect their children's lives and future.

Self and Family

I think I have a very interesting family.   My American mother met my Chilean father in Chile when her parents were missionaries there in the early to mid '50s.   They were married and my oldest brother was born in Chile.   My second brother was born in the U.S. and then myself and my third brother and two sisters were born in Brazil where my parents were missionaries for 40 years.   So we are a very multicultural family.   We spoke English at home, Portuguese outside of the home and Spanish with our Chilean relatives, so we are tri-lingual.   Growing up we attended Brazilian and American schools   We were a close knit family and especially we four older children who were so close in age (my mother had 4 kids in 4 years!), and so had all the same friends we hung out with.  We are still very close even though we now live each in a different state here in the U.S.   My father and both sets of grandparents have passed away.    However, when we were growing up, my father brought his family to live near us in Brazil, so I had my Chilean grandparents and uncles close.    Except for times when we visited the U.S. for extended periods and I stayed with my maternal grandmother, we never lived near my maternal grandparents.   However, my grandmother wrote constantly and sent us little gifts and we always felt very close to her.   I loved her very much.

I still have aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.   One of my dad's brothers married a German lady but they live in Brazil (she speaks 5 or 6 languages).   At one time they lived in Sweden, so I literally had family in 5 countries!  I'm not in touch with them as much as I would like to, but hope to change that soon.   Of course with Facebook, etc.. that is easier nowadays.

I consider my family relationships my most important relationships.   My sisters and my mother are definitely my best friends.   I keep "dreaming" of a time when we will all live near each other again and can meet for lunch or go shopping together, but for now we all live very far apart.   However, I do have my children now who are 15 1/2 yr old triplets and I feel that I have a good relationship with them.

I know families who all live within minutes of each other and get together all the time and I often wish my family could do that.   But, then I wonder, would we get on each other's nerves?   Would we get bored?   As it is, we all live in different places and get to share that "culture" with each other-San Francisco, Denver, Dallas, Baton Rouge, Atlanta and Orlando!

My parents struggled alot financially especially when we children were very little because they were independent missionaries and not sponsored by an organization who sent them financial support regularly (that came later).   So, looking back, we were probably what would be considered "poor", but we children didn't know it.   We were loved and safe and we never went hungry.   We had a home and decent clothes and in many instances were better off than our Brazililan friends, so we felt rich!  My parents did their best to give us a happy childhood and we only have good memories of those times.

I understand that many parents sacrifice alot to provide for their children, even to the point of often going without food so their children will have something to eat.

Countries Quiz

Hello all:

I am new to blogging so this will be interesting.

On the countries quiz, I correctly named 99 countries.   I have always been interested in other countries and other cultures, probably because I come from a very multicultural family, so I admit the quiz was rather easy for me.

On the 10 things I understand about child development globally:

1. I understand most parents view their children as a precious gift.
2. I understand most parents love their childrent unconditionally
3. I understand all children have a need to fell loved and safe
4.  I understand most children are adventurous and love to learn
5.  I understand millions of children live in poverty
6.  I understand many, many children go to bed hungry
7.  I understand many children begin working at a young age to help support their family
8.  I understand many children are sexually and physically abused
9.  I understand millions of children lack proper housing, education or health care
10. I understand there are millions of orphan around the world