Tondi

In 1986, several friends cheered me on as I home birthed our first little girl, Tondi. When they told me the baby was a girl, I thought they were teasing, so I had to look for myself. Dave was so excited, he turned on Christmas lights out front of the house even though it was far from Christmas. Over the next few months, I had lots of fun dressing her up in frilly clothes we were given. It was a good thing we celebrated well for I did not birth another baby girl for nineteen years.

Tondi enjoyed being a Tomboy as she played with all her brothers, but she also stood her ground quite well with them. A friend at church noted to me at one point that she generally gets what she wants, doesn’t she? I wasn’t convinced at that then but later could see his point. She learned to take charge and became a second mother to the boys. As a teenager, she co-cooked with me or took turns cooking. What a tremendous asset! I soon lost that support as she began discovering her own future. It was very hard to let go!

She became interested in mission work. In preparation, she took two years of Spanish in high-school. Next, she went to Guatemala with the youth group from our church. An extended independent mission trip to Bolivia followed that and immersed her in the language with the native people. This was followed by another youth group trip to the Dominican Republic at which she was offered a year-long teaching job at a local Christian grade school there. She’d only had one year of college but took them up on the offer anyway.

She worked in nursing aide care here in the states following that. Then she met and married her husband Josh. Now she does a different sort of mission work. She runs a child daycare in her home. She has learned so much about childcare! God has been leading her to offer training for parents in focused parenting. She has been working on some online tutorial classes and will be launching them before long. I believe God has honed her ministry and brought her to this point with greater things yet to come.