Hello from Mikki

Hi everyone. My name is Michedolene, more commonly known as Mikki. I am a mother of 8 - four are my own and four are my step children. I met my husband back in 1993 and we have been building together ever since Wink.

I am a stay at home mom and currently home school my four youngest kids. They aren't so young anymore; my oldest Danielle is 16 and a senior in high school, Jessica 13 and 10th grade, my son Aaron is 10 and working on 4th - 5th grade and my youngest lady is 7 (and 1/2 she will add Grin) working on 3rd.

Danielle is my first born and has carried the responsibility of older sister very proudly. I am always proud of her ability to think things through and make wise choices with her life all while being lively and constantly laughing (sometimes even while she sleeps) Grin You guys will see her from time to time in here. She has expressed an interest to participate in the forum and website to offer some input from the teenagers side of the story. I thought it was a great idea and hope you all enjoy talking with her.

Jessica is my strong willed one. Her first week in kindergarten the teacher discovered just what I meant when I said, "When she makes up her mind you wont change it." During recess a little boy had pushed her and so she pushed back. The boy ran and told on Jessica and the teacher sat her in a time out for pushing the boy. After 5 minutes the teacher came over to ask Jessica why she had pushed the boy. By this time my little lady had made the choice not to speak to the teacher. The teacher repeated her question as my lady starred up at her. She then says, "Jessica I am going to count to 3 and if you don't answer you will sit with your head down for 30 minutes." To her astonishment Jessica raises her hand in front of her and lifts each finger - 1,2,3 and walks over to her desk and puts her head down. Two hours later that poor teacher called mom and told the whole story, Jessica was still sitting with her head down refusing to talk or rejoin the class and she didn't know what else to do! That was at age 5. 8yrs later she attends her first church camp, this past summer and they have an activity where the kids sit in a Kayak with a skirt on and then flip it upside at which time they take off the skirt and swim to the top. Jessica politely said she wasn't going to and the staff said, "You can't back out. You have to sit in the Kayak until you do it." This strategy always worked on the kids, until they met my Jessica. The activity time slot was one hour and Jessica was the second one in the boat, no one else had the opportunity to try because the councilors told her she would have to sit until she flipped. To her credit the counselors said she means what she says and that is something big today!

Aaron is my only boy by birth and has taught me many things about parenting in his short 10 years. As an infant he never cried, looking back he didn't even cry at birth. He was a solemn baby and very predictable. He started walking at 7 months and fixating over the smallest things. His fixation grew as he did and by two years of age you could find him on the porch sorting the dirt he was digging out of the ground by color, texture and dampness. This always amazed me. As a toddler we discovered that he didn't respond to pain in a normal fashion and of course I became concerned. The doctors found no real reason for it other than perhaps his brain was receiving the signal funny. Not to worry because by the age of 4 his brain figured out what pain was and everything seemed to be extremely painful. Lucky for him he seems to be almost in the middle now, still not quite perfect like the time he broke his finger and found it funny the way it kept falling over! And as is custom now he felt extreme pain two days later. There have been a couple of doctors and teachers that hinted at certain disorders like autistic spectrum and ADD, however my husband and I chose not to go that route. We had a private testing done with a lady that respected our request for no diagnosis, we only wanted to know the best way to educate him.

Morgan came at an unexpected time and truly faught to be here. When I was barely 20 weeks our chocolate lab fell on my stomach causing a small tear in the top of the fetal sac. I called my mid-wife right away and she started making calls, in CA she couldn't even check me due to laws preventing a midwife to handle this type of situation before 28 weeks. She instructed me to lie on my back and prop my feet. Long story short she called every local hospital and they would only agree to terminate the pregnancy if I had indeed rupture the sac. After 2 very scary hours she found a hospital willing to give it a shot, after I signed mulitple forms relieving them of any and all responsibility of my and baby's heath. We didn't know if we were having boy or girl and at this point wasn't sure if we would have any. The hospital confirmed my water had ruptured and advised me to terminate the pregnancy due to the complications and risks for both me and my baby. My midwife sternly asked me and my husband if we wanted to have this baby, of course we said yes. She set us up with VERY strict instructions and worked with the doctors at Cedar for the next few weeks. I got to go home and was monitored from there after many battles with doctors to just try! Morgan wasn't giving up and wanted to be here. She was brought 3 weeks early as my placenta started to deteriorate, only 3 weeks early! She has taught me patience you would never have imagined possible. She has an understanding of God and our world that we didn't teach her and she is far reaching in all she does. Currently her dream is to open a shelter that feeds all the homeless people and I pray we find a way to let that happen.

Each of my kids have brought new wonders to my life and I am grateful I have been given the opportunity to raise them. I have always had a passion for kids and family. As a kid growing up I was always the one entertaining the younger cousins at family gatherings. It was just what I did naturally and found genuine joy in doing so. My kids are the number one priority in my life and get most of my time and attention. They each have very different interests and ideas, so different in fact that we sometimes wonder if they were really raised in the same house. Our home is very lively and filled with life, this includes days of ups and downs; I wouldn't have it any other way!

Second to my family I have to admit I have a deep passion for animals in spite of my numerous allergies! I have a tendency to rescue any animal that is in need, or not. As with my tendency as a kid to care for the younger cousins, I would come home daily with a stray or wounded animal to care for. I have had my share of raising kittens, puppies, injured fledglings and even muskrats on a bottle. Those were great times, and still are when my husband lets his guard down Grin

We are very excited to bring this forum together and offer an online community for Unique Parents! and to have the opportunity to meet other families who share our interests.