I have been the wife of Kevin for 23 years. We have been blessed with four children; our oldest daughter Kelsey who is 19, our son Grant who went to be with Jesus when he was 14 on July 31, 2006, and the newest additions to our family – two daughters from India – Kalindi is 10 and Kira is 6. We went to India in February, 2008 to pick up our girls. What an adventure – the adoption process, traveling, and the transition of older children into our home and culture. There is rarely a dull moment around here.
I home school the little girls and our older daughter is attending college. When I have free time I love to read, write, listen to or make music, cook, make jewelry to sell, garden, and take photos of family and nature. We live in the Portland, Oregon area.
If you haven’t figured it out, 
we are in the process of adopting a son from India. He is five years old and we hope to travel to India to bring him home in early 2010.
Lori – I am currently in Arizona spending vacation with my mother and father in law. They have some close friends over who know you, John and Laurie Brink. Laurie gave me some information off of your blog. I am Allison Hartwell and my husband is Jeff. We live in Oregon City. We have 6 kids, 4 of them are adopted. We have an 11 year old daughter, Anisha, who is from India. She came to us when she was 19 months old. We also adopted 3 children from Liberia when they were older. We have 4 kids in school, 3 are at North Clackamas Christian and 1 of our duaghters from Liberia is at Oregon City High School (she is getting some special education assistance). We attend Stone Creek Christian Church on 213 and Leland (kitty corner from Grandview Baptist). We live just off of S. End Rd. near John McGlaughlin elementary school. We’d love to meet you and your family some time and would love to introduce our children.
We will be in Arizona until December 1st. Our email address is jahahrtwell@comcast.net and our phone number is
503-342-6678.
I found your blog from your comment on “A Bushel and a Peck.” I wanted to say I am so sorry about the loss of your precious Grant. We also lost a son. I like to say that before I had kids I thought I knew what love was but once I had kids I found a depth I had never known. The reverse is also true. I thought I could imagine what death would be like, esp. since our son had cancer and we had time to ponder it. But, it ended up being so much worse than I could have ever imagined. My heart truly goes out to you.
Like you, we continue on with life and the joy our other children bring help us through. We were already matched with our son from Vietnam when our Joe died and still proceeded with the adoption which ended up being our saving grace. We also have two other adopted children (from Korea) and four other bio kids.
We live in Oregon too. Nice to meet you
Blessings, Ann
Hi, Lori!
Could you email me? I can’t find your email addy and I wanted to share something with you…I’m the mom with the little boy who wears and Awana “west”….
) bhenderson@q.com
Look forward to chatting!
Hey,
Stumbled across your blog because of the name Kalindi
You are a strong lady ..
Cheers to the good work you are doing.
Cheers to life
Kalindi