Hoosiers All

Most everyone wants their family to live nearby and I'm no exception. I'm blessed in this regard as all our children and grandchildren live right here in Indiana. That's right... our family has nearly repopulated this brain-drained state. But, it almost wasn't to be.



In 2008, my oldest daughter lived in a nice apartment in the Seattle area, was married to a great Seattle guy and worked there as an elementary school teacher. Their plan was to buy a house once they started a family and she'd quit working in order to be a stay-at-home mother. Well, along came baby number one and then the shock of west coast real estate prices.



On a day I'll never forget, I received a call from my daughter in which she told me, "Now, Dad, don't get too excited." She went on to say that, if her husband could find a job in Fort Wayne, they were going to move! Here! This was indeed a shock as she had previously countered my suggestion that she relocate to Indiana by saying that she was a "Washington girl" and didn't plan on leaving. So, in spite of her request, I was very excited!



A short time later my son-in-law was able to find a job and the small family moved from the hip Northwest to the middle of fly-over country. That small family is now a large, energetic family of six living happily on a Northeast Indiana farm they call the Wildflower Wood Homestead.

Our oldest son, whose Purdue University degree could have taken him anywhere, chose to marry the Indiana girl he met in college (see The Ever Expanding Family) and raise their children in Indianapolis. Add to that our two youngest children here in Fort Wayne and my parents who live nearby and we make an all-Hoosier family of 16. What could be better?

Space Needle image courtesy of worldartsme.com