My Story

Introduction: The other day I was speaking with Hank’s Grandma Ruth, and she mentioned a very significant time in my life that she knew nothing about.  This got me to thinking about how a lot of my family (now that I’m married) do not know much about my testimony.  This inspired me to use this blog to tell my story.  This is dedicated to Grandma RuthJ

Chapter 1:  Welcome to the world!  Here's your passport.

One warm afternoon in Texas, I was born into a family of three.  My dad was active duty military, a hero who fought in Vietnam, who looked like he could be straight out of the Beetles.  Appropriate seeing that one of their songs inspired my name.  One of my earliest memories involves my parents singing “Michelle, ma belle” to me when I was going to sleep. 

My mom was a beautiful professional modern dancer, model, and an Arizona native whose adventures had taken her all over Europe. 

My sister was the picture perfect of Strawberry Shortcake, with the cutest red hair and freckles that you’ve ever seen.  My favorite picture in the whole world is of her face when she saw me for the first time on the day I was born. 

So I made us the family of four.  My dad had received orders for a transfer when the doctors found a problem with one of my kidneys.  Our move was postponed while they ran tests and ultimately did surgery when I was about 5 months old, resulting in a big scar on my side today.  It was around Cinco de Mayo because my mom remembers a big celebration going on outside the hospital when I was recovering.  Shortly after, we received the transfer orders again.  We were moving to Germany.