May 1, 2002

How It Came to This... by Rich

It is not my fault. I never in my wildest dreams planned to be as old as I am and have three grown children. I thought I would never grow up. It wasn't planned, decided or managed. But here I am, a very proud father of three and looking forward to being a grandfather. Here I am, having won the best reward a man can have, a terrific, loving family.

When I say it is not my fault, I mean it. It was those great legs. She had the most beautiful legs on campus, and she did not hide them. (At Wheaton, we would say "Praise the Lord.) That's all it was. And look what happened. I wish I could take credit for such a wonderful family, but it just happened, one step at a time.

I was in total denial for the first 5 years of our marriage. I didn't even admit I was married. (Ah, those radical 60s)…and having babies? Geez….

It finally took a mentor to say…"Don't forget to have children." Marty and I had never even talked about children. I mean, before we were married, we never discussed, do we want 2? 4? 10? Kids? Like Cleopatra, we were both in De Nile.

And then we had Jeremy. Talk about a surprise! Somehow it never occurred to me that he would be a real person with his own set of interests. Wow….he wasn't interested in My schedule or MY feelings. But once we had him, my world was irrevocably changed. It was like part of me was outside of my body, and my heart grew so big it felt like we needed more children to fill it…and thus came Lorien and Eric.

So now, here is the Family web page. …all because of those beautiful legs……