When you get married you think about having a family. Some people have a clear idea of how many children you want and there’s no debate – looking for a baseball team! Other people take it one at a time. That was certainly us, and Wendy had health issues with each pregnancy so when we had two children we decided that was enough. Wendy’s grandmother had died in the birth of her mother so those thoughts we always in the back of our mind even though medical treatment has advanced a long way – but we were living in a small community with limited doctors.

The boys – Jason and Philip were from the beginning very different. They were different in temperment and different in interests. They played lego together and a few other things but for the most part Jason would rather read and Philip would rather be outside.

Over time they emerged as smart and talented boys, but always with divergent interests.

One thing that they did enjoy with each other was Halloween. I remember the year that Wendy made their capes so they could both be Robin Hood. I think the Disney animated movie likely was behind that. But I remember like it was yesterday taking this picture because I asked them to pretend they were stopping the bad guy!

One year we drove down the east coast (we knew we were heading west the next year) and so we decided that we should do this holiday. How we paid for all this I will never know. We had such little money, but we took our tent trailer and drove from Ottawa down the east coast to Orlando and back. We stopped in Washington DC to visit the Smithsonian, Savanah Georgia for the old town, Cape Canaveral for NASA, and then Myrtle Beach and Virginia Beach on the way home. Sometimes I think the LORD refilled our “jar of oil” (see 2 Kings 4:1-7) as we did so many things like this with so little means.

As they got older I wondered what they would end up doing in life. Jason, who loved to read, spends his days doing a lot of reading! Philip who loved the outdoors and action has had roles that demand action and the outdoors. So maybe we do tend to go for what we’re built for.

We’re super proud of them both, think that they are smart and funny and we love being with them.