during her teenage years. She was depressed. We were a middle class family, living in Ohio, but he was always worried that we didn't have the money like some other families in our ward did. It was a endless battle and we kept attempting to keep her engaged.

Her 1st two attempts were simply attempts to get attention as she took an "overdose" of Tylenol, which will hurt your liver, but we're not talking the type of drugs that really take you out. The 1st time she left a big cardboard sign in the drainboard in the kitchen. Very hard not to see. The 2nd time the note was was a little less prominent, but found quickly. The 3rd time she didn't leave a note and really, really wanted to die. My wife sensed something was wrong and went to check on her and found that she had vomited on the floor of her bedroom and was lethargic.

Each time we checked her into a facility, but for her, it was always a challenge she took on to attempt to make the medical staff just think there was no way this girl would attempt to kill herself--had to be her family. A lot of mental health personnel are ready for those types and they are common. But, we'd get her a bit more down the road towards adulthood.

Her last year of high school, we let her move out to Utah and live in the ward of a girl her age who was her best friend the 3 years we lived in American Fork while I attended BYU. That seemed to help for whatever reason. When she was to graduate though, she was like a credit short. The school offered her a way to make up the credit and graduate, but she wouldn't do it.

She moved back home and without a HS diploma, she got a job as a CNA. For some reason, doing service to others brought her out of her shell. She got her GED, BS in Education and then Masters in Education. She was the most incredible teacher I had ever met. She purposely went to work in the Baltimore inter-city schools and the horror stories she'd tell us were unnerving, but she flourished and so did her students. She'd work 20 hours days and spend every bit of money she made on her economic and family challenged students.

She got burned out after about 5 years of such intense interaction and decided to have a family. She had fertility problems, so she needed to go another route with her husband. They had 1 son at the end of last August, a baby she carried, from an embryo that they purchased. They also went the surrogacy route as her chances with the purchased embryo were not high, and that daughter was born 6 weeks after the son. She is being overwhelmed currently with the lack of sleep, but she's on top of these two cherubs like she was with her middle school students she had taught.

It's a terribly hard row to hoe. Prayer is essential.