Early Years

Kimmy was an awesome first child. She was happy almost all the time, smiled constantly, loved other people, laughed easily and was easy to love on.

She was born in Tacoma, spent a couple of years in Hood River, Oregon. I was a Les Schwab Tire asst. manager when we lived in HR and I would bring home my change each night and put it on the counter. One day Teresa had a talk with Kimmy and prepped her for my coming home. Kimmy met me at the door with her hand out and said her first 2 words together; "Money Daddy".

After a couple of years in HR we moved to Arlington. When we move to Arlington we started to attend church at Grace about 6 months later. Also, when we moved to Arlington they were building a new school right next to our house and Kimmy thought they were actually building it for her. She went there for about 2 years and the teachers all loved her- she mothered every kid in the class- but we were concerned about her actually learning in the class. Many days before school she had to be spanked in order to actually get her to wear the clothes mom had picked out, because of some itchy thing or a tag she didn't like. She likes to be comfortable.

We moved her to Grace Academy in the the second grade but she had some learning challenges so we kept her back a year, which was not really an issue since she is a Sept. baby. It was because of this delay that she was in Ian's class. They didn't always see eye to eye on things, but they did have a good relationship even in the earlier years. They were pretty close friends, maybe best friends, even in the second grade.

She had to go against the flow often, as many were not interested in doing the right thing. She and Ian had many times when they were 2 of the few who were standing for righteousness.