Comments:
Never left SLO. Worked for Alan's Draperies for 4 years. Graduated from Cal Poly with a degree in Liberal Studies. I originally wanted to teach elementary school, but got a minor in English instead of going through the credential program.
In 1991 I started working for The Parable, the local Christian bookstore. I ended up managing it and in 1998 took a job working for the Parable corporate office. We work with independent Christian bookstores all around the country, doing marketing, inventory management, etc. My job is to help keep the independents in business.
I've traveled all across the country consulting, doing training and opening new stores. Currently I manage the Business Intelligence department. We're responsible for all of the retail data coming into and out of our building. I know what items have sold, who purchased them, how much they paid, what else was on their receipt, how many the store had in stock at the time, etc. Yes, it's true. I am big brother.
I got married in 1995 to my highschool sweetheart and we have four kids: Two by birth and two by adoption. Ben and Luke were already a joy in my life, and now that Nancy & Ricky are part of our family it's just been getting better.
A few nights before "Adoption Day", Jenny walked down the hall and heard Nancy in bed practicing her new name: "Nancy Ernstrom. Nancy Ernstrom. Nancy Ernstrom." Made us cry.
And Ricky was very excited to become an Ernstrom, so standing in the courtroom before the precedings began, I got everyone's attention and said, "Ricky, tell everyone what your new name is going to be." He lifted his head proudly and said, "Darth Vader!!!" :)
I've truly learned that there is nothing bad enough during the day that can't be wiped away by hearing, "DADDY!!!" when I drive up.
We had a major scare when Ben was 3. He was diagnosed with meningitis, and after two weeks in and out of Sierra Vista he wasn't getting better. On December 1st, our doctor sent us to Children's Hospital in LA and over the next few weeks Ben continued downhill. It developed into encephalitis and they had to do a biopsy to determine the cause. The night before his surgery he was basically in a coma and they kept him in ICU overnight. The next morning he woke up and tried to sit up in bed. The doctors were shocked: "This is a good thing. But we still need to do surgery do determine what's going on." Well...they were unable to find a definitive cause, so their theory is that his immune system "hiccupped" and couldn't correct itself. So they pumped him full of steroids to reduce the inflammation in his brain and within days he was watching TV and wanting cheesburgers. Jenny spent 40 days and 40 nights sleeping in the bed with him until we could bring him home.
It was amazing to hear how many people were praying for us through that ordeal. We heard from churches on the other side of the world who had been praying for him. One of the doctor's in rehab pointed at Ben and said, "That's the power of prayer. Science has no explanation, but we see it happen here every day."
To this day you'd never know he had any problems (except for a minor scar on the back of his head from the surgery). In fact his 8-year-old all star team just got back from the state tournament.
I just finished my 20th year working with the jr high group at Grace Church (yep, I'm still there). And I've run the AWANA program for the past two years.
Really looking forward to catching up with some of you. And I'm going to apologize now for not remembering names. :)
