Amy Frederick Austin

Yes

What have I been up to? Good question. Seems like time has gone by so fast and yet I still feel 21. Although the wrinkles give it away! ha-ha! Did I graduate and live happily ever after? Well if I knew the secret to that I would have written a book and retired rich by now. The short story is after 20 years I am doing pretty amazing, but it was not easy. As some people know I had kidney failure in the 7th grade, then a transplant my Freshman year, which did not work. I was on dialysis in high school (machines kept me alive) and doctors said I would not live past 30 - HA! I preferred to be a normal rebel than to let people know I was sick and I managed to do that pretty well! To make a really, really long story short after 3 kidney transplants and a mere 38 surgeries later I am a walking miracle.
I attained my Bachelor’s degree and have a career working for an organization that saves lives, Michigan Community Blood Centers. I married the love of my life, Dale, in 1999. He is a project manager/superintendent for a local construction company. He was very fortunate to be in the healthcare construction area since that is one of the only areas left in Michigan that isn’t laying off. We live in Rockford, MI in my dream home, a house I designed and we built together. We have 2 beautiful children, Evan and Anna. They are the joys of my life. Evan loves sports of all kinds and is 200% all boy. He goes full tilt all the time until I hear crying and then he is a momma's boy. I patch him up and 2 seconds later he is off again. He is going into Kindergarten this year and is already packing his backpack for the bus ride. He is very excited. Anna is a princess through and through. She loves shoes, purses, playing dress up and all things pink. She loves to dance whenever she hears music and we are probably going to get her into dance in a couple of years. They get along so well probably because they are so different. Just hanging out with them and being their mom is the best thing I could ever do in this world.
Life is definitely busy and full. I think I am destined to a life of hard work, though, since I still work full time and then come home to play with my kids and maintain our 5 acres of lawn and flower beds. Maybe next year I can get a pool boy to help out. :-)
All and all life is pretty wonderful and God willing I intend to live every day to it’s fullest.

Which one shall I use? Seems I got into a bit of trouble most every weekend by my senior year. I think detention was my middle name. Not so much a bad kid, but did not like getting up for 7am Government, but the coke and cookies were good! :-) The one funny story that sticks out was the time that Jodi and I went cruising one night and decided to tour the local cemetery. Why not? - seemed like the thing to do at the time. And of course we end up with the car - nose down in the cemetery ditch. But the story took a twist when we were recued by two Montague guys (why not get into a guys car we never met - man how times have changed?) And of course they also ended up digging up all the grass trying to pull our car out. The car may have been hidden in the fog, but Monday morning was quite a spectacle for all the town to see. Ahh good times.