Laura Burt:  

Hi everyone, Gosh, where do you start? Living in southern California in a house built in 1892 which my husband and I restored about 12 years ago. I met my husband the summer after I graduated from Hope College. We both went on to get our Master's Degrees and have had interesting and long careers - Chuck as a Wildlife Biologist and me, well, having two careers, one as a high school teacher and later as the senior fundraiser of The Hunger Project. The latter, due to a fluency in French afforded me the opportunity to travel to Africa ( now 11 times), India and Bangladesh. Being a francophone and a francophile, I have been lucky to have been to France many times. In the last 6 years we have ventured into Italy where I have been able to locate my maternal grandmothers birth place in San Donato Val di Camino in the Lazio region in the province of Frosinone. I have been collecting information and writing the skeleton of a book which I hope to write some day of my grandmother's astonshing journey from a wealthy family in Italy to marrying the man she loved and coming to the States and having 10 children! I remember visiting Carol Borst's home many times in Midland Park and loved the atmosphere of being in a home that 3 sisters. I thought that was ideal so I went ahead and had 3 daughters.........! All three are living productive, exciting lives. Our eldest daughter lives in Madagascar with her husband who heads up CARE. They have 3 children and we have had the good fortune of visiting there twice and plan on doing so in the spring. Jen is an executive with a Canadian mining company after having spent 8 years with the Peace Corps in West Africa. We will be meeting them in South Africa for a safari to Kruger National Park in the spring. She has lived her entire adult life in Africa (2...Expand for more