Marilyn Barna-Dewald:  

Life After graduating from AHS I went to Rhode Island College in Providence where I got a B.A. in Spanish. During college I worked at the United Nations and I studied in Spain. In 1973 I began working as a Spanish teacher and have worked in Shelton,Ct., Barrington,R.I., The Westover School, Salem, NH, Brookline and Marblehead, Mass., The University of LaVerne in Naples, Italy, St. Mary's Bayview in R.I., and I am currently employed by Fairfax County Public Schools in VA. During my career I was Mass. Spanish Teacher of the Year, Rockefeller Scholar to Guatemala where I lived with Cakchikel maya families to study the stories of the Maya sacred books, learned German and lived with a family outside of Vienna, Austria, spent 3 years living outside of Naples,Italy where I studied Italian Art and Culture and taught English to Italian graduate students and professionals and my husband Peter and I adopted our first child, Adam Michael, from a tiny village in Transylvania, Romania. Our daughter Krista Jane, was born two years later. We've been living in Fairfax, Va. for 14 years now and Krista just finished 8th grade and Adam is going into 11th. Krista has been riding horses since she was 6 and became the owner of a beautiful chestnut Mustang mare named Mustang Annie last Christmas. She has been working with Parelli Natural Horsemanship to retrain Annie(and herself) naturally. She has also volunteered at the Equine Rescue League since she was little. She is still devastated by the passing of her foster pony Mort who was her best friend, perfect teacher, and spiritual advisor. She continues to take lessons in Hunter/Jumper equitation at Fox Meadow Farm in Haymarket, Va. She gave us a good scare in January when a horse that she was exercising at a private farm nearby swung his whole body around and kicked her in the spine. She missed 4 months of school and still managed to make up all her work, finish with honors and be pinned in the National Junior Honor Society. Adam is a dynamite hockey player and now only plays league hockey to allow time for friends and girlfriend. He's been dating the same girl since 8th grade. Adam is the social director for all of his friends and we always seem to have a house full of teenagers on the weekend. (at least we know where they are and what they are doing) Pete is the chauffeur for the gaggle of kids....Can't wait (and scared as hell) for Adam to get his license. I've been working as a Family Response Team member for the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. After years of fighting to save my own child's life I am giving back to the wonderful organization that helped me to help him. I counsel parents of newly diagnosed children on where to find support groups and physicians who are appropriately trained t...Expand for more