Maureen Bell:  

I was married in my senior year,but still graduated. My goal was to have children; No one knew, but I was diagnosed with Type I Juvenile Diabetes, told I could NEVER have children, AND that I'd be dead by 40! Lovely news for a 16 y/o, so I set out to have children before the diabetes got worse and I got too old! Had my son at 20 and daughter at 21. Was divorced by 23 and my mom passed away 3 weeks later. As a struggling, financially strapped single mom looking for a safer,less expensive place for my kids, I moved to El Paso, TX where I knew no one! But God had His hand in all of this--I met my husband of 31 years, Rusty. Our family has grown {my 2 children whom Rusty raised as his own, a step-daughter, 2 granddaughters, 4 grandsons, 3 great-granddaughters and 1 great-grandson!} Before leaving MD I became a Med Tech, working at P.G. Hospital Blood Bank for 5 years. In El Paso, I got my BSN, MSN, and dual certifications as a Pediatric and Family Nurse Practitioner. I worked as an RN in Germany for 3 years, and in Tel Aviv, Israel for 2 years, and have traveled to Korea, Australia, Egypt, China and most of Europe [and , of course, Mexico]. My daughter was the youngest [at 16] to win the European Cowboy Associations' "All-Around Cowgirl" Championship, and she took first place in Barrel-racing in nearly every major German Rodeo from 1985 to 1988 plus a couple in France and Belgium. Since I wasn't "dead at 40", as that wonderful doctor predicted, I volunteered for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. In 1992 I was diagnosed with possible Gulf War Syndrome, but was told in 1993 it was multiple sclerosis. Then after 2 years of extreme fatigue which was attributed to the M.S., I was forced to retire on ...Expand for more