Donna Erdman:  

I've been busy since high school! After graduating, I went on to college, but only made it one year. I did, however, marry my Accounting tutor in 1983 (failed Accounting, but sure enjoyed those private tutoring sessions at the college's Learning Center!) and moved to Stamford, CT for a few years. I wasn't really happy in CT, so we moved back to NH in 1986. Sadly, we divorced in 1989, after only six years of marriage. While in NH, I lived in Manchester, Salem and Atkinson, then decided one day I'd had enough of snow and cold gray skies, so I spontaneously up and moved to FL in November of '92. It was a pretty risky decision; I had no job, no place to live and didn't know a soul, but I was determined to build a new life for myself. I got a furnished apartment and found a full-time job within 10 days, so apparently it was the right decision for me. Those first two years in FL were wild ones and I made a few choices that I wish now I could re-do. Those are years I'm not proud of, but I guess that's the stuff that makes us grow up (if we're lucky enough to survive it). How it happened is a long and sordid tale, but I ended up spending most of 1995 in Australia, where I gave birth to my only child, a daughter. The circumstances of her conception were not pleasant, but I realize now she was one of the greatest of God's gifts to me. I had already decided to give up this unplanned, unwanted child that had been forced on me to a loving family and go on with my life, but when there was a complication during her birth, I knew instantly I'd do whatever I had to do to keep her safe and happy, no matter what my circumstances. This child was as innocent as I was and I knew no one would ever love her as much. I didn't know it then, but that was the only child I would ever give birth to. I very nearly settled in Australia permanently, but ultimately returned to the U.S. when the Immigration folks told me I'd have to permanently renounce my U.S. citizenship, so I made arrangements to return to the U.S. I believed then, and continue to believe today, that I would not be alive if it had not been for the various angels that God placed in my path during that very difficult year in a foreign country. Complete strangers opened their hearts and their homes to me, loving and caring for me as if I were one of their own. Every single detail "fell into place" in order to bring this child into the world safely. This was only one of the many instances of God actively working in my life that I began to recognize. I came back to Florida and s...Expand for more