Family
My wife Joanne and I were married on June 13, 1987, in Conklin Presbyterian Church, my home church in so-called upstate New York, although Conklin is only minutes from the Pennsylvania border, just south of Binghamton. Joanne was born in the mid-west, moved to southern California at the age of three after her dad finished his masters in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois, and then relocated to the Binghamton area in January of eighth grade for her, a major culture and climate shock. To that point, she had never owned a winter coat, and her first day of school got off to a slow start due to a snow delay during which she waited forlornly with the secretaries in the main office for the rest of the kids to arrive, since her family had no idea that one had to listen to the radio for school delays and closings.
We met through our participation in the Susquehanna Valley Presbytery's summer camp program, in which our relationship progressed from counselor-camper to counselor-CIT (counselor-in-training) to assistant director-counselor. We were never a staff romance, but to my knowledge we are the only couple that has ever gotten married from the program. All of our siblings also participated in the program as campers and counselors, which was a great way for us to develop a close-knit family relationship between the Thurstons and the Griswolds.
Joanne worked as a school psychologist for seven years, first in Virginia and then in Pennsylvania, prior to the birth of our son Will in January of 1997. Since then, she has been a fulltime homemaker, working countless hours to civilize and socialize Will, Bo (short for Bolívar, our very affectionate English Setter pup who is our middle child), and Kate, who was born in March of 1999. This is no small task, because our oldest and youngest fight like cats and dogs, much as my sister and I did when we were younger. Our primary parenting challenge is to get the kids to internalize the Golden Rule before one of them (probably Will) sustains a serious injury. Since 2002, Joanne has been developing church school curriculum for the Stone Church of the Brethren for pre-K through fifth graders, a creative outlet which has enabled her to produce and discover some wonderful resources on topics ranging from social justice to the environment. She is currently co-writing a curriculum for this age group that will be published and used to commemorate the third centennial of the founding of the Church of the Brethren in 2007.
Will is a happy fourth grader (2006-07) whose favorite subject is math and who enjoys reading, problem solving, and playing with his Game Boy. He is also into soccer, playing on our town's ten and under traveling team last spring, and has completed his third year of Suzuki cello. He is making steady progress and just moved up to a half-size instrument, which means that he can get a much richer sound. I only speak to both kids in Spanish, and Will is very proficient, although he speaks to me primarily in English these days. He and Kate should return from our sabbatical year in Guatemala fully bilingual, since they will be attending our partner school in Xela and will be immersed and receive basically all their instruction in Spanish.
Kate is an energetic second grader who loves to read and who already has a very full schedule due to her varied interests. She is taking her fourth year of dance with a wonderful teacher in State College, she just completed her first year of piano, and she played tee-ball, soccer, and basketball in the community league this past year. Kate is also a budding artist, and has sketched the drawings of key historical figures of the Church of the Brethren for the curriculum that Joanne is writing.
Included below is a very brief family photo album which chronicles some of the major changes in our family over the last decade.
