You’ve Touched My Heart! - TTS Chicas, Profesores y Nicas Locales, todos ustedes han tocado mi corazón!

   With toes dug into the warm sand, 12 girls circled around TTS  Literature teacher, Sarah White. The warm breeze made their sun kissed hair dance.  Each of the girls shared the people, places and moments that have carved a special place in her heart to the background sonata of cackling birds perched in the massive Ficus Aurea tree above and the small waves breaking upon the lake Nicaragua shore.  Written on their hearts were Sandino, Sister Margherite responding to the girls sadness at the U.S. contributions to suffering in Guatemala stating “You should  always be proud of your country,”  Daniel Ortega, Sandinista Revolutionist - Hero or Dictator?, Confusion and exasperation at the U.S. interfering and funding evil, hurtful regimes in Guatemala and in the Contras fighting in Nicaragua, Quiet and wonder of the 3am hike to Tikal culminating in the T-Rex voice of hundreds of monkeys hailing the sunrise, Naming fellow TTS companions and teachers for friendship and support,  sadness at "who I was" before TTS, excitement at the “newly enlightened” me, thought on friends and family at home dearly missed over the semester, excitement at what the future holds; this is a sampling of what has grown in the hearts of our daughters. Below I will share with you what has deeply touched my heart during the TTS25 parent visit to Nicaragua.

   Fellow parents Rachel, Jenny, Beverly and Bob are kind, informed, down-to-earth, open-minded and so much fun! Meeting the girls' family foreshadowed the beautiful, unique, rare tropical birds, each of your daughters have become.  I shook with nervous anticipation, excited to see McKinley but mindful other girls might be sad at parent presence with theirs absent. I resolved to hug, mother and generally spoil the lot as much as time and TTS staff allowed, hoping for acceptance and to positively impact the group. I hugged and introduced myself to each of your daughters, willing the hug to be like a hug that would come from you.  Ash met me with watery eyes joy, sadness, confusion, contact lens problem, I did not know. After hearing about numerous bouts of G.I. distress, illness and hospital visits, I was thrilled to see every girl looking healthy, happy and lightly tanned; they were gleaming with an aura of strength, confidence and empowerment; even Katy looked 10 feet tall! The Chieflet of the day led the group to board three boats for a cruise about hundreds of small islands some only an acre or so in size.  It was like cruising a Hollywood tour homes of the stars, stars included a vet who had monkey pets that came down to the shore for photos anticipating treats, a pastor and his family along with the church next door, a restaurant, homes affluent/ornate/coats of arms or modest with tin roofs – a dog swam across the 100M channel likely returning from a visit to the neighbors.

    At McKinley’s request, I brought large chocolate bars for all the girls, giving no thought to the heat and melting potential.  Rachel brought beautifully wrapped candy treats from her store nestled on Vinalhaven Island, Maine. Beverly had gummy worms stashed in her small roller bag.  Mothers were stressed about melting candy, but Beverly thought ahead putting the gummy worms on ice risking a melt over everything else in her bag. We iced the chocolate and the contraband was deemed “ok” by staff, "but not all at once" lest the girls eat it and get sick. We were all thankful to have Bob who provided a kind male presence to the all-female group.  Bob AKA “Don Manuel”, grew up in Venezuela and speaks Spanish well enough to iron out a few misunderstandings along our journey. The chocolate was an ice-breaker but through shared meals, and time in transport, they opened their hearts to us all. The girls commented to McKinley that we are nothing alike, evidently I am quite animated, loud and shy is the last descriptive they’d use for me. Kaitlyn busy as Chieflet of the day took a moment to join us for breakfast – she left her bananas untouched as she jumped up to manage logistics for the travel day. The girls have a thriving trade of food at meals, with varied tastes rarely a morsel was left as extra bread, fruit, drinks was given freely to friends or swapped. 

   Parents joined the Travel Journalism class to tour Granada, definitely a good choice for me over going to McKinley's Pre-Calc class.  Sharleen translated for the tour guide at the cathedral.  He had a brochure he was reading about historical battles – indigenous people vs. Spanish, English, Netherlands, and pirates, U.S. native Mr. Walker trying to take over the country and make himself President, Priests and Monks getting attacked when providing the church as a safe haven, volcano eruptions and earthquakes devastating the city.  The talk was chock full of details and dates spanning several centuries.  I got stressed as the guide spoke for an eternity before he paused for Sharleen to translate. English or Spanish aside, how would Sharleen ever remember the specifics?  Sharleen calmly and confidently condensed, synthesized, and contemplated what the guide said, occasionally asked teacher Vickie for confirmation. Since I understood only 50% of what the guide said in Spanish, Sharleen was my hero!  Over the next few days McKinley, Annie and Bella also translated speakers at the school for the blind turned into a restaurant and hammock making enterprise. Sarah translated the leader of the break-dancer group/school for teaching kids computer and English skills.  We all had a blast trying to break dance.  It was clear that Kaitlyn had studied dance. Maddie, Madeline and Annie busted some great moves.  Rachel, Hannah's mom, impressed all with her ability to balance her entire body in a rapper pose on her hands with knees resting on her elbows.

   Several truths were discovered by the parents during our visit to TTS: 1) We are always in motion, unless eating a sit down meal, in class or drop dead asleep from exhaustion (parents were the exhausted / girls exilarated), 2) Never Assume, 3) Always Question, 4) Expect the schedule to change as opportunities arise, 5) Everyone is positive and encouraging, 6) TTS is one cohesive group of friends & intellectual peers who challenge each other with diverse perspectives and experiences thereby teaching each other a wealth of knowledge, 7) Time is spent intentionally and thoughtfully, never wasted, 8) Never take purified water or clean clothes for granted. Ash commented to me that paying for laundry to be done was expensive but well worth it as it was difficult to get clothes washed by hand completely dry prior to being packed up for the next travel day. I was truly appalled at the blackened socks McKinley put on indicating those were her "clean" ones, not to pick on my daughter as it was likely the case with most girls, but some items in her backpack had a bad mildew odor.  I would recommend a future packing list include double the number of socks and underwear, omitting either the skirt or the dress and the rain pants. I think the girls are so pressed for time in completing their academics and in transit to see the sights so much of the time that doing laundry is prioritized at the bottom of the list. Thank goodness they all have chacos or tivas that can be rinsed off.  At TTS cleanliness becomes a relative term, a shirt worn two or three days with no large visible stains is deemed “clean”.  My sole regret of the trip is that I wished I had thought ahead enough to get at least the basics of underwear, socks and a few t-shirts laundered for all the girls. The Chieflets and teachers kept the schedule so packed with activities and homework assignments, that I didn't even think to send McKinley's laundry out.    

   I spent the first day or so wondering which girls were close friends, trying to decipher the cliques. The  more time I spent with the group, I realized that the girls were seamlessly moving from friend to friend, changing roommates, work crews, with different girls in each class. Class sizes varied from a few to 15.  Math, Travel Journalism and Spanish classes had roughly 3-4 girls and the largest classes Literature and Global had 12-15.  Our girls are receiving so much more information and interaction with peers and their teachers than could be gleaned in a public high school classroom.  Spanish 3 is conducted entirely in Spanish and seems to be an equivalent of an AP English class in Spanish; Annie, Bella, Sarah and McKinley are expected to analyze and discuss a difficult piece of El Salvadoran literature they read in Spanish. 
 

TTS25 Girls under the Learning Tree

In Lit class, after having the girls publicly share what was in their hearts drawn in a previous assignment, Sarah challenged the girls to choose 5 topics (person, moment etc...) and write 100 word vignettes, using descriptive, sensory language omitting superfluous fluff.  Sarah is talented at helping the girls to find meaning in life and in the assigned work, often helping them relate the assignments to personal experiences.  Sadie’s heart was drawn anatomically correct with arteries, veins, with the words written in numerous chambers.  McKinley’s heart had words in many colors indicating category classifications branching out like flower petals.  Maddie’s heart had been drawn in the sand as she said “Everything is temporary and always changing” like sand that can and will be washed away by the tide.  In Pre-Calc, Sharleen, Bella, McKinley and Madeline watched Meredith write out examples of matrix addition, multiplication and their uses in solving word problems with as many as 4 variables.  I wish I had learned this method.  The three girls quietly worked problems while one sought individual help on a tricky homework problem from the previous day.  In Global class, Maya and Sarah challenged the girls to evaluate immigration flows into the US over 2 centuries, discerning patterns and potential causes and to consider what was happening in each country at the time – Irish Potato Famine, WWI German depression, Mexican Drug Cartels mid 80’s to present.  In Science or Global (the two topics meld together in my mind at times), the girls presented the group with interactive learning activities on food production, aquaculture resource consumption and waste.  We were put into groups 1) large open-ocean cage 2) small fish cages packed so tight someone could walk across the water on the fish, 3) Medium sized enclosure on river 4) Shellfish ecosystem, asking us how happy we were as fish and how much resources were used in food production in each case.  We learned from a lively presentation that our society wastes (more than half) of our food due to spoilage all along the supply chain – stores, restaurants, & home, due to numerous factors, restaurants not wanting to run out of menu items, buying more perishables than family can consume before they spoil, spoilage due to items being shipped long distances rather than people consuming local staples. Expiration dates on non-perishables indicate a “maximum freshness” date not a throw-away food gone bad date.  These girls are deep, creative, so unique in their gifts and  diverse perspectives. 

  Time is spent intentionally. When our chicken bus arrived at the dock to catch a ferry to Omotepe there was to be a significant wait. Three girls gave presentations to the group for history class. Madeline profiled Augusto C. Sandino, the leader and inspiration of the Sandinista Revolution.   Sandino, an unrecognized, illegitimate child of a rich landowner, worked in Mexica raising funds to purchase arms in Honduras.  Sandino led a Peasant revolution against the N. American imperialists. The U.S. marines were present to ensure that a president, friendly to US interests, was elected. Sandino’s men won a battle at Jinotenga.  He was assassinated by General Somoza after attending peace brokering dinner with President Batista Sacasa. General Somoza seized the presidency within two years and became a U.S. backed dictator against which the Sandinista revolution, named after Sandino later fought.  Madeline presented a visual, a beautiful picture of Sandino inspired by the Sandino mural.  Jenny or TTS admin, please post Madeline’s Sandino portrait!  McKinley discussed the intricacies of the Iran Contra affair – U.S. gave arms to Israel who sold them to Iran (illegal for U.S. to sell them due to the embargo put in place because Iran took U.S. hostages), Iran paid Israel for the arms, Israel gave the money back to U.S. General Oliver North to fund the Contras fighting against the Sandinistas. It is ironic that Israel once brokered arms to Iran for the U.S, given Iran’s threat to Israeli security today.  A day or so later during history class, Sarah McLean presented the life of Daniel Ortega, current President of Nicaragua.  Ortega was considered a bandit after robbing a bank when he was young. He went to Honduras and later returned to fight with the Sandinistas fighting for freedom from the Somoza U.S. supported dictatorship.  Sandinistas stormed the Somoza presidential palace taking hostages.  They traded one of the hostages for Ortega who had been imprisoned previously.  After the Sandinistas won the revolution, Ortega was elected president.  He lost the next term to a U.S. supported Violeta Chamorro, but then Ortega won again the next election and has been president ever since. Sarah noted that Ortega’s family owns Nicaragua’s oil company and interests in hotels.  She highlighted the controversy of Ortega’s dominant political party changing the constitution to remove term limitations.  The group of TTS girls fired off numerous thoughtful questions during Q&A, someone asked “… is anyone else confused, earlier I thought Ortega was a hero and now we are hearing he is a dictator?”   

   Madeline, Kaitlyn, Leila, Annie and Maddie were the Chieflets during the parent visit.  At TTS teachers do not give instructions except as educators during class time. Each Chieflet is responsible for planning the days’ schedule the night before determining class schedules and choosing among options of potential sights to see etc… All five girls did a phenomenal job! Madeline had a quiet, confident approach, supervising loading bus and boat transport.  It seems that the girls must have worked out early on that it was most productive and best for the group to listen and quickly comply with Chieflet instructions.  Maybe as the group grew to have more former Chieflets, who wanted to support the Chieflet, after walking the Chieflet walk who understood the challenges of leadership. Kaitlyn seemed to love the responsibility of the job, expressing to me after I complimented her that she would do it all the time if she were allowed.  Leila, exuded an easy, playful confidence as a leader.  Being a sophomore, one of the youngest girls on the trip, she found no difficulty securing the group’s attention.  In fact, she was quite popular for inserting a stop at a spring-fed water hole (Oyo de Agua “Eye of Water”) after a long hot day at the coffee Finca.  Annie had a cheery demeanor, smiling with those adorable dimples as she served up a premium snack of watermelon she cut up for the group.  I say premium because often the snacks were Saltines, Ritz or graham crackers which keep well so the girls could access them when they were hungry.  Annie had an easy, confident, calm nature where instructions were given, but there was never a sense of stress. I told her that she is going to go far in life because people are drawn to people like her who exude a positive, cheery aura. Maddie had a challenging day as Chieflet during the travel day off the island.  She commanded and communicated the complicated logistics expertly in a positive way with a smile on her face. 

   We parents were amazed at the speed and logistical precision at which the group moved anywhere; okay I’ll say it outright, it was tough for me to keep up!  The girls worked as a well-oiled machine to move their own gear, group gear and food, offloading the ferry, girls had their huge and heavy backpacks on their backs, their large “book bags” on their fronts freeing up 1 hand to carry one half of the 30-50lb group bag, then perhaps using second hand to carry a snack bag. Somehow a watermelon got left behind. I was struggling to balance my roller board with backpack on top and the watermelon. Sarah, who looked to be carrying significantly more than me, happily relieved me of the watermelon - big heart or perhaps just trying to save the group's watermelon from being dropped by the crazy lady. These girls are amazing!  Unloading the bus, we lined up passing packs and bags down a line as if we were passing pails of water to a fire.  Some of those packs are really heavy, moms can attest, but the girls have all grown so strong, they make it look easy, never a complaint or whine. There were moments of peace and pure joy as when Izzy borrowed a guitar from some men from Holland and proceeded to sing and play.  The TTS girls joined in and soon Nicaraguan young men and little girls from a tourist family and the men from Holland were all interacting, laughing and trying to find a song that someone knew on the guitar to which everyone could sing.  One of the Nicaraguans proved to be a beautiful singer and guitarist playing as if he were in a paid piano bar.  As the sun set and the string of white Christmas lit up the deck, the group chorus echoed a Nicaraguan national song akin to Edelweiss for Austrians.  It was a beautiful moment. 

Izzy & New Friends Singing Together

Nicaraguan Folk Song

   Flexibility/ Time spent intentionally: Our visit to the Permaculture Coffee Finca, was delayed at the beginning at the educational compound yard where we awaited the arrival of our guide.  In the lag time, never a moment wasted, Laurel conducted an independent life skills class helping the girls prepare for home stays.  Split into the groups by home assignment, each group shared important things to communicate and concerns they had.  Annie and Bella, vegetarians, discussed the importance of reiterating the TTS school’s prior communication of food/allergy needs. Sarah-Jane noted the importance of asking about the source of fresh water and location of the bathrooms.  Katy, noted concerns about not wanting to be a burden to the family. How could smiley, adorable Katy be a burden to anyone?  I pulled her aside later and told her as much, noting that the school pays the families to house the girls.  Hannah suggested the family be consulted as to the families general time schedule, so as not to disrupt their routine.  Sadie mentioned that it would be good to build a foundation of trust before asking sensitive political questions.  After class, the girls began to interact with the local children.  Izzy, Maddie, Sarah Jane and McKinley sat at or near a child-sized table quietly conversing in Spanish with two girls and a boy aged 5 or so, drawing pictures with crayons. Others played futbol, conversed with locals and lined up to get buy ice cream from a lovely local old woman. The compound, near town, serves as an education, market and playground where locals can come to trade what they have for some of the Finca’s more diverse plants. Tables were set up showing educational properties of various plants and appetizers/samples of a corn bread, corn tortilla crackers with avocado/ basil pesto, and other treats were shared with our group and the locals who came to trade for plants. Try making pesto using avocado instead of olive oil, what a fresh yummy surprise! 

   We loaded our vans and drove to the the finca trail head and hiked about 1.5 miles up the volcano to the finca, where we were served a scrumptious lunch.  The corn tortillas (made with sauteed onions, garlic, shaved carrots & curry ) from  fresh corn grown from the finca cooked with ash (basic PH) in water to soften the shells. The formed tortillas were cooked in vegetable oil (accommodating vegetarian needs). The cooks noted more often tortillas are cooked in lard.  They beamed when Beverly and I expressed they were the best tortillas we ever had.  After lunch, we were treated to an extensive tour of the finca. The first concept was locating necessary items such as water, fertilizer and nursery in close proximity to each other to save worker travel time and effort to transport items. Think about this like the classic kitchen design triangle of proximity of the water sink, stove and refrigerator to improve efficiency.  Our guide showed us how the kitchen/worker hangout was close to the compost pile (1^st fertilizer source with worms fed with horse manure, plants, kitchen waste) and close to the chickens/turkey (poop is a redundant 2^nd fertilizer source) and the nursery housing young plants in various growth stages in a compact, partially shaded area where they can be easily watered often. Our guide explained the benefits of permaculture: 1) planting water retention grasses in rings around the hillside, according to elevation (topographically) to slow and retain water and nutrients that flow down the volcano, 2) planting varied complementary plants rather than an entire field of coffee.  Fast-growing banana trees are planted around slower growing fruit tree to offer shade, plants like beans and others pull nitrogen from the air and deliver it back to the soil are planted to improve soil 3) Mulch madness, the finca looked messy with all the banana leaves and bark on the ground around plants but there is water in the bark of banana trees. When bananas are harvested, he whacks down the trunk with his machete and cuts the trunk bark into strips which are placed wet side down around fruit trees.  He mentioned that bananas have no seeds.  After the guide explained the world may be in trouble because bananas have been bred over the years to not have seeds and there are no more banana seeds,  I appreciated Maddie’s question in a slightly sarcastic tone to me, “if there are no seeds then how can they plant new plants?”  I agreed wholeheartedly that there must be some banana seeds.  One disadvantage of not having immediate access via cell phone to the internet is that the inquiring minds of these girls can’t immediately answer their own questions.  Maybe I missed the guide’s explanation as I was getting hot, dazed and distracted helping  a fellow mom, with an aspirin for a head ache.  I looked online -  bananas are rhizomes; they shoot out new shoots so the new shoots can be cut and transplanted. Now saying all this, as I was eating a banana yesterday and I bit into a tougher, starchy interior and indeed I was eating a banana with numerous tiny black seeds.  I pulled the car over driving back from a Big Sky ski day to take a photo (attached).  Question Everything girls - not all bananas are seedless.  

   Parent performance night: Kaitlyn and company treated us to a hilarious rendition of covering up TTS style to go swimming.  Kaitlyn danced around adorning herself with a huge sunhat (like the one I wore the entire trip), layers long sleeve shirts, pants and sunscreen.  Madeline, Leila and company performed an educational rap.   It was a fun evening and we thoroughly enjoyed all the performances.

   TTS arranged for speakers opposed to the canal to present their views to the girls. At this point it is hard for me to tell whether this was for history, Global, science or Spanish as it truly incorporated elements of all these classes. The speaker relayed in Spanish (translated by teacher, Vickie as this one was too difficult or too important for any items to be lost in translation). The canal will stretch from the Pacific to the Atlantic through fresh water Lake Nicaragua which is used as a fresh drinking water source and by locals for subsistence fishing.  No environmental impact assessment was conducted.  The speaker presented the girls with copies of the law (in Spanish) to allow a private Chinese business billionaire consortium to build the canal. The Chinese consortium will invest in the construction and control the canal for 100 years until the 50 billion estimated investments is paid off, with Nicaragua receiving only 1% of the income annually. The legislation was supported by Daniel Ortega and his majority FSLN party; the bill was passed with only three days of consideration. The canal will be wide enough and deep enough to house oil tankers and aircraft carriers.  The bill allows for land to be taken from anyone anywhere in Nicaragua if it is deemed necessary to the construction of the canal. They showed a map of a band of 100 kilometers above and below the canal line which I believe could be taken in “eminent domain” for the project.  They indicated that Ortega influences or suppresses the local press so that many people in Nicaragua are not aware of information about the canal. Hannah, Bella, McKinley, Sadie, Sarah Jane, Kaitlyn, Leila, Katy, Sarah, Ash and Maddie (I guess most of the girls) asked incredibly thoughtful, informed questions. I think they blew the 5 adult men away with their collective knowledge of Nicaraguan politics, history and ecology.  TTS girls’ informed questions may have changed the adult male's assumptions as to  the power and importance of educating girls. Kids go to school in Nicaragua until they are 14, if they’re lucky.  Maddie brought a tear to the speaker’s eye when she summed it neatly “Ortega was part of the Sandinista FSLN that redistributed land from foreign multinationals to the Nicaraguan people after the revolution, how can he support a canal project that is taking land away from the Nicaraguan people?” The speakers indicated they have led peaceful protests where they were assaulted by police and jailed overnight.  They mentioned that the police follow them everywhere, photographing them.  At the end of the presentation, they pointed out the “Frogs” police and a couple with them whom some parents noticed had been at the Charco Verde reserve lakeside hotel at which we were staying the day before.  Once I saw the police, I asked McKinley, who asked a lot of political and technical questions, to go change her clothes.  She ignored me, choosing to be on time to her lit class. Paranoid mom that I am, I changed my shirt and let my hair down from the pony tail.  I was a little worried about taking McKinley to see the petroglyphs on our own during her free periods later that afternoon, in a taxi but we risked it anyway.  The canal opponent speakers very much hope that our girls will spread the news about how the canal could be a government “land grab” of private citizen land and could detrimentally impact the locals who depend on fresh water and fish for subsistence.  They hope our girls will contact their congressman, press to spread the word since the Nica press is tightly controlled.  I would add my perception that with the canal being controlled by Chinese is likely risks destabilizing the region and communist military presence close by would not be in the U.S. interests.

"No Nicaraguan Canal"

   Well parents, I have failed at my attempt to provide you with Sarah White’s assignment of 5 vignettes of 100 words or less.  If you minded my wordiness, then you likely stopped reading long ago.  Your daughters are amazing, unique, beautiful (inside and out), inquisitive, smart, articulate creatures.  I compliment the TTS teachers and administration for the fine educational program they have created.  Jennifer has done a beautiful job of selecting and managing teachers.  Price is so adorable and sweet fielding sometimes silly parent questions and hand holding us through the registration process. Our girls are safe, healthy, in their element while receiving an “out of this world”, culture –packed, dynamo semester of education.  Our minds have been broadened by prodding questions from the teachers and statements like “never assume”, “always question”, “seek multiple viewpoints”, "are you judging with that statement?" For the better, expect your daughter to come home questioning even the small things. After pumping water for purification to drink, brush teeth and wash fruit, I find it unconscionable to allow the water to run while brushing teeth. I see so much waste, materialism and excess here after being in Nica.  I am disappointed at my younger daughter’s inattention to my questions (distracted by instagram on her I-phone) especially after spending a week with TTS girls who are unplugged, engaged, completely “present” in the moment.  It is not her fault; it was my perspective that changed in Nica, not the people back home.

   After spending only 7 days with the TTS community, your girls, the teachers and the staff have carved a special place in my heart.  I welcome any and all to visit us in Bozeman for a MSU campus visit or just to say “hi” to the TTS teachers and staff. I was apprehensive to go to Nicaragua, land of Sandinistas turned into a dictatorship.  I have travelled to Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica previously.  Managua is similar to San Jose Costa Rica in many aspects, but the rest of the country is quite subsistence, agriculture-based.  It is in the very beginning of a renaissance of commerce and tourism. The kind people of “Nica” have written on my heart – The blind Nicaraguan who played the guitar whose name I cannot recall and his friends who borrowed the guitar from Izzy, Lester the van-driver who spoke no English and happily suffered my mangling of the Spanish language to learn more about his family and culture, Abel our taxi driver who acted as tour guide to show us the petroglyphs and answered hundreds of McKinley’s questions about the economy, the canal impact, oil purchased from Venezuela, Abel and Lester both complimented McKinley's Spanish, a welcome contrast to my attempted communication, Juana Mercedes the beautiful inside and out 70+ year street vendor who pulled me by the hand, racing across a busy street to get change at the bicycle shop so I could purchase her cocoa powder and powered maize, Cindy, the kind Nicaraguan customs officer who laughed when I tried to explain I’d swam wearing my passport, no the girls all trusted theirs to the teacher’s trusty guard, eventually I got through customs although my entry documents were smeared. They are all beautiful people populating a lovely country.  Yes, Beverly, I made it through U.S. customs with the Maize powder, hurray, we can make tortillas like the finca. I plan to bring the family back to “Nica” for a surf/cultural vacation.  Parents, if any of you want to call me sometime (406) 586-6996, I might have more specific tidbits about your daughters. I send hugs to all of you for raising such wonderful daughters and sharing them with the TTS community.

Best Regards,   Kris Hall, McKinley’s Mom.

P.S. This “novel” was written somewhat rushed so please excuse any errors, omissions or grammatical mishaps!