Sparrow Girl...WAY TOO BUSY!'s photostream  

I'm this dichotomy of being very open and fun-loving at the same time I am very introspective and reflective. I love learning, searching, and understanding. I am a Buckeye by birth, but am an Appalachian girl at heart and in my blood. The mountains of West Virginia call me home every day as I am the first of my descendants to not be born there.

I have a seemingly insatiable curiosity. "Why?" is the most important question. I am always wanting to dig deeper and tend to be self-taught in most all I do.

I find myself happiest with a cup of coffee and a journal and my BIble, or in the outdoors with my binoculars and my field guide (and now my camera), or doing genealogy, discovering more and more about the people who make who I am. I've just been photographing in the past year with my Nikon D90 SLR, with so much to learn and with lots of room to grow! I've only used the kit lens, but am about to take my 300mm out of the box and venture more.

I'm an avid birder and journaler. My goal is to purchase my 500mm lens and do more photographing of birds and wildlife. I am rabid about WVU mountaineers and bluegrass music, though I have very eclectic musical tastes. I sing and play piano, since age 5.

Professionally, I'm an licensed independent social worker at Akron Children's Hospital in the Haslinger Pediatric Palliative Care Center, where we serve children/young adults (and their families) with chronic and complex illness/disability that may be life-threatening. It is a great joy and honor to do this work.

Here is a 7 minute video of what we do: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R1ZVRCWqzU

Additionally, I am the mother of two adults, one with severe autism who functions at an 18 month level. I have two wonderful grandchildren, Noah and Elijah, who light of my life amazingly! I am the caregiver for my mother with end-stage Alzheimers.

I could not make it through this journey of life without my amazing husband, Ed. And most of all, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.