Donna Kimmel, YOA ATM / Webmaster
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Why I Am Whom I Am . . .
(NO excerpts here! Rock)

I come from a family of seven children. My three sisters and I were raised by my mother and father. My two older stepbrothers were raised by my grandmother and great-aunt and my older step-sister was raised by her mother in the Atlanta area. I am the oldest of my sisters and was blessed to have had a part in raising them. My mother and father both worked full-time, which left me in charge of my siblings on many occasions. Although at times I thought this to be a burden, as I grew up I realized it was actually a blessing. As young children, the four of us attended Sunday school, The Church of the Open Door. While my sisters may have been too young to understand, I know in my heart that God has had a watchful eye on them. As time passed, the family fell away from going the church. Along with that, my parents’ marriage fell apart.

I was a young teenager when my parents’ relationship turned bad and ran away from home on two occasions. I lived in Tennessee for six months before it was found out that I was a waif. I wasn’t home long before I ran away to Florida. I became a drug user, donating my plasma to support my habit. I was brought back home after only one month. I continued my drug use and eventually met my first husband, George. When I became pregnant at the age of sixteen, I turned away from drugs and focused on my future. Remembering how wonderful it felt to have had a part in raising my sisters, I quickly called on God to have mercy on me and to forgive me.

When my parents divorced I was already married with two children of my own. Dory, the oldest of the three sisters stayed with my father, while Desiri and Dawn went to live with my mother. She began drinking and using drugs excessively, eventually giving into alcoholism. My mother became abusive to my sisters, both mentally and physically. I so desperately wanted to help my sisters, be a mother to them again, to hold them, and hug them, to protect them. Mom would not allow me to spend time with them. With great joy in my heart, eventually, the two youngest sisters went to live with my dad. With dad having little knowledge of raising three girls on his own, the opportunity to mother my sisters, was once again, at hand. (My mother died on September 19, 1997 of Sclerosis. Although, my sisters and I were not very close to my mother for many years, her terminal illness brought forgiveness and initiated family unity once again. She received Christ as her Savior on her deathbed. Praise God.)

While my marriage was blissful for a short time, it was also short-lived. When George drank, he would abuse me mentally, sexually and physically. My self-esteem soon hit rock bottom. One night while my husband was once again showing his ‘manhood’, with no shoes on my children’s feet and no coats on their backs, we ran for fear our lives. That night was the beginning of the end of our marriage. With my daughter Jennifer (age 4) and my son Jason (age 2) we started a new life of our own.

Once again I began falling away from the Grace of God. I felt I was being persecuted, damned, punished. I wanted nothing to do with religion. I really never had a personal relationship with God, never really committed myself. I knew of Jesus, but never surrendered.

After the relationship I had with my first husband, it is a true miracle that I remarried. My husband, Chuck, accepted my two children, raised and loved them as his own. We were blessed with a son, Kyle, now 11 years old.  

Some of my interests

I adore having children around me. I love the outdoors (mountains, ocean) camping, fishing, hiking, boating, swimming, gardening, raising house plants, animals. I am an avid Christian fiction reader.

I am closing for now, I truly hope you can make some sense out of this writing.

Your sister in Christ,

Donna

Youth Of America .ORG!

Thanks for visiting Donna Kimmel, Webmaster

Last modified on Thursday, November 12, 1998