Biographies

 Carl and Judy

Carl is a retired former CTO for a software company. Now, he is now a grandfather, reader, writer, etc. He did some fishing back earlier - but then gave up meat and fish. No point in bothering the poor little things, he says.  Prior to the Covid pandemic, he spent a great deal of time volunteering. Most of those activities - Sister Parish, Habituat, Spanish immersion, Woodwinds Hospital and County Boards are now in the past. We both continue to help out at Catholic Charities, Loaves and Fishes, and Open Arms. He stopped buying so many books, figuring the kids would have a heck of a time getting rid of them. Now he reads them mostly through Libby and Kindle library loans. 

Decades ago he was a member of our local city council, and on the city planning commission. He chaired an effort for a bond referendum for public parks and open space, and worked on affordable housing. Those were good things to do, and they introduced him to a wide network of caring adults. 

He's also writing -- working on the family memoirs, stories, and essays on "the meaning of life".  His latest efforts have to do with economics and culture and development, neuroscience and "what is wrong with people" in politics.  If you are fascinated by those ideas - take a look at his blog:  http://carlscheider.blogspot.com/

Judy is a retired pastoral care minister and manager at our local church. Her job was literally to feed the poor and clothe the naked. She is also retired. Judy also spent many years as a volunteer Guardian Ad Litem for children. It was a very demanding but rewarding effort to represent the interests of children who are at risk.  It was also a great education in how our social justice works or fails to work.

Judy tracks the weather of each of the places where our children live, reads novels and every word of the daily newspaper. She is immensely well organized, and also extremely caring and thoughtful. She also volunteers at Catholic Charities and Open Arms.  And she always listens, even to Carl's ramblings.

Our Kids

We have 5 kids as you can see.  They came to us in various ways - but they are all our kids, and we love them very much.

This is an old picture - a couple of them live at a distance, and we have not all been together for some time!  But . . . they still look pretty much like this!  They all got a 4 year college degree - and several have gone of to advanced degrees in various disciplines.  We are quite proud of them - but they did it - not us.  As I generally say, "not my fault". 

We think we raised them pretty well - but it was a learning process on both sides. Our kids are widely "diverse." Not just in their genetics but in how they interact with each other and us. They expanded our whole idea of what "being normal" is. Carl wrote a bit about that in his blog entry: https://carlscheider.blogspot.com/2010/03/trans-racial-adopt.html 

Travel

We enjoyed traveling a bit - as our finances allowed.  The pictures below are just a few of the places we have been. A work in progress! Well, all right - I never got around to putting in the pictures. The Africa trip was the most amazing. We spent a month there. Nicaragua too - Carl visited there 9 times - once spending two months helping with a Rotary project. Then there was Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan.