Dear IF readers,

We are back online with our International Family Magazine blog.  This is a great place to talk with our members in a more comfortable way.  A “behind the scenes” think piece.  I hope the members join in with their comments and posts as well.  As a full-time teacher last year, it was a challenge to get IF mag updated monthly.  We managed to do it with new material and some reprints.  Going into the next year of issues, we are planning ahead during the summer months so that we can improve on content and delivery.  There is some great content in the works.  We are planning some photo tours of the world, more video/multimedia content, regular blog content and of course stories, stories, stories!!!! I will end this blog with a story of my own.  At times when I am busy I pause to ask myself, “Why do you keep going with IF mag?” and then I reflect on the families that have written to me.  One day the Dad of Allison Mosher who has special needs with Smith Magenis wrote an email to me.  John, the Dad, told me that after we interviewed Allison and her mother, the larger, extended family began to call about the article.  Relatives who had never inquired about the nature of Allison’s needs had begun to feel comfortable to ask questions and discuss things.  After almost 15 years of polite silence, the family finally got closer from an International Family Magazine story about Allison.  That is all I will ever need to keep going with the magazine.  Our mission statement here at IF mag is to bring the world closer through the stories of family.  As we share these stories, everyone gathers around to listen, laugh, cry and share a story of their own.  For those moments, all is well with the world as if we were all in one living room together, with no thoughts of difference.  For a brief time there is no “mine”  or  ”yours”, there is only “ours” and we are all connected.  Good reading, Cat