My years' growing up was quite a normal journey. I was the sixth child for my parents. I was born in Karachi, Pakistan. My parents were from India. They settled down in Pakistan after the Indian Independence.

I grew up in a Christian home, went to a Christian girl's school and graduated from Karachi University with Bachelors in History. Ever since I can remember I always worked around the house and helped my mother. Believe it or not I started cooking since I was 16 years old. Even though it was hectic those days I think I seriously enjoyed it.

I loved being with people. I participated in all church activities. I even convinced my parents to let me work in an office. This is (1976)when my parents started looking for a bridegroom. Arranged marriage is our culture. I was not thrilled about it! Lived and grown in Karachi I was not ready to go to India and spend the rest of my life with a strange man.

Well none of my frustrations stopped my parents from going ahead with their plan. My picture was sent to my maternal uncle in India and he was mailing pictures of all prospective grooms that he had already researched on. Since this groom hunting was going on anyway I thought that I would not lose anything and as a matter of fact it will be fun to look at all the pictures.

For some wierd reason I liked one of the guys in the picture because he resembled Elvis!! This was becoming serious and my uncle and my parents were also very happy with this proposal and they were getting in to all the details. I have to admit that I was secretly admiring this guy (Robert/Raj)in the picture and it was creepy that I did not know anything about him. This went on for sometime.

We finally landed in India and the bridegroom and his relatives came to see me. It was a very strange experience to see the guy in the picture right in front of me smiling and trying to figure me out. Well, we both agreed to get married. After a brief engagement we were married (December 21,1977)and went to live in Tuticorin(South India). I tell you this was not what I bargained for. I learnt that I have to live under all circumstances, so long as you are with the person you love.

So that is how my marriage started. I have to say this that knowing I came from a very luxurious and comfortable life, Robert made all the efforts to keep that up for me and I loved him more for that and that hasn't stopped till now! Since Robert was working in the bank we had to move a lot and by now (1980) we had 2 beautiful daughters.

We decided that we could not move so much since the girls need to be stabilized in school. So Robert resigned from the bank job (1982) and went up to the mountains and there we started our own farming business. I was in charge of the managing and accounting part of the business and I did a pretty good job of it battling between that and taking care of my family.

After 3 years of great work and successful harvest the business took a plunge for the worse and so we packed again and went down to Madurai (1985- Robert's home town). After much thought and planning we ventured out by starting a school for which I was the Principal and Administrator. I did everything from hiring teachers, paper work, curriculums, organizing events, etc. that gave me a lot of exposure outside the home and some experience to know what it takes to run any business.

In the meantime Robert went in for Computer training and got a Masters in Computer Technology and he opened one of the best Computer Learning Centers in that town (1986).He was very successful and made a lot of money and since he was earning fairly well we closed the school and I took a break.

It was at this time in 1992 that Robert had the desire to complete his theological training and he chose to do it in the US. I think by now you get the picture that whether it was to a different city or country we had no problem packing and moving. This was the biggest move of our lives and it stuck with us till today.

Well, here we are after many struggles with culture shocks, raising 2 girls. Read on for our adventures!

Special 2002 We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary

2004- Robert took up a contract job as Web Master at Kodaikanal Iternational School in Kodaikanal, a beautiful hill station in South India. He helped design their brand new website.

I really missed my daughters and America, so we came back in Decemeber 2005 for Christmas to be with our daughters and stayed on.

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Thank you for reading

Shirley Fenn