Michael: The Early Years

Recently our third son Michael had a birthday, August 19. He was born in Anchorage, Alaska in 1965. That would make him 44 years old on this past birthday. We celebrated his life in quiet ways, but, we wern't able to have a birthday party because we don't know where Mike is, and we haven't known where he is since 1992. We spent a few years doing everything we could think of to find him, and always ran into a brick wall. For another few years we quietly lived with the unknown. God changed all that; living with the unknown, three years ago. I'll tell you that story a little later in the blog.

Mike was the fifth child of six. He was born three weeks early and picked a time to be born when his dad, Jim, was in the bush of Alaska working. He came into the world weighing 9 pounds and 9 ounces, 22 3/4" long, lots of dark hair like his dad. First thing I noticed about Mikey was his love of the attention he got from four older brothers and sister. Michael Lee Woods early on established his position in the birth order. He knew how to keep up with his older siblings, he could go sledding on the Mormon Hill behind our house. That was a kid named hill, just because it was owned by the Mormon church in our neighborhood. He could stand as long as the rest of them at Summit Lake to fish, even though his fishing line had gotten tangled up, he didn't care, he was with the crowd he called his family. Mike love going clam digging at Clam Gulch, until one day when he was three years old, he got stuck in the mud. The look on his
face told me he thought he was going to be in the muck forever. We got him free out of his boots and used the clam shovel to dig the boots out. Silt in Alaska is like gooey cement.

Our favorite place in Alaska is still Homer. Camping on Homer's Spit in those days was like being in the wilderness. Quiet. Just the sound of bald eagles and ocean water coming in. We had a canvas tent that fit all six of our kids and a cousin or two. I think we built the biggest bon fires on Homer's Spit ever! Mike like all of our kids, entered in with all kinds of energy. Then there were all those long daylight hours in the summer! The light always seemed to make up for the cool Alaska summer air. Freedom was going all night with activity, not once did the kids ever hear, "time for bed!" The first night we would clean a bunch of huge razor clams and make a big pot of clam chowder on the beach. Every child knew how to clean clams at some point in their lives. Work, then eat!

These are just a few of the early memories of Mike's life. Let's do this a little at a time.