Interview with Mari Goodman - 2013 Arizona Mother of Achievement

Born the oldest of four children in South Jordan, Utah., Mari Goodman learned the value of family unity at her mother’s knees. After high school, Mari attended Brigham Young University and earned her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. She is a mother of two girls and has been the foster mother of eleven more children. She and her husband have been involved as licensed foster parents and respite care providers since 2005. Mari runs a blog journaling their adoption efforts along with their family activities at paulandmariadoption.blogspot.com. When she is not spending quality time with her family, she volunteers in her children’s schools, spearheads service projects for the annual Flagstaff Faith in Action Day, and leads a women’s organization of one hundred fifty women. Mari’s latest undertaking is a joint business venture with her sister.

I asked Mari some questions and here are her answers:

1.       How do you balance your time with your husband, children and church/community efforts?

        Sometimes I can do the balancing act better than others.  A lot of the time, I try to include my family in our efforts for the church or the community.   When I have taken meals to families who need it, the girls help make it (ok they sometimes helped) and help me hold it in the car.  When we created a play room/visitation room at CPS for children and their families, the girls and Paul were right there with me - painting the walls, cleaning toys, and donating some of their books and toys.  There are times they haven't been able to help me with things.  In my efforts to balance everything, we try to make sure we have designated family time each week - making an effort to eat dinner together most nights, reading scriptures together, and one night spending time together.  Paul and I also try to make sure we go on dates frequently.  Sometimes that means we go out (dinner, hiking, movie, etc) and sometimes that means playing games together after the kids are in bed.

2.       What advice has helped you the most in raising your children?

        "Remember they are only little for a short time."  "Enjoy each stage."  Yeah, some of the stages are more challenging than others, but finding something in there you can find a positive spin on helps  more than you would think it does.

3.       What have you done/are doing with your children that is very successful?

        I asked the girls to help me answer this one.

*One said the effort we take to make sure we do things together as a family.  Having a family game night, going exploring, eating dinner together, jeep rides, road trips, etc.

*The other one said doing new and different activities together.

         When we first moved to Flagstaff, one thing we tried to do was go see/do something new each month.  As the years have gone by, we aren't able to make that work each month any more, but we are always looking for something new to try out.  Now a lot of the time, we take family or friends to all the amazing places we have found around Northern Arizona.   Our latest "new adventure" was going to Slide Rock with cousins - the girls have never been there before.   It was so much fun one pair of shorts didn't make it - that many times down "the slide" kind of tore up those shorts.  Water shoes are highly recommended for this adventure as well.  So one of the girls got new water shoes from the little convenience store there - hers were too small and they didn't make it into the car that morning.