Karen and Dale Henselmeier
I was born and raised in Decatur, IL….the soybean capital of the world! Although my mom is the oldest of 10 children and my dad the middle child of 3 children, I was an only child. I was always with my many cousins, but I still felt the loneliness of not having siblings. My father had graduated with two degrees, one in chemistry, and one in mathematics from Milliken University. After just a few months on the job as a chemist at Staley’s, the depression hit. He lost his job and found a new one with the US Postal Service. He continued to be a mailman through World War II and came home and decided that the security of that job was enough for him to remain, until he had two heart attacks and had to retire early. He was my substitute math teacher my junior year in high school. I was very happy when he took a job with the State of Illinois using his math skills. My family owned 3 apartment houses that my mom managed so she could stay at home to raise me. I learned early in my life how to paint and clean apartments and helped in keeping the apartments maintained. My dad thought I should learn how to be an electrician and a plumber, so I would follow him around when he had to fix anything in any of the houses. Since my dad would have 4-6 weeks of vacation time each year, we would use that time to travel the country. We owned a small trailer and camped our way through every state in the United States except Hawaii and Alaska. I have been all through Canada and parts of Mexico. I feel very lucky to have had that experience and my husband and I have tried to pass that experience on to our children.
In high school I was very active. I was an officer for a couple of years in my class and I was on Poms. I enjoyed those years being a member of many clubs including the German Club…my favorite. Although we have Milliken University in our town, I wanted to get out on my own and chose to attend William Woods College. I was active in the Colonel’s Twenty, an on campus group that gave tours of the school and acted as hostesses for other organizations. I was a Chi Omega there and enjoyed my four years while earning a double degree in Elementary Education and Special Education. I did three student teachings while I was there, so I had to complete both degrees in 3 years to have the time to student teach all of my senior year. I did it by staying with professors during the spring breaks and working at the Mental Institution and rural schools to get my entire requirement in.
I met my husband Dale at the neighboring college, Westminster college my sophomore year. He was a junior in pre-med. We dated for 2 ½ years before we married just weeks after I graduated from William Woods. We moved to St. Louis after our honeymoon and
I have lived in St. Louis since then. I started teaching and Dale continued his medical school education. He became a resident at St. John’s Mercy Hospital and we live on the grounds for a couple of years. Dale is now Family Care Physician and I continue to work as a Special Education Teacher.
Early in our marriage we experienced the pain of infertility. We persisted for 10 years through 6 operations and many, many drugs to achieve a pregnancy. After 2 miscarriages, and an adoption, we finally gave birth to two of our children. I learned through all of that that I didn’t have complete control in my life and I had to turn to God and hand the burden over. When I completely released that control that is when things shifted. I also learned that it does not matter if you adopt or give birth to a child because they are all chosen just for you. There was only one difference that I could say I noticed between the day we took our first child home and the day we took the other two homes… I had more energy and didn’t have any recovery time with the first. I am very proud of all of my children.
Laura was always a dancer. She was in productions of The Nutcracker with her dance troupe and became a member of Poms at Marquette. She was a Student Council member and graduated at the top of her class with academic honors. Laura went on the Honors College in Valparaiso in Indiana. She graduated from Valparaiso University with a degree in Elementary Education and Spanish… Laura is a middle school Spanish teacher in Parkway School District in St. Louis after spending the past 4 years teaching Spanish in Evanston, IL.
Emily was always a natural athlete. She competed in jazz dancing and Poms and swam from the age of 4 until 18. She settled on USS swimming and cross country running as the sports she participated through high school. At the age of 10 years, she went to Zones and earned a place as one of the fastest breaststrokers in a 9 state area. She loved competition and winning a race. Emily was a member of an Odyssey of the Mind team and went to World Finals one year. She also has a great voice and had many years of professional training. In high school she was in choir as well as the Show Choir. She continue to sing in the choirs at Westminster College. Emily, a recent college graduate from Westminster College is looking for a Youth Ministry position in a church and plans on getting Masters in Divinity in the next few years,
John, our youngest, was always the performer. He was always in the school plays and enjoyed being on an Odyssey of the Mind team and Destination Imagination team. He was privileged to go to World Final’s twice for these teams. He enjoyed soccer and baseball for many of his elementary years, but also was a boy scout, in Indian Guides and USS swimming. He became an Eagle Scout at the age of 14.
He continued USS swimming through his freshman year in high school. He was also a goalie on the Junior Varsity Water Polo team. His heart was still in performing, so he quit the swim and water polo team and remained very active as an actor in the high school theater. He was both a techie and an actor. Sometimes he did both! He played as leads in both the drama and musical performances. He became the Executive Producer for Marquette TV his junior year and remained in that position until graduation.
John is a junior at the University of Missouri in Columbia studying graphic design. He is the bassist in The Makeshift Gentlemen and is currently on tour.
Our family has always been my focus. I was able to tutor from home, and volunteer for all of my children’s activities. As they left for college, I began to think of ways to shift my focus to a career that I could work from home and have flexible hours.
I came into FreeLife through the product door. I had been on a heart transplant list about 15 years ago and remained on it for 4 years. I was told that I had a 15% chance to live without a new heart and if I received one I may get to live another 15 years. I learned during that time that healthy nutrition, supplements, exercise, prayer, and developing my spiritual life as well as being a perfect patient, were the way to get off the list and back on the road to health. I tried many different products for other nutritional companies, and lots of holistic methods to improve my health. I was able to get off the list, start living a normal life, but I was on many medications and lots of supplements that I would take twice a day. I received a call in April of 2006 from one of my best friends, Carol who told me of her 3 week stay in the intensive care unit of a hospital near her for pancreatitis. She asked me if I would try this Himalayan Goji Juice to see if I had any benefits for my heart since she had such great results with the juice after drinking it for just one month. I started drinking the juice, and a few months later I had many health benefits that continued to build over the year. I was able to get off of many medications and have remained off of them to this day. The benefits are still growing! Each day is a blessing as I continue my health 15 years late.
When the next Convention came along, I agreed to go. I thought it would be a great time with my friend and didn’t think much about doing the business side of FreeLife. When I arrived in the room filled with 4,000 people, I was amazed. I had been to conventions before with my physician husband but I had never seen what was happening in that room. 4,000 people of different ethnic backgrounds, different economic backgrounds, and different educational backgrounds, all standing around with a smile on their face in a room filled with happy energy. All of them were sharing the common bond of FreeLife, International and Himalayan Goji Juice. I saw the integrity in Ray and Kevin’s eyes when they spoke to us on stage and when I shook their hands later. I was so impressed with the quality that went into the products, the event, and the leaders that were there. I knew I had found a home in FreeLife as a business. I could be proud to say I was a part of this company. I had been looking for a way to work from home on my on time. I have been a tutor for 34 years, but I was still limited to when I could work. I love teaching, but I wanted more. I love the challenge of growing a business to the top levels of the company and I put in all of my energy into it to help others do the same.
If you are interested in starting a serious business from your home with FreeLIfe, I am looking for open minded partners that have a desire to build a residual income. As a teacher, I will be able to work with you to help you grow to the place you want to be to start living your dreams.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Karen Henselmeier
Ambassador, FreeLife, International
St. Louis, MO
Contact Karen at:
Cell: 314.503.4903
Email: gojireiki@gmail.com
www.karenhenselmeier.freelife.com
ID # 825937
