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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
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Wednesday, May 9, 2018
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On her first Mother’s Day, she’s a mom to 5
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA AFN Contributor
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his Mother’s Day is Jaclyn Raymond’s first since becoming a mother of five on April 13. The 27-year-old Ahwatukee resident and her husband of five years, Aaron, 30, adopted five siblings, culminating a years-long odyssey that offered as many multiple challenges and obstacles as Odysseus in Homer’s epic tale. But with compassion and conviction, determination and love, the Raymond family is complete – and living an otherwise typical family life with baseball games, dance recitals, pizza outings and more. “Love is absolutely what drove us from day one,” said Aaron, a purchasing agent with Ashton Woods. “While some may say this is a Father’s Day story, I think it is better fitting for Mother’s Day. We’ve both sacrificed so much, but Jaclyn has really gone above and beyond for these kids. She is full of unconditional love and affection.” “It’s complicated and layered,” said Jaclyn as she related the story of how she became a mother of the five siblings ranging in age from 5 to 13. And it all began in 2014 with an 8-year-old boy named Terrance, one of approximately 30 students in Jaclyn’s third-grade class at a school
in Memphis, where she taught as a Teach for America Corps member. She saw he needed help in his underserved but close-knit neighborhood and that he deserved more than he was getting at home. Jaclyn recalled she first saw Terrance when he arrived two weeks late to class after being expelled from another school. “Even within this impoverished community, it was known his family struggled,” she said. “In early December, Aaron and I decided to take three struggling boys to a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game. Later in the school year, he asked if he could come home with me. I had to get my principal’s blessing, and I told Terrance if for one week he could really behave, like
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A MOUNTAIN OF A LEGACY
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(Molly McElenneySpecial to AFN)
Jaclyn Raymond of Ahwatukee has a lot to celebrate this Mother’s Day. She and husband Aaron last month adopted, from left, Terrance, 12; Jason, 5; Brittany, 13; and Aaron Jr., 10, as well as Janice, 7, who is in the foreground.
ADOT slates open house on new interchange BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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hwatukee residents will have a chance to weigh in on the proposed addition of a South Mountain Freeway interchange at 32nd Street when the Arizona Department of Transportation holds an open house on that and other construction issues
later this month. State Rep. Jill Norgaard said she sought the open house – 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, May 22 at Desert Vista High School’s cafeteria, 16440 S. 32nd St., Ahwatukee – because of “a lot of people who want updates on the freeway schedule, blasting, lawsuit” and the poor lane striping on Pecos Road. “There is no formal presentation,” ADOT
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said in a release. “The public can speak oneon-one with project staff about the studies and learn more about construction progress to date and what to expect for the rest of the year.” ADOT since February has been conducting an environmental impact study on the addi-
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