Lori Beneyton, who grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, has always been enthralled by foreign lands and cultures. She loves to travel, meet people
from different countries, and learn foreign languages.
But she never thought that one day she’d have this international experience right at her own kitchen table in her hometown of Hellertown, Pennsylvania.
But there’s husband Gilles, the Frenchman she fell in love with and married. There’s son Edi, 4, adopted from Guatemala when he was 1 year old. There’s daughter Irina, 3, adopted from Russia when she was 2. And completing the family is baby Sam, age 1, brought into the family the old-fashioned way.
“I love the family we created—a little of the world,” says Lori, 45, who works as subscription director for magazine publisher and media company Rodale Inc. “I got a late start, and quite frankly there were times I didn’t think I’d ever become a mother.”
She met Gilles in October 2001 when he was in the United States for two weeks to attend an auto show as part of his hobby (now business) selling American antique cars and parts. The two were introduced by a mutual friend who knew that Lori had studied French.
They didn’t plan on falling in love and having a long-distance global relationship for the next three years,
but that’s what happened until Gilles immigrated to the United States and they wed in 2004.
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