If you listen to her describe her life, however, it is clear that she finds balance, not necessarily in the things she does, but in the things life gives to her, like her oldest child, Adrian, who was born in 1994 with a rare syndrome known as Cornelia de Lange. The syndrome comprises 45 identifiable birth defects, of which Adrian has 38, including being deaf, blind, physically disabled, and requiring multiple surgeries to treat a variety of internal maladies.

"Adrian was given to us," Elizabeth says. "We didn't go pick him out and say 'We want that kind of life.'" And as he turns nine years old, she reflects upon the enormous gift that he has been: "Many children with this syndrome can't bear to be touched, but Adrian loves affection. He has helped balance me. Trauma has a funny way of putting things in perspective. We never know if something bad is going to happen. I've already had to deal with his death, and he hasn't yet died. This has made me seek balance much sooner than I probably would have."

One of the beneficiaries of this premature blessing-counting is Elizabeth's youngest child Estella, born in perfect health last year. Both children also know how to successfully give the slip to a babysitter and seek their mother's attention, Estella with the bilingual banter of a one-year-old, and Adrian with the fullest enthusiasm of his senses. Both children beam in senses. Both children beam in the happy embrace of their mother, and all three anxiously anticipate the return of their father from his most recent trip to Spain.

Of her husband, Alejandro, Elizabeth observes: "He is the only reason I even get close to balance. He has a balance that he started with, a balance that I don't have." And why is this? Well, for one thing, he grew up a Spaniard and she grew up an American. "American culture is very unbalanced. When I'm in Spain I feel more balanced because people are more grounded and more in tune with their own priorities. They work to live, not the other way around. Spiritually, Catholicism is deeply rooted in their lives, and when your faith isn't something you're always asking and confused about, it's easier to find balance. In the United States there are so many choices. People are constantly uprooting themselves to seek something better."
 
Recalling the times in her own life when she was most in balance, this teacher and lover of Spanish culture professes a work ethic that is as incurably American as the Ohio she grew up in: "It was when I had to achieve something in the short term, like preparing for my doctoral comps, or to run a marathon, times when I had to rein in my impulses and be strictly disciplined." One senses another ambitious project coming on.

Time instead maybe for another trip to Spain.

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