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The opportunity to spend a morning with Sandi Patty is thrilling for a longtime fan like me, even if in the course of the interview I have to cover history many fans would rather not discuss.

"It's quiet now," she says, as we step inside her two-story, brown brick home on a corner lot outside Anderson, Indiana. "It won't be quiet when the kids get home from school," she laughs. "Half-day today. I thought you could go with me to pick them up if you want."

Sandi and her husband, Don Peslis, have eight children: four of Sandi's, three of Don's, and a 6-year-old named Sam whom they adopted together a year after they married in 1995. The children range in age from 6 to 18: four are teenagers, three are freshmen in high school, two are in junior high, and one, Sandi's oldest daughter, Anna, is in college. She lives on campus at Anderson University, where Don works.

In many ways, Sandi, 47, the winner of five Grammys and 31 Dove Awards and the seller of 11 million albums, seems like a typical suburban soccer mom—driving the carpool and keeping everyone on schedule.

Even absent the kids, the house is busy. Soon we're seated in an airy den that opens into the kitchen where Sandi's manager, Mike Atkins, and her housekeeper-friend, Betty Fair, are laying out a spread for the video crew that will arrive later in the afternoon. Sandi will record a video to announce her new album, Take Hold of Christ.

As we begin, the phone rings several times: First it's Sandi's pastor, Jim Lyon, who will be by later in the day; then it's one of the kids reminding Mom that school is only half a day; and finally her assistant, Karen Vale, who reports the White House wants to confirm an appearance in two weeks. Sandi will sing "God Bless America" with a children's choir.

Clearly, Sandi's life is full. But this is small stuff compared to the life-altering challenges she has faced already—creating a family from two broken households and, later, salvaging her damaged career.

Breaking up is hard to do, especially in a small town. "I'd be surprised if there's anyone in this town who doesn't know everything," Sandi says. "And there's so much freedom in that."

When she filed for divorce in 1993, the reasons weren't much known outside Anderson. Some parts of the story may remain untold, but by 1995, Sandi's complicity in the failure of her marriage became public.

"I was on tour. I remember being snowed-in in Cleveland, sitting on the airport floor. I called my pastor and said, 'I don't care whether I sing again or what anybody knows about me. What is important is that I be right and clean before the Lord and be obedient to what he's asked me to do.'

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