About CEO / Founder Rachel Addison

Rachel Addison is the daughter of Richard and Mary Sue Carpenter (born Mary Sue Vija Rieksts). During World War II, Mary’s parents escaped persecution by smuggling their five children across the Latvian border in a hay wagon, living in a refugee camp in Germany, and finally emigrating to the United States in 1948. Mary was born two weeks after their arrival on American soil and named after the pastor's wife of the church who had sponsored their trip. Still close to the traditions of their Latvian homeland, the Rieksts family raised Mary with the music, stories and dance they brought with them to America.

Rachel was raised with the same beautiful children’s songs, and has fond recollections of her mother and grandmother singing to her as a child, but she never learned the language of her mother's native land. The customs and oral traditions of Latvia which had existed in her family for so many generations could easily have faded away with her childhood.

Rachel married an immigrant, Brin Addison, who was born and raised in South Africa and Belgium. After the birth of their first child, Rachel felt inspired to research Latvian children’s traditions and songs in an effort to keep them alive in her family, but online searches were fruitless. If she was to preserve the cultural heritage her mother had shared with her, she would have to do it herself. The idea for Circletime Kids was born.

Rachel lives with her husband Brin and their daughters Arwen, 3, and Welahn, 1, in Seattle, Washington. Rachel's parents also live in Seattle.