hard starting diesel

My knowledge about diesel is extremely limited. 1989 Jetta, 5 speed, deisel. Starting this past summer, (prior to the summer, every thing was fine, so it's not a temperature thing) it would take 30 seconds for the motor to start after the glow plug would go out. It didn’t matter if the cold handle was out or not. Unburned diesel smoke would envelop the car and then it would finally start with an even bigger plume of smoke. If this was a gas burner, then I would look for something within the carb that was flooding the engine. I know little about fuel injectors and less about glowplugs. Though, the glowplug light comes on and then goes off after a few seconds, could it be bad? Any help would be greatly appreciated, as my daughter is getting to like my car too much.

You should have the glow plugs checked.

Probably bad glow plugs, The indicator light is lit up by the glow plug relay and it doesn't mean the glow plugs are good.

Is that something you can do yourself or does it require 5 "special" tools?

Glow plugs shouldn't require any "special" tools. If you can remove the stuff out of the way to get to them.