Who is my Hero

I had the sad opportunity today to attend a funeral of a 7 year old boy who died of cancer. It may have been the saddest thing I have ever been to. Today I had the opportunity to reflect on my life and who in my life has impacted me to the point of calling them my hero. It is a short list because there are thousands of people I admire and many that I call my friends but very few I will call my hero. I want to list them today. I will start at the earliest point in my life that a hero came around. His name is Jay Jones, a man of honesty and integrity who helped me see a better, happier world. Bill Braden, my Jr High Spanish teacher who helped me achieve levels that I had never thought possible and was the real person who first believed in me. From there I went with out adding a hero to my list for several years. It wasn't until college that another person came into my life and changed it forever. My home teacher Skip Tribble literally saved my life and for that I owe him all I have. He was my last hero until my wife. I do not believe I could do everyday what she does. I do not believe I would love me unconditionally like she does everyday. You see a hero to me is someone that is able to accomplish things that I feel I could not do. Not like Jordan or Tiger Woods, but on a real life level. Jay took me in and gave me shelter and food, Bill gave me his time and made sure I knew that I was important to him, Skip stepped in at a critical time of my life and gave me all he had to make sure I was okay. Emma has done more than I could have possible imagined. Today I added another person to my list. Jason Dixon is the father of that 7 year old boy. I have played basketball with him on one occasion and it was there that I learned about his son and the trials the family has been going through. This boy also had autism which is difficult enough but then add cancer on top of that and you have a pretty bad mess. The reason I added this loving father to my list was because he changed me. He stood in front of hundreds of people and cried. He shared his love for his family with this group of people today in a way that I could only look up to him and hope that I could have a fraction of the strength that he displayed today. You see I do not believe that I would be able to shoulder a burden like he has. I do not believe that I could stand in front of so many after losing one of my guiding stars. He is a hero of mine. Even though he may never know it, he has impacted my life for the good. I can only pray that I will not have the challenges that he has had and that I will never face losing one of my own children or my wife. I do not think I could survive the heart break. I look to these people on my short list for inspiration, encouragement, and hope. I hope you have heros in your life as well.

California Trip March 2008

We took our "march" down to California in our van. Ever since Cosette got a countdown calendar, she's wanted to "march" in our van to Grandma and Popi's house (we went in March).

We really had a nice time. It was great to relax and catch up with friends and family.

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Anticipation

We're all quite excited about our pending trip to California. We can count it down on one hand!! (although I could have done that from the beginning...Sign Language lets you do that...)
Cosette keeps saying, "Let's march to Grandma and Poppi's." I have to remind her that we're going IN March. Now that she knows it's March, she's doubly ready. Isaac has no clue.


Cosette is sitting on her throne. She had all the blankets set up on the stairs for her "red carpet". She's wearing Ethan's beanie on her head.

Ethan is growing so fast! It's hard to believe he's 4-months-old!

Here are my boys.

Isaac found the vasaline...we're not going to need to style his hair for awhile, the vasaline will do the trick!