Grandma Lou and Grandpa Ron took me home just as winter was setting in.
Now, keep in mind—I’m a little Southern boy, born and raised where snow is about as common as a unicorn sighting. So when I first saw snow, I had no clue what it was.
I still had a pretty good vocabulary back then—way beyond what most kids could dream of.
One time, years later, I was hanging out with my mom, and she asked me,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngKGfyuUW7
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzoTxAZ5BUW
And I said, “No.”99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl7WUA2sIcS
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDjOw7otd3
“Am I Mr. Congeniality?”
That’s when I realized: I had a vocabulary most kids could only dream about.
So, when we finally got to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and Grandpa tried to put me down in the snow, I wasn’t about to let that happen without a fight.
I looked at him and said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhgZfA3PUOX
“No! You ain’t puttin’ me down in that bird poop. Ew!”
Snow might have been a mystery, but some things—even at two years old—were crystal clear.
Grandpa looked at me and said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH1DFcYUZEs
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtK813MZkiw
“Don’t care. Ew! Don’t know what that stuff is.”
But of course, they sat me down in it anyway.
I put my hand on the snow. It was cold. Real cold. Like, why cold?
I ran straight to the back door, shivering and not looking back.
Grandma still has that sign on her back porch that says,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXghirpf4mO
“Backdoor Guests Are Best.”
Guess even back then, I wasn’t just any guest—I was family.
I guess even back then, I wasn’t exactly a guest.
Now, I’m not going to go over every little “evil” thing I did while living with my grandparents—that would take forever.
But I will tell you this:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKUPDZxF8oy
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWku8c09THI
Nope.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtT64Hm8oI0
I just didn’t want to do chores.
I had gotten this little plastic cow on a leash for Christmas, and I took him with me when I went over to the next-door neighbor’s house.
We called her Grandma Coe—because that’s just what you do in the South.
Grandma Coe looked at me and said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWYuy7LQoaf
“Darlin’, you can’t stay here. You gotta go back to your Grandma’s.”
So she called ahead, and Grandma Lou was waiting.
When I saw Grandma Lou, spanked me on the botom, and then I said if you spank me you gotta spank cow he 's my cacomplis. if that cow could talk it would have said, snitches get stiches.
The next year, I went to two weeks of preschool summer camp at the Indiana School for the Blind.
Now, I gotta tell you—there was a pool at Sals Park, and I got dunked by an older student.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEspm9heXc3
Almost drowned twice.
Yeah, not exactly the best swim lessons ever.
But other than that, it was a good time.
After camp, I started kindergarten at Lambert Hall at the Indiana School for the Blind.
My kindergarten teacher was Miss Francoviac.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6yVO0gINs6
She was patient and kind—exactly what a little blind kid like me needed to start figuring things out.
So, the first week at school, they had this giant snake pillow in our classroom.
I asked if it had a name.
Miss Warren, our class aide, said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ986Dm4BdDW
“No, it doesn’t have a name. Why don’t you name it?”
Well, the week before school started, I’d had a Faygo Redpop soda.
And that snake pillow was bright red—just like my soda.
So I named it Redpop.
And just like that, Redpop the snake became part of the class.
Miss Murray was the boss of our house parents.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqDKZpcyoQP
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf6bxY0xT3q
She actually played with us kids.
One time, she took us for a ride on this old horse wagon. We were laughing, bouncing around, having the time of our lives.
But after a while, she stopped and said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgX3dm71iYU
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVyhfWgrg4R
This is a horse buggy, not a Miss Murray buggy!”
We groaned and begged for one more ride, but she just laughed that Miss Murray laugh and helped us all down.
She had that perfect balance: fun like a big sister, firm like a momma, and always looking out for us.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHkac5okf6e
99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR19h6h8nl3
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJQfKzW8JbP
And sometimes... she had jokes.
There was this one time—she kept playing pranks on me.
She had these little toy R2-D2s, you know, the beeping robot from Star Wars.
Well, somehow those things kept moving.
One minute they were on the shelf.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq0W9WTU1Vw
Next minute, they were across the room.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ12kh1iOXzp
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6LvYD3mBhV
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNwXKbmR11
Just casual ghost robots, no big deal.
I was half creeped out, half laughing—and 100% convinced that R2-D2 had joined the paranormal.
To this day, I’m still not sure how she pulled it off.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKHPglnc5qx
But one thing’s for sure:99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi16yHjFjqG
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLAYT1zoMHQ
99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1HdzWFp1H7
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUa9icdRR1v
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZ5HVDs8rz
They didn’t want to throw me into first grade, not when they knew I’d stick out and likely get picked on.
So they suggested I retake kindergarten.
Not because I couldn’t handle the work—99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7M4kC8ThzL
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXle7zRGKdr
But at the time, it felt like I got held back for something I couldn’t control.
That was one of the first times I realized that being different—really different—was going to come with some extra hurdles.
But God still had me in His hands, even then.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgun3wWnpYl
Even when I didn’t understand it.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8o3vsjwzU
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zg8SMqYd3
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd3j0ldonhp
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeoHbWOHyJF
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQYKVfGPVYs
They were adventures.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIECDlSOtRJ
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTfNpiZh53a
and in every one of them, God was there.
That summer, I gave my life to Jesus.
I was baptized in a swimming pool, since our church didn’t have a baptismal.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbox3PRsXaU
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyU4F5ycDkI
and came up with something new—99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAI7gyrC2kX
a heart learning to follow Jesus.99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl6gNdHbJkr
99Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGSZWkMrHxN
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