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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxYaQB5HsZ3
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYxR8DhGBWW
And I said, “No.”14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEhwKW4zbos
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRQNjqAcSBG
“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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVTXZUuW3K8
“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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOyHLWWaFLm
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡntY2hebc8Y
“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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuqi1i19xnc
“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:14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8FbAbBF4HJ
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ99d0rDkA2O
Nope.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGFm9cApoDp
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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNna7zLb6XZ
“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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZ8FGSwId5
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnQQHtHyhEo
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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9RP9FmbSIN
“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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSlsoE7pHl7
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuvIWCMtk3V
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,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHErAd08VIW
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4A2bEpQxfH
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD8mQFHirsb
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Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCSvZ3UqPx
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9DoHudbX2
Next minute, they were across the room.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡObAR92dE58
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRkMaCScmEN
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7DgtvOWhAy
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlP4subHNZa
But one thing’s for sure:14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcgyklO3Glt
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡseCii8id7P
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I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriMNDDpRpx
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJJmQ3p6q85
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—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJaxImYBRb
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ22BkZd5CJ2
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡibrK62QMjF
Even when I didn’t understand it.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1bpT5VHmn
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrLcMzZcNH1
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYby51kXiKD
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7Vzu7dbJtU
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpksm1HKTUv
They were adventures.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡULVfwMLOKe
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ13qJxTrCXv
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.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhYJSDYvPSF
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCf31iHa8CU
and came up with something new—14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyuikEL02Tz
a heart learning to follow Jesus.14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiDTp4r26GO
14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGZtFnWBnVb
