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,73Please respect copyright.PENANA7z3TZyUpJQ
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”73Please respect copyright.PENANABVAjVEaw53
And I said, “No.”73Please respect copyright.PENANAdG4BkiIWnA
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,73Please respect copyright.PENANAIxQwmuEYG1
“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,73Please respect copyright.PENANAuLXjlM4jos
“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,73Please respect copyright.PENANAXk01VP3NmF
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,73Please respect copyright.PENANAtt1BA2p6hz
“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,73Please respect copyright.PENANA5wuOsjYfZI
“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:73Please respect copyright.PENANAFcHuxizn3A
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.73Please respect copyright.PENANAuuFDxbRex7
Nope.73Please respect copyright.PENANAXoAUf1kRds
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,73Please respect copyright.PENANA5vS0QQi2QB
“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.73Please respect copyright.PENANAXyKg894QY1
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.73Please respect copyright.PENANAUYUR97VQvN
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,73Please respect copyright.PENANAQZSPxdl3cC
“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.73Please respect copyright.PENANAEmkriyfCQe
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.73Please respect copyright.PENANAfU4UmpVYaP
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,73Please respect copyright.PENANAE8Ks9aEEG9
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.73Please respect copyright.PENANAhS3acvFrn2
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.73Please respect copyright.PENANALE2fkiceDo
73Please respect copyright.PENANAZYe7X7fF9t
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.73Please respect copyright.PENANAtY2GcpkJB5
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.73Please respect copyright.PENANAWq9GuJXELN
Next minute, they were across the room.73Please respect copyright.PENANAJGaboPz1W6
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,73Please respect copyright.PENANAOTmqkI8Gvd
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!73Please respect copyright.PENANA8NhU0fA589
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.73Please respect copyright.PENANAC58VTpMFlv
But one thing’s for sure:73Please respect copyright.PENANA1B3TDJP9f7
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.73Please respect copyright.PENANANtRSBhnVwt
73Please respect copyright.PENANAPb9afEGHqv
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.73Please respect copyright.PENANA0keLWjPUx0
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.73Please respect copyright.PENANAKscXsoImfi
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—73Please respect copyright.PENANA7zIgsf6x42
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.73Please respect copyright.PENANAjh6gOWVOpa
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.73Please respect copyright.PENANA0SqTkr3QYB
Even when I didn’t understand it.73Please respect copyright.PENANAw8Iy7F7UeE
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—73Please respect copyright.PENANAuRD3HdIwiz
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.73Please respect copyright.PENANAhdLVIHT9Ml
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,73Please respect copyright.PENANAZonytHCCQR
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.73Please respect copyright.PENANAa1eLmX6YEl
They were adventures.73Please respect copyright.PENANAlaOkSbCTgR
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—73Please respect copyright.PENANAWlAXJcA2Nc
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.73Please respect copyright.PENANAdiTuxJQg7y
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,73Please respect copyright.PENANA5QT5nFipoi
and came up with something new—73Please respect copyright.PENANA4wJbQqCbcn
a heart learning to follow Jesus.73Please respect copyright.PENANAavUQ5yYkxe
73Please respect copyright.PENANABp0f1wAVMq