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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYBAc7gV7hf
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi6DGk1fxoB
And I said, “No.”52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgqId918BJd
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ29S6BMAlJF
“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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWezFIDjWAp
“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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrbA4GtWVR3
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ08pOwDzf1s
“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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwsCdnEKfZP
“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:52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4mNBT54dKk
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcyPY09oVBc
Nope.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn2v0fOzR1z
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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTLpNz0LoXm
“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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfmwtMKN147
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZtRV09ltz
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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVLBtluVgui
“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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvMtBa3H1kE
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4G6QLdeqsV
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,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsG6UoMGOOw
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETvgWF4zXk
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOLAOmI6P4D
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfAOFJlzmFy
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ58uxuZJOBJ
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNbEdQctR79
Next minute, they were across the room.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgboim1gsBB
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHxJIZh8rz
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5aO9rXWyU0
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMVzMC1wfLK
But one thing’s for sure:52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2lRndo0BLB
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLXtBckGuNn
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH9Nf1nTnTo
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgS3KGbsGQW
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyBO7lqEAqH
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—52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpj5Z3qBd93
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0LKq4MtDNU
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjsKayKKwQ
Even when I didn’t understand it.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs0CEJbq1UP
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj6lzdnBmuv
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡowVPVoPmtD
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp6pdGxTyq5
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJmG1IEOOcQ
They were adventures.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXRzHPSwpww
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9GuGSoYy76
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.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwTe8SfZFw7
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmOi96xYWo7
and came up with something new—52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDdaKqnSRQQ
a heart learning to follow Jesus.52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZX4H6lptYr
52Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL77Sa91MlA
