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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLARb5mVtL
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQcBCu4ZiC
And I said, “No.”48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeGpc1feYUK
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaU90PdLZuF
“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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjaMq7AlgA4
“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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLxCQcwPUI2
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUKctjtoLWL
“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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh466xbvJP3
“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:48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTx0tQwjtVV
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFbREBYQJVn
Nope.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0gMW68Je77
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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwzSpQjTSvY
“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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpr0hjAKzJ
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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWaqpXxytI
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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO51p8uET2V
“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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeig5zjB0Db
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5lmPbMc6pK
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,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsH4A7NJgQH
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUXpJUZIa3C
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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg7J6iI9Akn
48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3Uwiy6bbky
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvSAjj5ZrAT
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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeYJgp8Dx6I
Next minute, they were across the room.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGC4kaO5WPV
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qVpjpZhqq
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoyNCvpmPNu
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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa3hzheC4Uh
But one thing’s for sure:48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVWvekMIrQt
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4SxmiZMnh5
48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡetP4c7iUam
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0UhADcR08J
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhluxJwUXid
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—48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDvoAQI2fjd
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb7sw5s0mgN
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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgGrmYUyWny
Even when I didn’t understand it.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPXoBXGAswG
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnCzIi2zPIl
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiO4aBmEZ5j
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbpjDnkmAZU
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxXrTcklVzF
They were adventures.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkAdHH4KwMc
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3KzRDHGTuX
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.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4z5KcMaQ0H
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOJ4D8tufJ7
and came up with something new—48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡChrzScHaTs
a heart learning to follow Jesus.48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1yUuCjmqu3
48Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc3S7leCQtQ
