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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdq5iFsCLmq
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNw7FoZzdI6
And I said, “No.”79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDR4Luo3mjs
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZA7e6385T
“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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0JnQYgUmyG
“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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxDqSnKdrSP
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDTuvR19XLz
“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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZDSFN73FD
“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:79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTNeqWxLqgG
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk5dBVsIOEa
Nope.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoELiXV1FT6
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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOb9qHTot3O
“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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDZPGIQYVWA
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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOWj1OaLKAB
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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxAo7kuhYl2
“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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzA48zdAcs5
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvoDm3JW5gU
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,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo09sC0h7lX
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzXrTvw1QY1
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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi8KdaGcmqn
79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFtYB1T75Gk
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTf9Ht0LgBB
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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0i2e8ZC6PI
Next minute, they were across the room.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsfaV4g8yI9
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ183Wj7rS4S
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq8GROSVVSd
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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgFo4rvGko
But one thing’s for sure:79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk430Yckqrg
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7JfnRCSTS8
79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqh6wMN6BFJ
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOpXG7NAnC2
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOe5OeidwSu
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—79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaqPb6Fn4yO
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwDHnUC8GJM
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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7TGeHhOEWD
Even when I didn’t understand it.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdWT3jJ93tm
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡn8MLKau0vF
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzu7cjuEoOC
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWmdU2ynwA
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpeD8fxE1Hi
They were adventures.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9AxYRGzfJi
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkpxVQy6b4d
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.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlU77CeP4EO
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMxuEFn7rJk
and came up with something new—79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfhdQt8wA7o
a heart learning to follow Jesus.79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoQShyJ0AFW
79Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRuuqcKhEge
and then Add to home screen.