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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2WLA4zL3dV
“Do you still know what congeniality means?”16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKu7NR1JV33
And I said, “No.”16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡprCzzasyg5
She laughed and told me we were watching the Miss America pageant when I was two, and I asked her,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3tfPBOWI46
“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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvu0h6z5Tkp
“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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAcbdiztvlf
“Bud, it ain’t bird poop. It’s snow.”
I looked him dead in the eye and said,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFMQr1Bp3wj
“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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5QdaP1vAI6
“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:16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsZXxhYh17G
When I was four, I ran away from home.
Not because I wanted to see the world or anything fancy like that.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5RZuHBbEtm
Nope.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6SQhFxugZd
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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5D2mVqL2dm
“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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtf62on64gY
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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJvuTljExBN
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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqI850H7tGq
“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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeHargqW1vc
But she wasn’t just some authority figure with a clipboard and a whistle.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbSIgkz9piI
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,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIGlF3g6JqU
“Alright, kids—you gotta get off.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeVzTkdSt6J
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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCMU2Nth3SK
16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡflY2jkxxuo
Now Miss Murray, bless her heart, could be a real goofball when she wanted to be.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCQEqG3pCg8
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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5SO6bxyug8
Next minute, they were across the room.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡleJ9mWBtjz
Then they'd be in my chair.
And every time I asked what was going on, Miss Murray just said,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj0ocetR8BI
“Oh, that’s just the poltergeists.”
Like it was nothing!16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6HHUYGbPex
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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF4NfqQbKR0
But one thing’s for sure:16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw9OQUWyHDh
Miss Murray kept us on our toes—and always smiling.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmezqXr3H4G
16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWIwcCTuGuU
I had to leave the school for a while.
Not because I failed or got in trouble—nothing like that.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmoJtwUfs37
It was because of my pituitary dwarfism.
I was smaller than the other students, and the school staff was worried about me.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZf7KK0I5Kz
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—16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjpQtaYAFq0
but because of my size.
They were trying to protect me, I know that now.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhM0y9bTkbO
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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG1b40gnqVc
Even when I didn’t understand it.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXSkqkceief
So I ended up retaking kindergarten anyway—16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJGFeQxB4qs
this time at Pettit Park School in Kokomo.
That move turned out to be a blessing in disguise.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2q0UXr0hOD
Because it was then that people really started teaching me about God.
We started going to Four Square Assembly of God,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkrnQc9v9y6
and Grandma began reading me bedtime stories straight from the Bible.
Those weren’t just stories to me.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSOkmZaRqyK
They were adventures.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡirtv94Z5Eb
Heroes and battles, miracles and mercy—16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡj9XFSQKjx5
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.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38hNKrRnt1
Didn’t matter—water’s water when the Spirit moves.
I went down a little boy,16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5jftnFHUL
and came up with something new—16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpainuD8Mq
a heart learning to follow Jesus.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw6QanQ2bMj
16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9nHboX9cN0
