Better By a Mile

I believe that God has His ways of encouraging us when we're following his lead.  Whether it be with plans "falling into place", from overwhelming support from friends and strangers, or being filled with a calming sense of peace, He lovingly pulls us along the right path.  On the other hand, I've experienced a great deal of stress, frustration, and futility in trying to forge my own path, especially when I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.  I wanted to conclude this third and final part of our family's transition by sharing some of the things, both big and small, that assured us we were making the right decisions. One of the first miracles was actually landing my new job.  Before I even applied though, it was amazing that my best friend had recently joined the same company and was able to give me his first-hand account of what it was like to work there.  Another miracle was the fact that we sold our home so quickly - in about a month.  We had a lot of "...

Soon after accepting a new job that required my family to relocate to Lancaster, PA, we began the process of selling our home and searching for a new one.  As we began the process of listing our home for sale, I instantly regretted my procrastination of the home improvement projects that my wife had been asking about for months.  Time and money now didn't allow for much more than a quick bathroom renovation and some light painting, but apparently it was enough.  We were very blessed to find a buyer within 3 weeks, which put our house hunting into overdrive. My best friend, Scott, and his wife allowed me to stay at their place so that I could start my new job until we were able to relocate to the area.  Their incredible generosity allowed me to focus on work during the day and spend the evenings house hunting.  Unfortunately, it also meant that my amazing wife would have to take care of the children on her own while also continuing to work three days a week....

For most of the 11 years my wife has known me, I've been a student.  We met when I had just started working on a business degree part-time in 2006.  It took 5 years of hard work and sacrifice to earn that degree, but the result was worth it.  My wife took on more than her share of housework and parenting while I studied.  She never complained and was a constant source of encouragement for me.  After graduation, I was blessed with a series of promotions that allowed us to buy our first home and pay for the birth of our first child.  We were amazed by what God had helped us to accomplish as the sun set on our twenties.  In 2013, we decided that our long-term goals would be easier to achieve if I went on to earn my MBA.  My best friend, Scott, had the same idea, so we decided to apply to graduate school together.  It was amazing to have him as my classmate, and surreal when we attended graduation together just 2 short years later. A year befo...

Special thanks to my pal and gifted artist, Anwar Hanano for recreating this epic moment for me. I've said before that my dad was a really smart dude.  Genius at times.  But his plans didn't always work out as planned.  This is one of my all-time favorites, so I hope you enjoy it too. When we moved up to PA in 1994, we had arranged to rent a trailer in Sunbury under the premise that the landlord would build a ramp or provide a lift to help my father get in and out of the trailer safely.  For as long as I can remember, my dad's primary means of getting in and out of elevated spaces (especially our van) was a pair of 6' long aluminum ramps.  Prior to moving to Pennsylvania, we had gotten used to the fact that they would become a bit slippery in the rain.  What we hadn't experienced yet was how impossibly slick they got when exposed to snow. The process of unloading my dad from the van usually went something like this: Set the ramps up with one end on ...

If you need to catch up, you can read up on the resurrection of my dad's van  here .  That old van carried us around for several years.  She was a workhorse.  She was also a jerk sometimes.  In the Fall of 1994, my dad decided it was time for us to make the move from Mississippi to Pennsylvania.  We had a lot of relatives in PA that we hadn't seen in a very long time, so my Dad thought it would be good for us to get to know them.  We packed as much of our stuff as we could fit into our van and hit the road. Somewhere in Virginia, our headlights started to go dim and the van started to die.  We were able to take a quick exit before she decided to shut off completely.  We tried to start it up again, but there was no response.  My dad quickly concluded that the battery was dead, but he didn't know why.  We popped the hood and noticed that the alternator belt was really loose.  Ah-ha!  Without the alternator working, it wa...

I recently read a story about a woman who got caught selling her food stamps online.  While I don't endorse or approve of her actions, I was saddened by the number of people who had plenty of unkind things to say about her.  I thought about that old Everlast song, "What it's like", and that most of these people (myself included) probably have no idea what was going on in her life to make her do that, or what it was like to walk in her shoes.  The unfortunate truth is that many people find themselves in desperate situations where they feel they must resort resort to actions that other people might consider extreme and unacceptable. People have different limits, just like many of us have different definitions of  needs  and  wants.   A philosophy professor once challenged my class with a dilemma: A man's wife is dying and he cannot afford the medicine that will save her life.  Is it ok for him to steal from the drug store to save her life?  O...

My daughter was recently throwing one of her spunk fits, so I told her to go to her room until she was ready to listen and be kind.  Normally, she'd stop mid-fit to plead with me, I'd insist that she go to her room, and she'd sob her way up the steps.  This time was different. After telling her to go to her room, she took a deep breath and shot me a terrible glare.  Her face began to glow deeper shades of red, and I could see the veins popping out on her neck.  It was as if she was screaming at me while holding her breath.  Then, her eyebrows went into an angry "V" formation and she started to tremble.  Woah!  What is that look?  What is happening?  My body was frozen still (thank God), but something inside me tried to leap out and tackle her to the ground.  I say that in a bit of jest, but I seriously got a wave of anger so intense that it gave me chills.  I hadn't experienced this with her before, but something about it seemed st...