Forty Years Old

Today at 5:16 am Eastern Time I officially turned forty years of age. My how time flies. I have a fabulous family and I have magnificent friends. I am truly blessed. I am surrounded by positive people and it is a good time to be alive. My family; my wife is an incredible lady and my children are the loves of my life; my Mother is nothing short of incredible; my Dad is an amazing person; my older sister has a genuine love of my family; my younger sister is remarkable and has helped me so much; my mother-in-law has so much love for my family it is astonishing; my sister-in-law has been a tremendous help to my wife; my brother-in-law loves our children unconditionally and my grandmother what a remarkable woman who has been through so much I love her dearly. Also to my friends (both old and new) who have been there for me and my family thank you so very much. Like I said before I am truly blessed and hopefully the next forty plus years go a little smoother!

I want to share something that happened at the very beginning of my situation. When I got bailed out of jail after being there for five nights my extraordinary friend picked me up from the jail at 2:00 am and drove me home. My wife and children were on the East Coast (thank God) so I went home to an empty house. I spent about a half hour with my friend but he had to head home afterall it was the middle of the night and he has a life to live. I looked at the answering machine and there were five messages on the machine; I think three were from my wife, one was from my Mother and one was from someone I hadn't spoken to in over a year. This person was a vendor who I had helped out of a very difficult situation about a year and half ago. I did not have a personal relationship with this person it was strictly business and I know I never gave him my home telephone number. On his very sincere message he stated who he was and that he had just read about my situation in the paper and wanted to say thank you for helping him with his situation and if there was anything he could do please give him a call.

When I came home that night it was one of the darkest nights of my life and yes, there was no one at home and I know my friend was very concerned with me when he left the house. I didn't have any irrational thoughts because having a father in prison is much better than having a father that committed suicide but those horrible thoughts were in my head. However; when I heard this person's message my insides started to warm and a smile came over my face. This person did not past judgment on me by what he read in the paper he knew I had helped him through a difficult situation and wanted to offer some words of encouragement and these words are still in my head. I thank God he left this message because without knowing I had actually done some good in my life those days would have been even darker. The small things go a long way.