March 18, 2020

Somewhere out there is a nurse named Tina. This woman met a fellow in 1997 who told her that he died, came back from the dead, and went on a three year mission to find her because she kept appearing in his dreams asking him to find her. She then became intently focused on finishing nursing school after being on the edge of failing when she met him. Why? Because she believed him and because she did not feel herself worthy of this.

She said he changed her life and gave her faith. And she set out to be worthy. She saw him again when she was working in the oncology ward when his friend was living his final days there.

So...

Somewhere out there is a nurse on a mission to be worthy of a man coming back from the dead in order to find her and believe in her. She began to believe in herself. And now she is out there somewhere today, still on this mission.

She is one of an army at the front of this fight we all now face. She is one of many.

There are a million stories out there... a million brave characters... and many of them are on a mission.

We ride forward into the unknown. The golden sky is at our backs. We ride.

Be well. Be safe. 

My stepdaughter has left our small town with her husband and is headed to a bigger town two hours north of here. She called at 2:00 AM to tell us her water broke. She was scheduled for her weekly exam with the doctor there later today. The caesarean delivery was scheduled for Monday so things are happening only a few days early.

Her two boys (both in their teens) and girl (12) and G (the adopted two year old) left with my wife and I stayed behind with the only foster child they currently have. They had already made arrangements for her to be moved to another home today and a social worker will pick her up at my home later this morning. The child, a five year old girl, is calm but curious about upcoming changes. She is quietly coloring with crayons while we watch wildlife videos and I type this.

As soon as the caseworker picks the child up I'll drive up there and join the rest of the family. My wife and I have been self-isolating during the pandemic, but she's not going to miss the birth so we will just be as careful as we can.

The baby's gender is no secret; it's a boy. The gender reveal was pretty funny. The proud father came up with a plan to have the server at our favorite Mexican restaurant fill a sopapilla with blue sprinkles and bring it to the expectant mom. There was a lot of confusion and language was part of it. My wife was worried that they would put the wrong color sprinkles in and dad said, loud enough for the whole table to hear, "I didn't even give them the pink ones". We still went through the motions but that sort of gave it away. Don't ask me why he even had pink sprinkles in the first place.