It's People Like These...

The guy above on the right is a coworker of mine.  The lady is his wife and the guy in the middle is their son...their "recently" adopted son, not that they make that differentiation.  I make it in order to tell you this story.

For a number of years now I have heard stories about this son - we'll call him R - from the proud dad - we'll call him J.  J & his wife have served as a foster home to several teenaged boys.  They have struggled through those boys' complicated and unfair baggage to try and provide the stability and healthy relationships the boys have missed out on up till then.  As another coworker of mine said just the other day, there is a gold star, huge & shining already, in Heaven for J & his wife.  They have been so selfless and dedicated in this endeavor that two years ago they were named the Foster Family of the Year by our local foster agency.  Not too shabby an honor and definately not an easy feat.

Back to the picture...J & his wife legally adopted R when he was a teenager.  At that time R chose to take on the family's last name by adding it to his own last name.  That says that he really thought the world of J and his family.  The picture above is the proud parents with their new Army Private.  You would never know that they've only been a family for several short years and not for a whole lifetime.  Funny, I would say I even see a family resemblance!

Anyway, people like these....pictures like this...make me keep the faith in humanity.  Today I will hear news clips of fussing politicians, missing children, men killed, businesses robbed...really it's an endless gloom report if you sit down for 30 minutes to watch the news.  It's the stories like the one above that need to be glorified and reported.  Someone was giving of themselves and made life better...is that not news?

I could harp forever on our news these days, but that is not the nugget of insight I want to take from the awesome pic.  As I am making this a quick post today I will get to my point.  I appreciate the work and the sacrifice J & his family has made, is making.  I appreciate the service and sacrifice R is taking on  and now repaying Karma by helping others himself.  Good begets good, folks.  Also, your family is not always born directly into your family - sometimes you have to go find & claim them!