I just want to relate a short story from last night that just struck me. I made a small fire in the little fire pit thing in the backyard as the kids love to roast marshmallows, it was going to be a cool night, and I was looking to burn off some twigs from the yard. I went out early to get things going and my daughter accompanied me. Shortly afterward, my older son and John came up the stairs and up the grass slope to where the fire was lit. When John arrived, my son told me, “Dad, I was walking behind John and I heard him whispering to himself over and over as he walked up the hill, ‘I can do it, I can do it, I can do it…’”

While I recognize everyone faces daily challenges of all sizes and shapes in their lives, and admittedly we all deal with those problems in our own way, I was struck with little man’s determination to get up that grassy hill that must seem enormous to him. Comparatively, I recognized I really don’t have any problems that warrant complaint or a negative attitude. What my older son relayed to me that evening inspired me and made me extremely proud to be John’s father. Our journey together as a family confronting this disease just recently began, but I am confident that little man will face it like a champion and I hope that we have the grace to do so in a similar manner. It would seem John has internalized one of the lines of the Army Ranger Creed, “Surrender is not a Ranger word.” I believe that with John’s attitude and God’s blessing, “we can do it” and we will find a cure.

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