Inspirational People

I realize that many of the stories I post on this blog are awfully "Debbie Downer", so here are a couple uplifting stories about beautiful, inspirational people.

First, meet Patrick, a young man who was born blind and is unable to walk. Patrick sees his blindness not as a disability, but rather an ability. He says this is because he can see the inside of a person much better than sighted people can. He started playing the piano at the age of two! Patrick must have inherited his inner beauty from his father, because Patrick Sr. is truly someone to emulate. He works the graveyard shift at UPS, goes home and rests for a few hours, only to then get up and accompany his son to college, where he helps him navigate through his classes! Patrick (Jr.) was invited to join the University of Louisville marching band. In the fall of 2006, he and his dad became the only two-person marching band member in college football. What remarkable men!

Next, meet Lysa and her family. Lysa and her husband have three biological daughters and two adopted sons. They adopted their sons from an orphanage in Liberia after Lysa saw them sing in a concert choir. Lysa said that as she watched the boys perform, she felt God telling her "two of those boys are yours". What's so beautiful about this story is that not only did Lysa and her husband adopt these boys, but many of their friends then decided to adopt other boys from the choir. Some even took in the boys' siblings -- in fact, one couple adopted six children at once! (And this was after their two biological sons went to college and they thought they were going to have an empty nest!) In all, 14 families from this North Carolina community adopted children from this one orphanage in Liberia.

I was moved to tears when one of the fathers in the community said, "Everyone looks at us and sees us and says, 'Wow, you guys have done a great thing,' and it's so funny because, really, the blessing's been ours."