Redemption: I've been needing to lay this post down for a while now...since my last post so now it's finally time. On Tuesday July 24 we had a little family cookout. It was my little brother Dougie's birthday. But as I mentioned before he wouldn't be there. It wasn't really a birthday cookout but just a cookout for the family to get together and to give my mom and JD some time to spend with all of their Grandkids at the same time.

Well that night I met my step brother for the first time. I had just finished blogging about how I like to remember Dougie's birthday as a celebration of life, that evening I met Kyle. Kyle is my Stepdad's son. They have been estranged for the past few years so I've never met Kyle before. He decided to come and live with my Mom and JD to help him start making good decisions so he can wind up in life where he wants to be- successful.

Kyle is 17, the same age Dougie was when he died. No one will ever replace my little brother but I'm glad I have a new little brother. As I was thinking that night how amazing it all is; that Nathan was born a year to the day we buried Doug and I met Kyle on Dougie's 21st birthday, I thought about all that and the only word that I could come up with to describe it all is REDEMPTION. I have no better explanation. Again, not replacement but a chance to do it over again. Most of all I'm happy to have a teenager in my life to invest in again. I will always have a special place in my heart for teenagers. I love their zeal for life, their irradical emotions and the way they believe they can still change the world. I think it was Kyle Lake that said "young people are stupid enough to think they can change the world and have the power enough to do it." Or something like that.