How Cool is This?

Cool story number one:
We took our kids to the park to hide Easter Eggs today. We hid the eggs and the kids found them (no big news there). They were really cute (again, no big news there). We then let Max and Anna Kate hide the eggs so Mom and Dad could find them. They were thrilled. Erin found more than me because Anna Kate hid 8 eggs in a clump all together. Afterword, we all decided to go to Subway to get our grub on. We sat down to eat and then in comes this family of three. The parents were deaf, so naturally we got their attention and started a conversation. They were so neat. Their daughter was Max's age and she was hearing, and they adopted her. We're hearing and adopted a deaf boy in need - They're deaf and adopted a hearing girl in need. How ironic is that. (Hopefully, Erin will blog about our conversation with them later, pretty cool stuff.)

But here's the best part. We visited with them for probably a half hour, and obviously hit it off. After we learned their names, they asked for ours. We told them our names but told them we didn't have sign names. They decided to give me a sign name!!! This is a HUGE honor. For some reason I got one, but Erin didn't. Don't know why.

If you don't know much about Deaf Culture you need to understand that deaf people love to visit with each other for hours, are very proud of their culture, and are not disabled. You cannot give yourself a sign name, only a deaf person can give you a sign name. Max has given only a select few people sign names, but you can't force him to do that. The select few who have sign names from Max include Slade Cozart, Laura Tunnell, Mindy Francisco, James Dawson and a few others.

Now onto cool story number two:
Yesterday, while I was bagging and in the middle of lunch rush at Chick-fil-A, I hear these words from the front counter behind me: "Chad, is that Chad? Chad Gerlt?" So, naturally, I turn around. Who do I see? Josh Garred! Those of you who did not attend Hardin-Simmons University will not remember Josh (it's sort of hard to remember someone you've never met), but I spent a lot of time with Josh in college. First of all, he was in LoveCo. (where Erin and I met), and second of all he was on many of my intramural basketball teams. This guy had the worst, most terrible form to a shot that looked rediculous - but somehow an unbelievable number of his attempts went in the basket. (He's the guy you don't want on your team because he takes terrible shots, but you don't want him on the other team because he makes those terrible shots.) I got to meet his wife and his two kiddos. They were on their way from Tyler to Abilene and just stopped to grab some grub. Crazy! How often does something like that happen? That was Thursday.

Today is Friday. When I was looking for the next customer to help at lunch today, I greeted two friendly people - Ronnie and Sabrina Casey - A.K.A. our next door neighbors in Crane. Two days in a row! nuts!!! Erin got to catch up with them too. It's neat having a store right off I-20.

Today was a pretty cool day.