Spilling the Beans

Several weeks ago I let out at hint about some cool upcoming stuff happening in our lives. Melissa is pregnant. Just kidding. She has had her woman parts took out of her insides so if she were to really be pregnant then some major miracles would have to had happened or either the doctor took out a whole lot of the wrong stuff. Neither happened. She is not pregnant. And for those who have asked, I am not pregnant either. Yes, I have put on a few pounds in the belly area but I can lose weight at any time. You, however, will always be ugly.

Anyway, on to the beans being spilt. I am launching my own ministry called Merge. This has been in the works for quite some time and I have been waiting to announce it. Merge will basically consist of three parts. Merge camps will be designed for students in grades 6-12. Merge will be producing camps, retreats and conferences through out the year. Our first retreat will be January 18th-21st 2008 in Gatlinburg,TN. As of this posting, this retreat has several youth groups committed to come and is already over 50% booked. Our summer camps are going to be held in the Florida Panhandle for 7 weeks in the summer of 2008. As of this posting, one complete week has already been filled and this is still over a year away. We also will be producing several mini retreats and disciple now weekends throughout the year. If your youth group would like to be a part of this please email me at sammy@sammyclary.com.

Many of you know that I have spent 14 years in student ministry. As a result I have a passion for helping student ministries reach students for Christ. The second part of Merge will be focusing on equipping student ministers and youth workers through custom Creativity and Leadership Conferences. We will be holding 4 of these retreats each fall as well as booking private Creativity and Leadership Conferences for individual churches. Again, for more information on these please contact me at sammy@sammyclary.com.

And lastly, I will be speaking at Camps, Retreats, Conferences, and Churches throughout the year. To see my schedule you can visit my new site sammyclary.com. This site will consist of mainly student ministry related items and my booking information. If the crazy antics of my everyday life are what you are looking for, then my current site will still be the place for you.

My new site sammyclary.com is operational but more is coming to the site. It is still a work in progress. The sites to get all the camp and retreat information are mergecamps.org or mergecamps.com. These two sites are still about a month away from being operational.

What can you do?
1. Pray for our ministry
2. Tell your student pastor or youth leader about us.
3. You can partner with us. We are being set up as a non profit ministry and all contributions are tax deductible. We are waiting to receive our tax status back from the IRS. We have been told that the process takes between 3-6 months. We hvae already been approved by the Secretary of State and usually the IRS follows along with the whatever the decision of the State.

The way it is looking, we will be hopefully launching all of this at about the same time as Isaac is able to be at home full time.

Congrats to the 24 and 48

Congratulations to the 24 and 48 teams in Sunday's Nascar Race. 2nd and 3rd wasn't too bad. I guess the Isaac Mo Jo paid off for both of these teams. I guess that if Isaac had spent a little more time giving them pointers on their chassis set up then maybe they would have won. Here is the link to the pics of Isaac's visit to the race shop last week. http://sammyclary.blogspot.com/2007/02/awesome-day.html

The Big Town of Williamston

Tonight I had a cool opportunity to hang out with a couple of my former youth(Joel and Kristen). The cool thing is that they each used to be in two different churches that I had served years ago. Melissa and I kind of introduced them through a Disciple Now weekend and now they have been married for several years. They didn't get married that weekend it was many months or maybe a year or so later. That was and is the only time we have kind of set someone up on a date. So I guess that would mean that we are batting 1.000. I guess maybe I should open up some type of internet service where we fix people up. Na. I'll leave that to Match.com or whoever those places are.

Anyway, Joel is the youth minister at FBC Williamston and I had the chance to hang out with their youth group and see what all was going on. I learned a new game tonight. Basically you put a bunch of people in a gym and you play dodgeball except there are no teams and it is every person for themselves. So technically it is perfectly legal to pelt someone with a red playground ball from point blank range. I found this to be quite theraputic. I can only imagine how many people left with welps from being bombarded. My apologies to the adult leader that I almost decapitated from 10 feet away.

They had some cool stuff going on down in Williamston. They had students leading on stage and students running sound and media which was cool. I will be back down there on April 15th speaking so I hope to see you guys there. I hope there will be a every man for himself dodgeball tourney that night after youth.(That was a hint to the youth pastor).

In other news, we will be heading back to Cincinnati next Monday. It looks like we will be there for a couple of weeks.

I will be launching my new website in the next week or so. It will have contact information as well as my upcoming speaking schedule and other cool stuff. I will be speaking at Pendleton Street BC the week after we get back from Cincinnati. Other upcoming dates will be listed on the new site.

One last thing, today I went to my grandparents 65th wedding anniversary today. It amazing to see two people who have persevered through so many years. They truly are an inspiration to me.

Funny

This is pretty funny stuff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxmc9_AnyN0.

MSM

Wednesday night I got to do something I haven't gotten to do in a long time. Because of the busy schedule, I haven't gotten to attend a youth service at our own church in quite some time. Let me just say that the place was rockin. There were tons of students there. The center section of their main auditorium was full. If you haven't been to Marathon, the main auditorium holds around 1000 people.
But that wasn't the cool part of what I saw. These guys have students that lead. They had discipled and mentored students to a point where they ran the sound, they led in worship through their student band and more. You could tell that they had spent a lot of time pouring into their students rather than just having a program where the adults did everything and they just sat back and watched. I think a big part of their success has to be with their small groups that take place in homes all over the area on Sunday nights. Having been in Student Ministry for over a decade, it saddens me when I see churches neglecting the basics in discipling kids. And when I say discipling, I'm not talking about sticking them in an area and having a 30 minute lesson with them and calling that small group or discipleship. I'm talking about someone that is more mature spending time pouring into their life. Many churches are failing in raising up the next generation of leaders. Good job MSM. You guys are raising up leaders.

Another great moment Wednesday night was seeing Bryan Holder( http://bryanholder.blogspot.com) an awkward on stage moment during the music. He was called on stage by Chasen (http://chasencallahan.blogspot.com), the student worship pastor to demonstrate his skills. I'm still not sure what those skills were but it was funny.

I failed to mention that these guys are doing all of this without a youth facility of their own. They are in the building stages as we speak. The cool thing is that with the rate of their growth they will have to do multiple services as soon as it opens. Their new youth facility "The Garage" will hold several hundred students. Parents, if you are in the upstate and looking for a place to get your students plugged in to a Student Ministry that have an impact in their lives, then get them to Marathon on Wednesday nights at 7:07 p.m. Then be sure to get them involved in one of the small groups that meet on Sunday Nights.

Awesome Day

Today we went to Charlotte to let Isaac see where they build some of the Nascar cars. Our first stop was Hendrick Motor Sports. They have the cars of Jeff Gordon(Isaac's favorite driver), Jimmy Johnson, Kyle Busch, and Casey Mears. We were visiting one of the shops and met a very nice lady at the desk named Sally(I think this was her name. I hope this is right because she really hooked Isaac up with a great suprise). We were talking about the Hendrick Marrow Program and how much programs like that have helped Isaac and others who needed donors, when she tells us she is going to make a call. She called two more very nice ladies. Isaac met Courtney and Pam. They head up the Hendrick Bone Marrow Program. Courtney asked Isaac if he would like to meet one of Jeff Gordon's crew. He happened to be her husband. Courtney and Pam then proceeded to give Isaac a personal and all access tour of Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson's race shop. He got to see all of the cars as they were being built. He met many of the crew members. They all were probably the friendliest group of people we have ever met. Each one would stop what they were doing and spend some time talking to Isaac. He met Jeff Gordon's spotter who gave Isaac his hat. One crew man gave him some lug nuts off of Jeff Gordon's car. He met Courtney's husband who is Jeff Gordon's gas man. While we were standing there, Jimmy Johnson's crew chief Chad Knaus came up to Isaac and spoke to him for a few moments. All in all it was probably the coolest thing ever. I was about to wet my pants it was so cool. Isaac just took it all in with amazement.

Next we went to several other race shops including Ganassi Racing, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, Ginn Racing and last we went to Penske Racing.
At Penske Racing it was like Deja Vu. The receptionist asked us if he had gotten to see a lot at the other shops. We told her he had been given a behind the scenes tour at Hendrick. As soon as we said that, it was almost as if they didn't want to be outdone. She called up a guy named Gary who is the shop foreman at Penske. That basically means he is the head honcho of the over 200 employees who build the cars for Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch. He the proceeded to put us on a golf cart and give Isaac a personal behind the scenes tour of everything that goes on in their shop. When I say shop, I mean the place is so huge inside that you have to have a golf cart to get from one end to the other. They had over 70 completed race cars for the two drivers with each car costing around $200,000. This was another way cool pee my pants moment and once again Isaac was in awe of everything. He just soaked it all in and you could see his little mind thinking.

Thank you to all of the Nascar folks we visited today, especially to the very nice people at Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing. They both won Isaac's heart

Boogity Boogity Boogity

Since we were in the hospital for so long and since we still have a a few more months to go before Isaac is ok to go without IV infusions, we haven't been on a real type vacation for a couple of years. Instead, though we have found ways to take one day trips and kinda make it feel like a vaction. Well, this week was Melissa's week to pick where she might want us to go for a day. And would you believe it, she wanted to go to Concord, NC and Mooresville, NC. All this time she said she has been wanting to visit some Nascar Race shops and see how the cars are made. So tommorrow morning we are heading up to North Carolina and let her have her wish. Ok I'm lying. She is hating the fact that Isaac and I were wanting to go up there but she is going to go too. I told her that there is shopping near Hendrick Motorsports. I failed to tell her that is a Bass Pro Shops World. Oh well, she'll find out soon enough. Isaac has been wanting to see how they make the cars and where they make them so we are going to take him to see them.

While we are up there we are going to drive on up to Randleman North Carolina and let him see where the Victory Junction Camp is. This is the camp started by the Pettys. It is for children with special medical needs and gives them an opportunity to experience camp when they possibly otherwise couldn't. Isaac qualifies to go for either the week with Liver Transplant Patients or the week with Bone Marrow Transplant Patients. We hope that after he is doing better and feeling better, that he will let us send in his application for camp. Right now he is still going through mommy and daddy attachment because of all he has been through. Actually, it is probably more of the mommy attachment thing. Anyway, we will surely have some pics of our adventure tommorrow. Who knows, maybe I will take my shirt off and paint the number 8 on my chest and stand outside of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated headquarters. Na that's been done before every week at the Nascar race. Oh well, I'll think of something to do.

That's all I have for now. 3 Forever

Laughter - It does a body good

Tonight we had a small group of friends over to the house tonight. As the evening progressed we talked about different subjects, looked at old photos of days gone by, ate some food and capped off the evening with some good ole wet your pants laughter. Some of us laughed so hard that it actually hurt our brains. Seriously though, I am talking about the kind of laughter that makes you sick to your stomach. I think that laughter is one of the most underated things in life. Too many times we get so up tight about life that we are afraid to cut loose and laugh. With all we have been through this past year, we have made it a point to find as many things that we can to laugh about and laugh we do. Lighten up and enjoy today. Laugh.

PS. Jamie that is the funniest thing I have ever seen on video and in person. Bryan I hope your head hasn't exploded. Chase,well you just let us down with the dud.

Back in South Carolina

We are back in South Carolina. Isaac is feeling ok. His liver numbers are still elevated because of an excess of iron in his liver. As a result, we will be going back to Cincy the first week of March where he will getting a new medicine designed to help clear his liver from the excess iron. We will be up there for aorund 9 days if all goes well. We will get to come home around the 15th of March.

It is good to be back in the warm temperatures here in South Carolina. When I was outside packing the car to come home, the air temp was-1. So suddenly 40 degrees back in South Carolina doesn't seem all that cold. Matter of fact it was warm enough to wash our cars when we got back. I tried to wash our cars while we were up in Cincy but the bubbles kept freezing before I could rinse them off.

I did manage to sneak in some sweet sledding before we made the trip back home. Everything was frozen solid so the plastic sled was a rocket. The wind chill going down the hill was pretty tough. I would make three runs and then come inside and get warm and then sled some more.

Looking better

Isaac's blood counts were better than they have ever been since his transplant. His liver numbers have still been of some concern but it is believed that they can be regulated with an oral medicine to help draw out some of the iron of the liver. The excess iron was a result of all the blood transfusions he received after his bone marrow transplant. Overall, he is feeling pretty good. We will continue the back and forth from Easley to Cincinnati for the next few months at least. The next thing that his doctors are discussing is what kind of time table for when he can be around people more. It most likely won't be for a couple of more months but still it is good that it is getting closer to a point where he can have more of a normal life.

My Attempt at the Artsy Fartsy

Here are my artsy fartsy type pics from the morning snow/ice fall as described in my last post. http://sammyclary.blogspot.com/2007/02/cold.html

Cold

I awoke this morning at 5:30 a.m. to the sound of a tree limb hitting the side of the house. It sounded like someone had just slammed a cabinet door on my head. I jumped straight up an ran and checked on Isaac to make sure he hadn't fallen or anything. He was sound asleep. After I determined that the sound was not a "band of hardened criminals" trying to lay siege to the House of Clary, I was able to surmise that in actuality it was merely a tree limb hitting the house. That however did not prevent me from scouring the house for any signs of an intruder. (One side note- always keep some type of criminal deterrent(like a bat or stick) near your bed to field off those intent on seeking havoc in your house in the middle of the night. I did not have said deterrent next to my bed and I imagine that I didn't look all that fierce sneaking through the house carrying a vacuum cleaner to beat off my attackers. It was a Dyson vacuum cleaner nonetheless. Maybe I could have scared off the intruder just by repeating the name of the vacuum. It would have sounded something like this: "Don't make me go Dyson on you" or "Say hello to my little Dyson" or "I'm gonna open up can of Dyson on you")

Anyway, it is cold outside. -6 windchill. We have several inches of snow topped with a half inch of ice topped with a half inch of sleet topped with an inch of snow.

Happy Valentines day to my wife. I asked her to marry me 14 years ago today.

Nascar

Today I had my first Nascar type experience in a few years and it also reminded me of my early drving years when I used to crash early and often. Today though I was just a spectator. I had ran into the city today to pick up some stuff(A Valentine's Day Card for Melissa after all 14 years ago tommorrow I asked her to marry me). As I was coming back out of Cincinnati, traffic was moving pretty brisk considering the amount of ice and snow still on the roads. I was in a pack of 15-20 cars running 55-60 mph. As we neared the top of the Cut in the Hill(This is Cincinnati speak for a place on 1-75 where there is a cut in the hill. People from around there know that this area is notorius for wrecks), this guy in a Toyota 4 Runner hits a patch of ice and loses it.(Sidenote for all Nascar fans- he looked a lot like Brian Vickers however I didn't see a Red Bull sticker on the side of his Toyota but he was driving pretty similar to Vickers).

In the process of losing it, he proceeded across two of the four lanes before he correctly parked it right into the concrete retaining wall backwards. He came close to taking three cars including me into the wall with him. Fortunately, it was a single car wreck and he was ok. Although the same couldn't be said for his Toyota 4 Runner. After that I came back to the house and cleaned my pants and stayed indoors for the rest of the day except when I went out to get my Papa John's Pizza.

The weather is rough out right now. We have several inches of snow on the ground topped by about half an inch of ice and another 1-3 inches of snow expected tonight. We will be in the hospital most of the day tommorrow.

What a Difference an Afternoon Makes

We left Easley at around 1:00 p.m. today. We had to make a stop before we ever got out of Easley. It was a good stop though. Isaac wanted to stop and see his buddies at Hobby Connection plus he had some money that was burning a hole in his pocket and was about to go crazy to spend. We got going and passed a bank that's temperature read 64 degrees. Anyway, we arrived in Cincinnati around 7:45 p.m. and it was in the low 30's with 3-4 inches of snow on the ground from last week's snow. As I am writing the snow has started again and we already have a fresh new inch of snow just within the last hour. Many of you will be impressed to know that my Dikembe Mutombo snow man from several weeks ago is still standing http://sammyclary.blogspot.com/2007/01/tribute-to-dikembe-mutombo.html. Although now he has shrunk from the original 8 snow ball snow man and is down to a traditional 3 snow baller. I will post some pics tommorrow.

Back to the Nati

The stay at home has been short lived. We are heading back to Cincinnati on Monday morning. Originally we were supposed to leave on Tuesday but the forecast in Cincinnati is calling for 7-10 inches of snow on Tuesday so we decided to go on up to beat the weather. And speaking of weather, today I was messing around in the garage with shorts and a t-shirt on. That won't be the case in Cincinnati where the high is supposed to be 14 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully we will be back home soon. This looks to be the routine for a while but that is fine. We are just thankful that he is doing good.

You Asked Part Deux-The Ant Bully(As I was named by my two nieces)

So as I said the other day I have gotten tons of emails and people asking me different questions about being back. Another question that I have fielded a lot lately has been people asking what did we miss while we were up in Cincinnati. I think my top 5 would have to be these and in this order.

1. My Recliner- There is nothing like sitting down in front of the TV and just taking me a big ole snooze.


2. Zaxby's - The restaurant chain hasn't made it's way up north yet.


3. Duke's Sandwiches- These cannot be beat.


4. Nick Henry's cake- When asked what I wanted for Christmas this was my only request.


5. And at number 5 something that I didn't really realize that Isaac and I had missed it that much until yesterday. What might you say is that? For people up north, you have to understand something about some of us here in the south. There is nothing more fun on a warm Saturday afternoon than blowing up fire ants with firecrackers, sparklers, and smoke bombs.
   

Yesterday, Isaac and I were walking around in the back yard and we discovered a huge fire ant nest. Before we went to Cincinnati, Isaac and I had a favorite Saturday past time of seeking out fire ant nests and proceeding to destroy them with all forms of pyrotechnics available. When we found that nest yesterday, we both were excited and rushed into the garage to get out the fireworks.

There is a science to properly destroying these creatures. First, you must stir the nest with a stick. This gets the fire ants aggravated. Then you insert one or two smoke bombs into the nest to really get them moving about. Once they are good and stirred up, then you can either bomb them with firecrackers or you can torch them with a few sparklers. Yesterday we choose the sparkler method and created an ant size Mt. Everest with scores of fleeing and dead ants. After about an hour, we decided that the enemy had been destroyed. And a good time was had by all.(Except for the fire ants that received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on most of their body.)

Gargamel

So Isaac's new favorite channel is Boomerang. It is kind of funny that with all of the new cartoons out there that his favorites would be the ones that I grew up on. It is awesome. I had really missed Grape Ape, Laff Olympics, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch and others. Right now we are sitting watching the smurfs. My favorite of the bunch has to be Brainy. He always gets everyone else hacked off at him and is always pushing their buttons. I always had questions about the smurfs though. Like, where are the other grey headed smurfs? Why is Papa Smurf the only old one? Did he secretly kill the other older smurfs one night so that he could be the sole possessor of wisdom in the Smurf Village? And what would that episode have been called? Night of the Small Blue Knives. Perhaps. Another of my favorite characters has to be Gargamel. Just the sound of his name would make me shutter in fear, that is if I were blue and around 1 1/2 feet tall and wearing white pajama pants with the feet sown in and no shirt on and had a name like Apprehensive Smurf.

Anyway, in honor of the smurfs, I give you random useless facts that everyone needs to know about the smurfs.

1. There were actually two female smurfs. Smurfette and Sassette


2. Gargamel was derived from the word gargantua.


3. Gargamel was a popular name during the middle ages


4. Gargamel's first appearance was in the Smurfnapper in 1959


5. Grouchy Smurf wasn't always grouchy. He was stung by an insect that turned him brown and he began biting other Smurfs. When Papa Smurf turned him back blue, he never lost his Grouchy persona.


6. Smurfette originally had black hair and was created by Gargamel. Papa Smurf gave her an Extreme Smurfover- Blue Edition.

Well that is enough Smurfs for today. We are still compressing the video of Isaac's Christmas Train Project. I will post it when we get it formatted to fit on Youtube and I'll include a link.

You Asked

Recently, since I have started this blog I have been receiving tons of fan mail. This site averages several hundred people each day. There are readers in Angola(sounds like bad heart burn), Algeria, Mexico, Canada, China, The Hague, Great Britain, France, Australia, and the good ole US of A. I try to sort through the plethora of correspondence in a timely manner as not to keep the adoring public waiting. I try to answer each letter or email honestly with an unaltered transparency. Usually I get requests for autographs and sometimes the occasional request of a lock of my hair. I am happy to oblige because at the rate that my hair is falling out of my head, usually all is required is a quick swipe of the swiffer duster and I have enough for several dozen fans. Occasionally I will have some nut job write me and ask for something weird like a fresh scraping of plaque from my left upper cuspid or send me their grandma's favorite scarf and ask for me to pose for a picture in it. Usually I will pass these requests off to Melissa and let her handle these.

Lately, I have been receiving a recurring type of letter. It usually goes something like this. Sammy, I've noticed in all of your pictures that you always seem to have it together. Every time you are in front of the camera, you are in your element. How do you do it? How do you remain stylish and look so composed in every spot? Do you wake up looking great? Does every hair just fall into place for you? Do you ever have an "off" day? Your biggest fan, David Garrett Easley,SC

Well David, I hate to rain on your parade but the answer to your question is yes I do occasionally have an "off" day. There are times when I just can't get my hair to look right. There are days when my face just doesn't want to wake up. It seems that I am mortal after all. Just this morning, my wife caught me in one of those days. I hope this answers your question and that plaque scraping is in the mail. Sincerely,Sammy

Thoughts on the ATL

So today I had to go to Atlanta to meet up with someone take care of some stuff. The trip down was pleasant. I hadn't been to Atlanta for about a year and a half so it was cool getting to see how much some things had changed. Each time I go to Atlanta, it seems as if it keeps moving closer to South Carolina. If it continues to grow, pretty soon Metro Atlanta will include Commerce Georgia and all that area as well.

As I said the trip down was pretty smooth. On the way back, however things were a little less than fun. As I was coming back into the city and passing Turner Field, I noticed the overhead highway board sign saying traffic was stopped ahead. I flipped the radio to a local channel and come to find out, I-85 was completely shut down at 10th Street because of a wreck. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this all occurred at 5:20p.m. I exited off the interstate and went through downtown and North through Buckhead. Needless to say that after 2 hours I had finally made it 15 miles and had finally cleared the accident. I-85 was still shut down behind me. Suddenly the two hours I spent going around the wreck didn't seem too bad.

In other news, I would like to give shout out to our friends in cold and snowy Cincinnati. Not to rub it in or anything but tommorrow it will be 60 degrees here and I will be washing my car in my shorts and t-shirt. I hear you guys may have a warm front coming through. It looks like it may get up to 23 for you tommorrow. We will be back up there Tuesday.

In one last other news, a ton of people have been asking to see Isaac's video of the Christmas Project. With the help of Chase, I will have it up on youtube tommorrow for everyone to see.

Unpacking

It has been crazy around the house the last couple of days. We have been unpacking all of our stuff that was packed away in March of 2005. Which begs the question, if you haven't used it in almost two years, do you really need it? Obviously we still need most of "it" because the closets, dresser drawers, garage, and attic are all bursting at the seams. And speaking of drawers, I found some of mine today that I haven't worn in almost two years. Relax, I have other pairs of underwear that I have been wearing in the mean time. And why do they call them a pair of underwear? I usually on wear one "pair". Never two. Occasionally, I will carry an extra pair with me if I think there is a chance of an accident. But I haven't really had an accident since the first grade in Mrs. Jones class. Which begs another question, why have I been carrying an accident preparedness pair for the last 29 years. I really don't think they will fit anymore.

Seriously though, we are about 3/4 of the way finished unpacking and can finally see the end in sight. Isaac is getting excited about his train room because my dad started cutting some of the base pieces today. Construction on his new train layout will hopefully begin by the end of the week. His lab numbers looked good today other than his electrolytes. Home health care is coming back to the house tommorrow morning to check his labs again. We will be heading back to Cincinnati a week from tommorrow. We will be up there for some of his in hospital stuff and then we will be back for a few weeks and then do it all over again. We would rather split time between here and there than to be stuck up there the whole time.

In other news, I will be making a big announcement concerning my vocation with in the next few days. I can't really do a lot right now because of the uncertainty of our back and forth time. But this is something we are really excited about.

Thank You

Melissa, Isaac and I would like to thank all the people who helped with the train room/garage project. I am going to try and list everyone who had a part in this. If I have left someone off, please contact me and I will add you to the list. Many of the people on this list operate businesses and we encourage you to patronize their business. Again a special thanks to the following people: Level Best Cabinets-Kevin Crocker, Bergeron Builders- Roland Bergeron, Larry Clark, Lowes of Easley-John Thomas, Chad Sellers- Sheetrock, Roy Burger-Hardwood Flooring, Ken Teal, Dale Porter, Jimmy Elrod, Clay Elrod- Clay Grading, Robbie Whitfield- Whitfield Builders, Danny Webb, Andy Webb, Ruthie Wylie, Adam Wylie, Ronnie Joe Winegard, Craig Williams, Mack Williams, Eugene Jolley, April Patterson, Scott Patterson, Scott Watson, Bryan Holder, John David Gwinn, Jean Vinson and David Vinson- Hobby Connection, Cindy Bryant, Scott Bryant, John and Cindy Durham and sons, David and Sherry Sewell- Concrete, Danny and Brenda Miller, Norman Garrison, Jeff Garrison, Brian Elrod, Eddie Duncan and sons, Jarrett Dove, Robert Elrod- Crescent Supply, Ken Beasley, Ronnie Fowler, June Fowler, Oneal Evans, Grant Sullivan, Steve, Jan, Krystal, Kevin, Travis - the McAtees, John Merritt, Rackley Heating and Air, Jerry Landreth - Landco Builders, Jerry McIntosh-Roofer, Jamie Skinner- Piedmont Overhead Door, Butter Doors, Michael Whitener- Hardwood Flooring Supply, Christopher, Vincent, Sydney, and my parents Ray and Sandra Clary. These pictures are for all of you. Those are tears of joy.

Homecoming

I'm sorry it has been so long in this post coming, but it has been an incredibly hectic couple of days. We arrived back home to South Carolina on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. We were met at my parents house by Ron and Lindsay and the kids and Isaac was given a blue light escort towards our house. About half way there we met up with the Three and Twenty Fire Department and Isaac was not only given a blue light escort but also received a fire truck escort. It was complete with sirens and horns. Isaac was on the edge of his seat the whole way in anticipation of turning in the neighborhood.

We pulled into the neighborhood and the Cul de Sac was lined with people with banners and fireworks. When Isaac saw all the people he became overwhelmed with tears of joy. It was an emotional moment for everyone. It is probably the best day we have experienced ever. Before going inside we had a time of prayer thanking God for Isaac's return home.

We then went inside so Isaac could see his train room for the first time. Although everyone couldn't come inside becasue of germs, people lined around the windows at the train room to get a glance at his reaction. At first, his reaction was sheer amazement. He then was overwhelmed with tears of joy. To everyone that helped make the train room possible, we say thank you. I think this picture says it all.

It took a while for the emotion to sink in and realize that after over 15 months we finally were home. Last night we had a drop in with lots of family and friends stopping by. Isaac had been wanting to shoot fireworks ever since he had been in the hospital and his buddies the Finleys at Charlies fireworks hooked him up with a ton of them.

Again, thanks for everything that everyone has done during this time. We are truly grateful for all of your prayers and support. We will be back and forth to Cincinnati every two weeks for next several months.

We Are Home

We are home and just got the internet hooked up. I''l try to post about it later tonight when we get back from the party for Isaac. Yesterday was amazing. Not a dry eye. Tons of people lining the road and a blue light and fire truck escort. I've got to go to the party. Bye