To my parents

I love you both very much. I also see now how wonderful you have been to me while I was growing up. I know that what you wanted was for things to be better for me than they were for you. All your actions came from love. I'm reading a book right now. It's called Facing Your Giants by Max Lucado. It was talking about family and I read this one part and I thought about you. Here it is.

Quiet heroes dot the landscape of our society. They don't wear ribbons or kiss trophies; they wear spit-up and kiss boo-boos. They don't make the headlines, but they do sew hemlines and check the outlines and stand on the sidelines. You won't find their names on the Nobel Prize short list, but you will find their names on homeroom, carpool and Bibles teacher lists. They are parents, both by blood and deed, name and calendar. Heroes. News Programs don't call them. But that's okay. Because their kids do . . . They call them Mom. They call them Dad. And these moms and dads, more valuable than all the executives and lawmakers west of the Mississippi, quietly hold the world together.

So, that's what I think of you two. I think the world of you two. I love you, Poppy Bear, and Mommy.