Minutes to Memories

With all due respect to Pamela Anderson, getting my picture made with Alisa Dalton today was a whole lot more fun. I even got some kisses out of this deal!

Hillary needed a new babysitter a few months after we had moved to Ocean Springs in 1999. She wasn't yet two years old, and we didn't know what to do but to ask. Robin Hayes told us about "Mrs. Pam" where her son Connor went (and amazingly, Hillary & Connor have been best buddies ever since then!), so we called up Mrs. Pam and went for a little interview. Alisa was about 11 years old or so at the time, and I had barely sat down on the Dalton's sofa when she landed on my lap! We've been buddies with this terrific family ever since.

Hillary went to "Mrs. Pam's" for just over three years before beginning her kindergarten year, but elementary school did nothing to deter our love for this family. Eventually, Gary Lee (who was a 6th grader when we first met him) became our yard man, and we watched him develop into a most impressive young man - now a sophomore at the University of South Alabama. And Hillary insisted each year that we stop by and see "Mrs. Pam" every once in a while. So we have.

We received an announcement for a graduation party for Alisa a few weeks ago, and we wouldn't have missed it for the world today. We enjoyed great food and watching all the people whose lives have touched the Daltons (though most often vice-versa).

It was even more amazing to watch all of Alisa's special-needs friends that arrived. It is mind-boggling to think that every one of those wonderful lives came into the world with the pronouncement that something was "wrong."

What I watched this afternoon shouted that something was "right" in the world.