A Veteran Came Back Into Our Lives

Long, long ago in a town far away our boys went to elementary school briefly.  While there Jonathan made a friend named Adam.  This kid was so sweet and we had him in our home often.  Even after Jonathan left the local school to be home educated their friendship remained strong.

Then we moved to Lancaster County.  We only saw Adam a couple of times after that.  One of those times was at Hershey Park.  I looked for photos this morning to share with Adam on this special day.  That will make more sense in just a bit.  But this is the photo I sent to him today.

Adam in the center.

Chelsea, Jonathan and Myself on the right.

As so often happens life continues in parallel universes and we lost track 

of each other.  But last month Adam found us again.

By Facebook, of course!

While we had pretty much continued on a predictable and relatively quiet life path

Adam had not.   He joined the military at the age of 17!

He comes from a family who served.

It was all he wanted to do.

Adam became a medic.  Caring for the fallen.

In 2013 he became one of the fallen
while attempting to recover

another.

Adam lost both legs.

He saved his own life by pulling tourniquets out of his vest and starting to put

them on his legs.  As God would have it a rescue helicopter landed nearly 

immediately because they were already responding to the same first blast

that Adam had responded to.

You know what?

Better than me trying to retell his story you could just read it here.

In Adam's own words.

What was so cool was that Adam wanted to reconnect.

To get together.

And within two weeks it happened.

He and his beautiful girlfriend came to visit.

We went to lunch and chatted easily.

I'm not surprised that this young boy I once knew grew into

this amazing man. 

Such a positive attitude.

I know a lot of credit goes to his parents who spent 

years with him at the hospital and in Physical Therapy.

But so much of it is just Adam.

Strong, resilient and holding onto an amazing sense of humor.

That made today a very, very special Veterans Day for me.

I've got one of "my kids" back in my life.

Adam Hartswick, Thank You so much, for all you have 

given for my freedom!!

...and....

Thank you for finding us!!