Today is my brother’s birthday. I love him very much. He is a very special person. He is kind, gentle, loving and protective. I get sick to my stomach when I think of the times when we have almost lost him.

The first time we nearly lost him was when my Dad was still alive. (I have told this story here before, I know, but there are people who didn’t read it then, so I am going to tell it again.) He was a mechanic at the time and was working alone one night at his shop. It was late at night and he was working underneath the car when somehow it fell off the lift, pinning him under the wheel. He tried to yell for help, but was unable to gather enough air in his lungs to yell loud enough. The shop was in an industrial park, so there wasn’t much traffic, especially that late at night. He had almost lost all hope and he started to pray when he heard a car pull up and someone get out of the car. He gathered all his strength and yelled and in walked my Dad. My Dad who, at the time, lived over 20 miles away. My Dad who had no idea that Mark would be there, especially at that time of night. My Dad who had never before been to see Mark at work. My Dad who was “just stopping by”. Just stopping by to save Mark’s life.

The other time that I am aware of that we almost lost him was about a year after my Dad died. My brother was making the long trip back to my Mom’s house from his home in South Dakota. Mark, at the time, was a using meth addict and he was using as he drove. He started to feel something was very wrong and so he pulled into the nearest motel. He nearly died of an overdose that night. Had it not been for the help of a dear friend and the people at the desk of that hotel, he may have done just that.

Mark has been a recovering addict for 3 1/2 years. I am so proud of him.

Mark, I love you and you are so precious to me. We have shared some experiences that have made us who we are today. I treasure those. I treasure the fact that we never end a visit or conversation without saying “I love you”. I am so proud of your accomplishments and I know that there are great things to come in your life. I love that you find joy in nature and you are a true outdoorsman. I wish that we saw each other more, but I know that it is difficult with the different lives that we lead. I love you, my little brother! Happy birthday.

In other news….
Our girls played in the heat and they played well. They won both of their games. They play again bright and early Sunday morning at 9:00. If they continue to win, they could play as many as 7 games tomorrow. In heat that is predicted to feel like 115 degrees. Yippee! They did well staying hydrated, fed, shaded (when possible) and cool (by cold wet cloths that they kept around their necks when they weren’t in the field or batting).

The girls had their first game last night. It was a good game with battling back and forth from both teams but, in the end, our girls weren’t able to pull it off. There were several times when the game was tied, and I don’t know what the actual score was, but I think that we ended up losing by 4 runs.

With my migraine yesterday, I ended up sleeping about 11 hours and then I slept a lot of the day away, too. Consequently, I am waaayyy behind in my blog reading. I will try to catch up some tomorrow before we have more tournament games. I am sorry. Don’t tell me not to apologize either. It is in my nature to feel guilty. Catholic school upbringing, you know.