At times, life can throw you a curve ball. Some aren’t welcome: health news; financial news; death. Some are more than welcome: health news; financial news; an expected birth.
One week ago, on Monday morning at 7:09 AM, Kim and I gained new titles: Grandparents!
Hannah and her husband, Alex, gave birth to a baby boy, Mason William. Their first child. Our first grandchild. 6 pounds, 14 ounces, and 20 inches long. Almost mirrored Hannah at her birth, who was one ounce and one inch less. Both had a head of hair. Both came out wide awake without crying, more curious than anything. And both, tiny.
Our world, and their world, changed expectantly and excitedly. Forever changed, and we welcome it!
Kim and I spent most of the week at their house helping them. Not at all in an intrusive way, but gently suggesting this or that, but honestly, Hannah is perfect at being a mom. She’s got this. Alex, who had never changed a diaper before Mason arrived, is learning, but he’s a quick study and both are excellent parents. You can see the love they have for Mason and for each other in the way they interact with him and between the two of them. It’s beautiful to see.
And it is beautiful in the way Kim has become a grandmother. So gentle, so loving, so kind and generous of her time and talent. Watching her with Mason, and with Hannah and Alex, only reminded me of how much I love her. It brought back a flood of memories with our two babies, Hannah and Emily. Both different, but in many ways, both similar. Watching Emily as an aunt is also beautiful to see. Gentle, a little lacking in confidence, but she too will get it and in the short time she was there, got it. She’ll be a great aunt, just as she is a wonderful sister and a terrific daughter. I love her to pieces.
Our new life. This curveball accepted willingly and gladly. Happily.
I’ve written before how life has its ups and downs. Like waves on the ocean, troughs and crests. We ride them, navigate them. We embrace them. Knowing how old I am- hitting 70 in November, this is welcomed and reminds me that life is truly worth living, and loving. I’m smiling through it all. A tear or two of joy. Precious to hold and to behold. Truly, life is worth living no matter the fastball, no matter the curve ball. Ride the wave like an expert surfer. Sometimes falling, only to climb back up on the board, wiping the water from the eye, and catching the next wave. Something to think about …
Live
Your Life, and Make A Difference!
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My Publisher, Black Rose Writing, has
a special deal for you! From 7/2 through 7/5 my book, Betrayed is
only $.99 for Amazon Kindle! The book blurb and the link to the book
is below for your convenience.
Betrayed: Two
Top Shelf Awards: 1st Place Fiction-Mystery; and Runner-Up
Fiction-Crime; A PenCraft 1st Place Winner for
Thriller-Fiction! A Maxy Award Runner-Up for Mystery/Suspense! A Literary Titan
Silver Book Award Winner! A Reader’s Ready Recommended Read Award Winner! A
Reader’s Favorite Honorable Mention Award Winner for Fiction-Crime-Mystery!
Betrayed is
Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://amzn.to/3AfUUpS
A late-night phone call, a missing
kid, a murdered family, but no one is talking. A promise is made and kept, but
it could mean the death of a fifteen-year-old boy. Greed can be all-consuming,
and seeing is not believing. No one can be trusted, and the hunters become the
hunted. https://amzn.to/2EKHudx
Fan Mail: New
Release! A Maxy Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Award Nominee, and a Literary
Titan Silver Book Award Winner!
A barrage of threatening letters, a
car bomb, and a heart attack rip apart what was once a close-knit family of
adopted brothers. Randy and Bobby, along with fellow band member and best
friend, Danny, receive fan mail that turns menacing. They ignore it, but to
their detriment. The sender turns up the heat. Violence upends their world. It
rocks the relationship between the boys and ripples through their family,
nearly killing their dad.
As these boys turn on each other,
adopted brother Brian flashes back to that event in Arizona where he nearly
lost his life saving his brothers. The scars on his face and arms healed, but
not his heart.
Would he once again have to put
himself in harm’s way to save them? And if faced with that choice, will
he? https://amzn.to/3eNgSdS
Blaze In, Blaze
Out: Best Action Crime Thriller of 2022 by Best Thrillers! A
Literary Titan Gold Book Award Winner! A Readers’ Favorite Award Winner! A
Reader’s Ready Recommended Read! A BestThriller’s Editor’s Pick!
Blaze In, Blaze Out is
Now Available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! https://www.audible.com/acx-promo\
Eiselmann and O’Connor thought the
conviction of Dmitry Andruko, the head of a Ukrainian crime
family, meant the end. It was only the beginning. They forgot that revenge
knows no boundaries, vindictiveness knows no restraints, and ruthlessness
never worries about collateral damage. Andruko hired contract killers to
go after and kill O’Connor and Eiselmann.
The killers can be anyone and be
anywhere. They can strike at any time. They care nothing of collateral damage.
Andruko believes a target is a target, and in the end, the target must
die. https://amzn.to/34lNllP
Caught in a Web: A
PenCraft Literary Award Winner! Named “One of the Best Thrillers of 2018!” by
BestThrillers.com
Caught in a Web is also
available in Audio Book, Kindle and Paperback! http://bit.ly/2WO3kka
They found the bodies of high school
and middle school kids dead from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. A violent
gang, MS-13, controls the drug trade along the I-94 and I-43 corridors. They
send Ricardo Fuentes to find out who is cutting in on their business, shut it
down and teach them a lesson. But he has an ulterior motive: find and kill a
fifteen-year-old boy, George Tokay.
Detectives Jamie Graff, Pat O’Connor
and Paul Eiselmann race to find the source of the drugs, shut down the ring,
and find Fuentes before he kills anyone else. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CKF7696
Spiral Into Darkness:
Named a Recommended Read in the Author Shout Reader Awards!
Would you recognize a serial killer if
one spoke to you? Vincent and Shirley didn’t, and now they’re dead!
He blends in, is successful,
intelligent, and methodical. So far, he has murdered eight people. There is no
discernible pattern, no clues, and no leads. The only thing the FBI and local
police have to go on is the method of death: two bullets to the face- gruesome
and meant to send a message. But it’s difficult to understand any message
coming from a dark and damaged mind. Two adopted boys, struggling in their own
world, do not know they are the next targets, and neither does their family or
local law enforcement. https://amzn.to/2RBWvTm
The Lives Trilogy Prequel, Taking Lives:
FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his
partner search for the clues behind the bodies of six boys left in various and
remote parts of the country. Even though they live in separate parts of the
country, the lives of Kelliher, 11-year-old Brett McGovern, and 11-year-old
George Tokay are separate pieces of a puzzle. The two boys become interwoven
with the same thread Kelliher holds in his hand. The three of them are on a
collision course and when that happens, their futures grow dark as each search
for a way out. https://amzn.to/34nXBH5
Book One, Stolen
Lives: Editor’s Pick by BestThrillers! Literary Titan Gold Book Award
Winner! A Crime Thriller finalist in the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards!
Two thirteen-year-old boys are
abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have
24 hours to find them or they will end up like the other kids they found- dead!
They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. To make the investigation
that much tougher, Kelliher suspects that one of his team members might be
involved. https://amzn.to/3oMo4qZ
Book Two of the Lives
Trilogy, Shattered Lives:
The boys are home, but now they have
to fit back in with their families and friends. Their parents and the FBI
thought the boys were safe. They were until people began dying. Now the hunt is
on for six dangerous and desperate men who vow revenge. With no leads and
nothing to go on, the FBI can only sit back and wait. A dangerous game that
threatens not only the boys, but their families. https://amzn.to/2RAYIk2
Book Three of the Lives Trilogy, Splintered Lives:
Three dangerous men with nothing to
lose offer a handsome reward to anyone willing to kill fourteen-year-old Brett
McGovern. He does not know that he, his younger brother, and a friend are
targets. More than anyone, these three men vow to kill George, whom they blame
for forcing them to run and hide. A fun vacation turns into a nightmare and
ends where it started, back on the Navajo Nation Reservation, high on a mesa
held sacred by George and his grandfather. Outnumbered and outgunned, George
will make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his adoptive father and his
adoptive brothers- but can he? Without knowing who these men are? Or where they
are? Without knowing whom to trust? Is he prepared for betrayal that leads to
his heartbreak and death? http://bit.ly/SplinteredLives
Photos courtesy of Hannah Adley
