People would often ask me, why are you a Big Brother when you already have a kid?! Great question... and there's a million ways to answer that.
Long story short, I wanted 5 kids. I love kids & everything about them. Shortly after my wife & I got together she asked how many kids I wanted. I told her 5. She cringed!
Our son was born as a preemie, a full 2 months early & a whopping 4 lbs soaking wet. It was a difficult delivery for the team at Rocky Mountain Hospital, and the specialists all advised that having further kids may result in disaster. By that I mean there was a 30%+ chance of mom or baby not making it through the delivery.
After hearing that news, the decision became easy for us to stop at 1. But that didn't mean we couldn't surround ourselves with kids in life. We applied for adoption, but that's a story for another day, I coached hockey & baseball every year of my son's career. Being a coach/mentor in the lives of young people was always appealing to me. Helping to shape the future of the next wave was really rewarding.
When I found out that Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Canada were in dire needs of mentors, I jumped! I asked my son first if he was ok with me taking a little time away from him to spend with my little brother & he thought it was a fantastic idea. Who doesn't want more people in their life to love them?! So off I went to try and match up with a little brother that shared my interests in life.
Once a week my little bro & I would head out on adventure. The mandate was it had to be something he had never done before. I could live it again through his eyes. It was a great time. I took him skating for the first time. His first Flames game, and he got to meet some of the guys. We took him golfing for the first time etc. All the while trying to be an emotional anchor in his life, to help navigate through a complicated world.
When he got in his later years in high school, that was pretty much it for our weekly adventures. I could tell he was on the right track. He had other people to fill that role. His mom & Grandma were incredible influences in his life, he just needed a guy at times to help balance things. I definitely got as much out of that relationship as he did. He's a wonderful young man.
(I used to emcee all the big parties for Big Brothers that Henry Burris would throw)
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