My brother, Pat

My next to the youngest brother, Patrick Alan Coons, was born January 3, 1954 at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri.  He had a bumpy start, needing a whole body transfusion at birth due to ABO incompatibility.  He was the sweetest little brother anyone could have, a laughing baby despite all he had been through. My father was fond of taking pictures of us when we were younger. I recently converted those slides to CDs and gave one to each of my brothers.  Last year, at the age of 58, Patrick was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.  We got together this month in Oklahoma first and then on to Missouri and spent a week together with our brother, Barry, who was also just diagnosed with metastatic cancer to his spine. The picture I have shown here is of Barry, Patrick and me at my daughter, Brandy's, house. Patrick's once strapping 6 foot 7 inch frame has shrunk from the illness. He has finished his radiation therapy and has been told there is nothing else to be done. I am waging war against cancer and I am praying in every way I know how to defeat this disease that has so haunted my family. My mother and father both died of lung cancer. All of my father's brothers and 1 sister died of cancer of some sort, as did his mother and father. I was not ready to see Patrick looking so ill. We live a long ways away from each other and in the past, many years would go by without out keeping touch. There would, after all, be all the time in the world for that. How many times have I thought that in my lifetime and how many times I have been wrong.  So for awhile, I will not be posting about prolife, though it is a cause I am highly devoted to and pray about.  I will not be posting about politics, though again, a cause I am very involved in. For awhile, I will be writing about my brother and my abject and profound love for him, and hoping that anyone reading this will pray for him along with me.  I am just not ready to let him go yet.

I love you Pat. You are my heart.

The Magic, the Glory, and the Majesty of Tim Tebow

Who is Tim Tebow?

I have a feeling, Tim Tebow would not want to be glorified. To him, the glory belongs to God. This is what makes him such a remarkable man. Finally, a true role model for our children and for all of us. A man who lives his faith on and off the field and who puts God first on his list of priorities. God has blessed Tim Tebow and he has blessed us for having him in our lives, whether we know him or not, many who did not know his name before, know it now.



Here's the thing that makes life so interesting. The theory of evolution claims only the strong shall survive. Maybe so. Maybe so. But the theory of competition says, just because they're the strong doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked. That's right. See, what every long shot come from behind underdog will tell you is this, the other guy may, in fact, be the favorite, the odds may be stacked against you fair enough, but what the odds don't know is this isn't a math test. This is a completely different kind of test. One where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking, just remember out here the results don't always add up. No matter what the stats may say and the experts may think and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on, all bets are off. Don't be surprised if somebody decides to slip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle, and then suddenly, as the old saying goes, we got ourselves a game.

Colt McCoy gives God the Glory.

In a post game interview, quarterback for the Texas Longhorns gives an emotional interview. If you look up class act in the dictationary, this fine young man's picture is there. This isn't the first time McCoy publicly expressed his faith in God. He participated last year in the I Am Second movement, a ministry that is based on the principle of keeping Jesus the primary focus in people's lives, and reminding people that God still loves them even when they make mistakes.

"I want people to know that having a personal relationship with Christ is probably the biggest decision that any of us will make. It goes deeper than going to church, than just acting like a Christian," McCoy wrote for the group's Web site. "It goes with really deeply knowing and coming to know Jesus and having a personal relationship with Him."

McCoy holds the NCAA records for highest career completion percentage and most wins for a starting quarterback.



Read more at Newsbusters here

99 Balloons

This family was blessed with wisdom, love of each other and faith in God. Many would have aborted little Elliott. Instead, they chose to celebrate each and every moment with their special gift. How AWESOME. Glory be to God!