Joseph William Russell--I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about my summer with Joey and his fitness as traveling companion extrodinaire.

I love to travel. I love people and culture and history and YES...I just love it all! But....sometimes it is long between places...sometimes there are lines and heat and cold and humidity and disappointments. Sometimes it is long between meals and far between potty stops. But if you are going to go through all that, you want to be with someone like Joey. He is the bestest traveling buddy. He never complained. He didn't ever ask how much farther. He was interested in everything. He was patient. He walked a million miles from sun up to way after sun down. He never gave me grief in the morning, or really, at any other time. There were many times that I complained, whimpered or whined...but not Joey. How did he get like that? I have so much fun with him. He teaches and inspires me. He makes me wish I could afford to experience more of the world with him. He is always so incredibly grateful for everything. He is always thanking me profusely for the most ordinary of things that so many people take for granted. At the war memorials I wondered where he had learned to reverence such things. If I ever need a good cry, I don't need a chick-flick, I just need to think about the incredible blessing of this, my youngest child, and I am undone. Thanks be to God for the privilege of being his mother and being able to experience so much through his eyes.