Big Brother Big Sister - James

Before my wife and I married, we decided that we would spend our married years working with children that had part-time or no-time parents. So, for the first 20 years of our marriage, as emergency foster care parents, we received an uncounted number of 2 to 10 year old children, one to three at a time, typically with 30 minutes notice of their arrival, at all hours of the night and day--mostly at night--and kept our charges for periods of time ranging from one day to two weeks.

However, in 1991, after a dear nephew died of cancer, and, after I heard just one more TV advertisement for Big Brother Big Sister, we cranked down the foster parent program and I enrolled in the BBBS program and completed the training and certification process.

Early in December of 1991, BBBS called me in for the selection and assignment process. Two women sat in a conference room and explained what would take place next. Before I arrived, they said, they had narrowed the matching process down to two boys. Now, I would sit alone in this conference room, watch the two videos they had selected and then pick one of the two boys for my Little Brother. BBBS would then set up a date and time for the matched Big and Little Brothers to meet.

I complemented the two ladies on BBBS' selection process but politely refused to participate. I explained that I had joined BBBS to do what I could for some child, not for some child to do something for me. I ask them if they would please tap into their experience at BBBS and create a match that they they believed would work best for all concerned. They agreed, left the room and, in five minutes, returned with an offer. They had selected a 12-year old boy and now they would arrange with his mother to meet me here at the earliest possible date.

On December 18, 1991, I met my 12-year old Little Brother James. What a joy! We began our acquaintance that day with a quick lunch at a sandwich shop, and, then, during the next 6 years, we did more  fun things than you can imagine. Besides having meals together, attending movies, playing games at his house or mine, hiking, swimming, talking, etc, we also participated in wonderful and exciting adventures, such as:

• camped out in New Mexico and attended cross country horse races;
• attended James' school functions;
• attended James' his cross country track meets held in cities and towns throughout the area;

• went SCUBA diving in Cozumel Mexico (When James was 14, I offered to pay for his SCUBA certification and take him SCUBA diving at near Cozumel in the Caribbean if he would earn sufficient money to pay for his part of the trip. James got his first job and, within, 3 months, bought a ticket to Cozumel. We enjoyed a great trip SCUBA diving for a week around Cozumel. James said we were, "two island kind o' guys.");
• James rode with me often when I piloted the skydiver jump plane;
• James rode with me often when I piloted the glider tow plane;
• James rode with me often in the soaring club's two seat glider in the Texas Panhandle and during a weekend of high and fast high-performance glider soaring in the wide open skies over Hobbs, New Mexico;

• James and I appeared in a BBBS TV commercial flying a glider in formation with the glider tow plane; and
• more...

James--who, at the time of this writing, is serving as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the University of Oregon's Institute of Ecology and Evolution--is a very special guy, as will be James' and Robin's first child expected to arrive around Thanksgiving 2013.

Having James as a Little Brother--'officially' from 1991 through 1997 and unofficially forever--is one of those shining experiences that will always make me smile. For 22 years now, our telephone conversations have ended, "Love you bro." Neat kid!