This week I’m hosting Judy Christie with The Glory of Green, Gail Martin with A Dad of His Own, and Maureen Lang with Springtime of the Spirit. If you want to enter the drawings, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (March 6th) evening.
Hero Interview from A Dad of His Own by Gail Martin:
Ethan Fox, tell me the most interesting things about you.
Interesting? I really don’t think of myself as interesting. I enjoy my work as a contractor for a home construction company. I really like designing homes that meet people’s needs and make them happy.
What do you do for fun?
Hmm? I’m a volunteer for the wonderful organization, Dreams Come True Foundation, which gives children who are struggling with a life-threatening disease the opportunity to have one of their dreams or wishes come true.
What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Sometimes I dread meeting the parents and children who are seriously ill, because it kills me to face how sick they are and I realize how fragile life is. My wife died from ovarian cancer a few years ago, so I know how unbearable it is to watch someone struggle with a debilitating and fatal disease.
What are you afraid of most?
I hate to admit this to you, because I hate to admit it to myself, but I’m afraid of falling in love. I’m dealing with that now. I’ve met a woman with a seven-year old son who has leukemia. The boy is bright and amazing, and he’s taken a little chunk of my heart. I met him although his mother has no interest in letting the Dreams Come True Foundation fill one of his dreams. I’d like to change her mind. But I’m also finding the mother has gotten under my skin. She courageous and strong, yet I sense she has some deep problems she’d not talking about. She intrigues me, but I don’t want to get interested in her. I can’t handle having another person in my life—her son Cooper—who’s trying to survive with cancer. I’ve done that already.
What do you want out of life?
I want to live my faith, and I want to make people happy. I guess it’s as easy as that. Sometimes I wonder if I’m fooling myself though. I loved being married, and part of me would like to have a person to love again, but. . . I explained that, I suppose. So I’ll just move from family to family in my work design homes and in the Foundation and make others happy.
What is the most important thing to you?
Integrity and my faith. I think that I can sum it up that way. When I die, I want to go to heaven knowing that I tried to do the right thing and to be a witness to Christ on earth. Yes, I fail, but that’s what’s so wonderful about forgiveness.
Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I don’t read a lot of fiction, but when I do I like suspense and thrillers. I suppose that’s how I get my excitement. My favorite books are what people call coffee table books. It’s hard to believe but that’s what Cooper loves. I bought him one for his birthday. He enjoys pictures of nature and amazing places. I gave him a camera for his birthday so he could take his own photographs. He was thrilled and so was I when I saw the ones he took. He’s a great kid.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
The main thing I suppose is to be a father. I’m sorry Laine and I didn’t have a child or two before she died. Yes, it would make life more complicated now, but I’d be a family.
Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No pets. Being alone means the pet would be alone all day while I worked, and I don’t think that’s fair to an animal. If I had a pet, I’d have a dog. I think children love them.
If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I’d prefer to go forward in time when diseases are conquered by medicine, especially cancer. To live in a cancer free world, would be such a gift. Who knows? The time may come.
