I am such a sap. If my parents had been given any inkling of the weepy woman they were raising, they would have taken out Kleenex stock and made a bundle of money. Who knows why, but I cry at senior dance recitals, weddings, funerals, graduations, parent/teacher conferences, and reunions – not just those involving my family but those of friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers. I also get teary-eyed at the sight of wheelchairs, healthy babies, sick babies, hospitals, nursing homes, old couples holding hands, parents holding their kids’ hands, the American flag, soldiers, and I’d better stop there or the list will never end.
So I should have said no last fall when the producer of Words to Live By, an international radio program produced by RBC Ministries, invited me to share our family’s story for a future broadcast. (Don’t let the invitation impress you. RBC is the parent company that also owns, Discovery House Publishers (DHP). And DHP released A Different Dream for My Child last year and will also publish Different Dream Parenting.)
Instead I said yes. Of course, I cried through much of the interview. So hard, in fact, that they had to turn off the tape and give me time to blow my nose. More than once.
Well, last week word came that the segment featuring our family’s story will air this coming weekend, September 25 and 26. At first I didn’t tell anybody, because who would want to listen to a weepy woman blubber into a microphone? But yesterday, the nice people at RBC sent a CD of the program. I listened to this morning and was pleasantly surprised. Somehow, the miracle workers at Words to Live By edited out my snuff-snuffs and nose drips so the broadcast is not a blatant marketing ploy for tissue barons.
If you want to listen to the show, go to www.words.net and use the station finder to locate your closest station and air time. You can also listen to the broadcast at www.words.net from September 24 – 30. And from the looks of things, a free downloadable podcast will be available at the iTunes store a week or two after the show first airs.
So have a listen and see what you think. To be on the safe side, have some Kleenex handy. Just don’t pull them out of the box before you need them. No sense making the tissue kings any richer than necessary.
