Trust Fund Babies

My neighbor next door in Colorado was a trust fund baby. She was young, single, and had spent more on her landscaping than we had on our family car. Her bright green grass was almost blinding in comparison to our camouflage patterned seedling grass. However, the grass is not always greener on the "wealthy" trust fund baby's side.

There are various trust fund babies out there. But the best of funds don't come in the way of physical property or financial means. They are small investments are made by mothers. They entrust their children with confidence, and teach them they are special.

"Mom told me it was a sign of royalty" my brother said of his 2nd toe being longer than his big toe. Todd had a "Peter-Pan-I-still-believe" like magic when sharing what his mother had ingrained in him.

Sandy Meecham is such a mother. Her 6 year-old, Jaden, has a golf ball sized tumor on his optic nerve (causing the family to move back to the states for Braille lessons), and was pronounced legally blind in the right eye. When I asked her how she was holding up, she told the whole story without the least bit of pessimism. She stated:

"People wonder how we're doing. We are living in the present. Yes, his condition could get worse, but we will handle it at that time. Right now, we are choosing not to let it get us down." I admired the effects of her optimism. Even more, I admired the influence she had on her son, Jaden. Read on...

We took the kids on a long walk around the canal. We stopped on the bridge, and were admiring the gold fish beneath in all their different sizes and colors. I wondered what Jaden could see, and I was careful to not tell kids to look for a certain color fish or anything that Jaden wouldn't be able to keep up with. Then, Jaden in his mother-sourced confidence states "Hunter, do you see the big fish over there??" I saw it, and he was trying to get Hunter to see it too. He then gave up on trying to help Hunter find it, and said "You just don't have a good eye like me".

He seemed almost gifted in his circumstance. He is his mother's trust fund baby, and will be able to draw on his parents eternal words of encouragement all his life. I hope Jaden passes on this wealth to his own posterity. And... just for the record, a lucky eye or royal feet are much cooler than golf-course-quality grass.