Moments that make a parent proud... Having children can be a challenge - they dont want to do what you think they should and sometimes they do things that make you so proud you just burst with Oh yeah - thats my kid! Tonight Ill share some of those... Jake Scheid - Hes the first born of the brood. As a dad, I was so excited to see him come into the world. I was going to college full-time, working full-time and trying to be a dad as well. We were poor financially but rich in blessings of him in our family. Jake didnt like to have his head covered and loved being outdoors. I took him skiing up at Beaver Mountain when he was about 6 months old. Everybody was amazed to watch as we skied under the lift in the moguls. Im sure most of those who saw us that day were sure that Jake wouldnt live very long with a Dad who skied the bumps as though he were by himself. Being the first born meant that we got to experiment with him on most things. One day, before he could really crawl, as I was getting him ready for a bath I left him on the bed and stepped across the hall to check on the bath water that was running. I was no more than 10-15 feet away from him and had taken his diaper off so he could air out a bit before I put him into the bath. The next thing I heard was a, Waugh! as he started to cry followed by a choking sound. With the diaper off, he decided that would be a great time to pee and what goes up must come down and in this case it came back into his mouth. Of course, being the first born also meant that he was really spoiled until Jadey Schouten joined our family about 16 months after he was born. Jadey interfered with his lone attention mode and so one day while living in the basement apartment spoken of a couple posts ago (the one with the fight), he decided he was going to get rid of her. Elma had stepped away and left her on the couch. With her back turned, the next thing she heard was Jadey screaming. Jake had grabbed her by the ankles and yanked her off the couch and onto the floor. Take that baby sister! Jake was a serious child and while living in Cody, Wyoming while I was stationed in Korea, he had a friend that wasnt quite of the same mold. This boy, from time to time used profanity and we tried hard to teach our young children that profanity is a feeble mind trying to express itself forcibly. Elma Scheid heard Jake and his friend with his friend using profanity upstairs and was going to go up to correct him when she heard Jake say, we dont talk like that in our family. Elma wrote about that to me while I was in Korea and it brought tears to my eyes and warmed my heart... Jadey was always very smart and quick to figure out how to get on the good side of folks. In spite of being a real spitter when she was tiny. She could sit 5 feet away from you and while looking at you with a cute smile, spit up and cover you with her last meal from mom. I was really proud of her though because when she was young, she was diagnosed with a lazy eye. We had to put a patch over her good eye to try to get the bad one to work right. She looked like a pirate and had to wear glasses. As she got a bit older, it became apparent that she would most likely be legally blind in one eye and have to wear coke bottle type glasses. Instead, she learned how to compensate and today doesnt wear glasses and when she was in high school and junior high could beat me at basketball even without depth perception that most of us have with two good eyes. Sam Scheid was the most patient baby one could imagine. It seemed nothing could get him to fuss. While going to flight school in Alabama, we worked with our Church at a peach orchard that was part of the Church welfare program I would carry him on my back for hours picking peaches in the heat of the Alabama sun in July and he just was happy as could be. That he followed me as a helicopter pilot couldnt be a prouder moment in my life... Except of course when he also followed me in the Priesthood and was ordained a High Priest when he was called to the Bishopric in his Ward. Its also wonderful that hes managed to follow me to Germany so I can see him and his family from time to time... Of course, Jenna Ford, was just the cutest baby. When she was young I would hold her in one hand and shed sit up with her bushel of black hair and smile at everyone with her dark eyes that just melted everyones heart. She, like her sister became quite a sports star but chose to go a route that was different than that. She was the first of my children to marry and the first to give me a grandchild, Bryan Ford, and she couldnt make me prouder as I have watched her and Seth Ford raise him into an outstanding young man... Josiah Scheid came along and probably felt like he was the black sheep of the family for a while. He didnt like to eat vegetables, actually he still doesnt, so one day, I told him he couldnt leave the table till he ate a single bite of carrots. He refused and sat there for a long time in his stubbornness. Josiah chose to marry above him when he married Tina Seim Scheid last year. What really surprised me was when he decided that his toys were not as important as being out of debt and so he sold most of them and built a beautiful home in Rose Canyon, Utah. I never thought hed grow up and become responsible but Tina has him doing some really good things with his life... Jill Scheid was the bumper car for the girls. Before she could walk we bought a trampoline while we lived at Ft Campbell, KY. Wed barely had time to set it up when I was jumping with her on it and she came down hitting her shin on my knee. This caused her to cry and we thought it was just a bruise at first but it turned out to be a broken leg. The Dr. at the clinic where we took her went way overboard when he realized she had a broken leg and ordered x-rays of her from head to toe which caused her to scream bloody murder. He tried to report us as child abusers to the social welfare system and that was just absolutely wrong of him. Jill learned to crawl around with a cast on her leg and in the process became so coordinated that she became a star for her high school basketball team. I proudly followed her season from Baghdad when I deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. I believe the three girls could have started a team and been national champs had there been five of them... Kelseychea Reedy (https://facebook/kelseychea.reedy), while not a biological child nevertheless makes me a proud step-dad. I didnt get to know her until she graduated from high school and went off to college. Her mom told me she was a seeker of truth and so I researched and found that there was an LDS Institute of Religion at her college. I got in touch with the instructor and gave him her contact information. He got in touch with her and over the course of the next few months she sought and obtained her own testimony of Joseph Smith as a Prophet of God and was baptized. She returned last year from a mission for the Church where she touched the lives of many in a very positive way and returned with honor making me proud to know and have her a part of my extended family. She has an interest in Japan that hopefully will allow her an opportunity to find work there and allow me to visit and reconnect with my extended family there. Next came Jared Scheid. He was gifted in ways that emulated many of the best traits of his older brothers. Jake was a fast runner, but unfortunately was not blessed with great height. Sam was blessed with great height but was not blessed with great speed. Josiah was blessed with great coordination, but was not blessed with great size. Jared somehow got all of those... Unfortunately he wasnt blessed with too much humility and so managed to get in trouble when he came for a visit one summer and went to Paris with Charlotte. I had to work and was going to meet her, Jared and Jarran along with Sam and Alexis and Londyn enroute to Normandy. Jared got bored with Charlottes idea of tourism and decided he would just take off by himself and make his way back to the hotel. It caused a panic with Charlotte and caused problems for me trying to get him to see the error of his ways. He refused to listen at that time but has become a bit more teachable in good manners. Perhaps it helped that he had to suffer a serious injury while playing football in high school that could have possibly left him a cripple when he was clipped from behind by a low-life kid intent on taking him out of the game. Jared has made me proud by the way he came back from that injury and has gone on to join up with the National Guard and go to language training where hell graduate this summer. Hell leave for his church mission this summer as well and that really makes his dad a proud man... Jarran Scheid, of course the best is always saved for last... Yes I can see your siblings roll their eyes because they think youre the spoiled one. And maybe you are just a bit... But thats okay because youre my youngest son. I have missed much of your growing up years. When I left for Germany nearly 10 years ago, I never imagined Id be here this long and miss so many important events in your life. Im sorry thats the way its turned out for you and for Jared, Jill and Josiah... You make me proud because in spite of me being absent for most of your life, you are a righteous child who follows Christ. You are obedient and willing to help your Mom out - most of the time anyway... You are not quick to anger and are a peacemaker when the need arises. You are willing to forego your own wants to make others happy... You are handsome too by the way... And that is a bit about my kids and what makes them great...
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 22:14:42 +0000
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