if you let one in...

...you inevitably let more into your house, right? 

one of micah's birthday presents was a book. the special thing about this particular book was that it was written by our friend ashlea's friend, josh. josh wrote a book on south florida snakes for part of his master's program. not only did she give micah a signed copy of the book, but she also included the following letter.  

Micah Patrick Harrison:

This entitles you to meet the author.

You will get to spend time with a guy

who watched Jeff Corwin when 

he was your age...

Now he is a researcher and 

spends his life hanging out 

with reptiles in the wild.

I hope that this inspires

you to chase your dreams

 and follow your heart!

Love you, buddy!

-Ashlea

So a few weeks after his birthday ashlea coordinated with Josh and his wife to come to our house for dinner. i thought it was going to just be that, but Josh came prepared with all sorts of curious creatures!

he brought a turtle named number two.

 he brought a pine snake,

  that even beatrix wanted to touch! 

 and he brought a pigmy boa constrictor. 

seriously jeff, look what you have invited into my house! 

 micah asked question after question and josh was so patient and kind and did his best to explain everything. he never once talked down to micah. he made micah feel intelligent and he encouraged his curiosity. josh really did inspire him. i kept looking at josh and thinking to myself, this really could be micah some day. i'm not sure if micah's passion will be with snakes, but i could visualize my son one day in the future sharing his wealth of knowledge with another excited kid. it was a beautiful thing to witness. 

we had a great dinner and wonderful conversation. 

it was a special special birthday gift. 

one that was pretty much free, just extremely thoughtful and perfect for micah. 

 thank you ashlea. 

thank you for knowing our kids and for encouraging them to explore, to create and to dream big.