Now it's Friday, Mollie has been delivered to the High School and we are sitting in the parking lot of the football stadium waiting for the gates to open. Tonight they opened the gates early and Jonah saw this and was ready to go. We took our stadium seats in and placed them where we sit and then waited for the players that were on the field to head to the locker room. Jonah is all excited (not sure if its the football players or the thought of the trip to the "session" stand but we were off to see who we could see. As we were headed down the sidewalk Coach Cook came out and called to Jonah to let him know that the players were waiting. Jonah entered the locker room and made the rounds much like a politician running for office. He would look each player in the eyes as he shook the their hands (I am not sure what he said to them or if he said anything, I stand off to the side and just enjoy watching) and the he was off to the next group of players. This is where it really started getting to me. Coach Cook and Coach Dolan had the quarterbacks and receivers ready to start their pre-game talk when Jonah comes up saying "Coach Kook". Coach Cook walks up, gives Jonah a hug and tells him to go get 'em. 
Jonah makes the rounds and then I see him getting a huge hug from Coach Dolan. Finally, as we were about to head off to the "session" stand, Jonah decides that I am to take a picture of him and Coach Dolan and as I was about to take the picture Jonah decides that Coach Cook should be in the picture as well. Needless to say, both coaches ended up in thepicture. Before I walked off Coleman Patterson walked up and asked me if Jonah participated in the yearly shopping trip to Target for the WISD Special Needs students. I told him that Jonah does and then Coleman said that if it was ok with me that he wanted to be Jonah's buddy/shopping partner that day. This young man made my day, knowing that it's October and he was planning ahead and wanted to be involved in this with Jonah. I was floating on cloud nine at this point and the night only gets better after this.
During the game, Mollie sent me a text to let me know that Hunter Taylor was here from SFA and she told me where he was located. I convinced Jonah that we should go say "hi" to Hunter (Jonah was busy playing games on my wife's iPhone at the time). So off we went to find Hunter. Well Hunter was not where we were told he was but a friend of mine spotted him and delivered a message to him letting him know that there was someone at the locker room gate to see him. When Hunter came over it was like he and Jonah picked their friendship up right where it left off last year. We spent most of the second quarter of the football game with Jonah and Hunter talking, playing kung foo, tag and anything else that Jonah could come up with.
Finally, I told Jonah that we had to go so that we could watch Mollie perform at halftime. I thanked Hunter for spending time with Jonah and Jonah gave him a big hug. Jonah and I made it into the stands, watched halftime and then decided to go for a walk. I asked Jonah where we were going and he said to see Hunter and play some more. Uh-oh, Hunter is not where we thought he would be. I sent Hunter a Facebook message, found out that he was in the stands talking to some friends. I told him that Jonah said he would wait till Hunter was done and Hunter showed up shortly after that. Game on. Those two played till I thought Hunter was going to pass out (not sure where all of this Jonah energy came from). Next thing I know this is what I see; Jonah and Hunter sitting next to a fence talking about movies that Jonah likes. This went on until there were on five minutes to go in the game. Hunter had spent almost half the game with Jonah.
I told Jonah that Hunter needed to go see his friends and Jonah said "No he doesn't". Hunter looked at me and said that he was fine and they could wait. In the end, in order to get Jonah to let Hunter go and for us to go get our stuff, we'll be making a trip to SFA, taking Hunter to dinner and hopefully a football game.
All of this just to say what an impact these men have had on Jonah and I.
I sent Hunter's mom a Facebook message letting her know what a great job that she has done with Hunter and she sent one back saying what a special place that Jonah has in Hunter's heart.
All I know is, I could not have asked for better role models for my son to see.
Thank you Coach Cook and Coach Dolan for allowing us to disrupt your meeting each home game (it's something we look forward to). Thank you Coleman Patterson for your wanting to buddy up with Jonah. Last but definitely not least, thank you Hunter Taylor for your friendship. You are blessing that keeps popping up in Jonah's life. Tonight, you showed the man that you are by placing your needs and desires aside just to hang out and play with Jonah.
I may not have seen the whole football game tonight but I was able to see four men show interest in and love for Jonah. I'll take that any day. I continue to pray that more people like Coach Adam Cook, Coach Andrew Dolan, Hunter Taylor and Coleman Patterson will want to take the time to get to know Jonah and experience the love that he has to offer.
I'll end my thoughts with this scripture - I Corinthians 13:4-7: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Thanks for reading this..
Dan McB
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