Catching up with our Ronnie

After a column I wrote a few weeks back sparked interest in our two sons, I wrote a column catching our readers up on our younger son, Scotty, whose antics have hopefully entertained y’all over the years, and promised a column on our older son as well.

Ronnie didn’t make my column as often growing up. There was a simple reason for that. He didn’t cause as much commotion around here. Around anywhere, I guess I should say.

Straight A’s dominated his report cards and he never once got in trouble at school. In fact, he got an award in eighth grade for never getting a “strike” the entire time he was in middle school. Ronnie is the child you dream about — the one who cleans his room without asking, who studies without being told, never wrecks the car and never talks with his mouth full.

Over the years, I did write columns on some of Ronnie’s struggles and how he overcame them — with the help of a lot of people. Ronnie was hearing impaired until he was 5 and was classified as “nonverbal” until he was in first grade.

Ronnie now attends the University of Georgia, where he is majoring in civil engineering. He takes classes titled with words I can’t pronounce that require books three inches thick. He has joined a church in Athens, a fraternity and several clubs all while keeping a great GPA. He comes home from time to time but studying and UGA football keep him in Athens for the most part.

I guess you are not supposed to live in the past but it is hard to keep my thoughts from drifting back to all those doctors we saw all those years ago. Time after time, the prognosis for Ronnie “to catch up” with the “normal” kids wasn’t very positive but thankfully for Ronnie and our family, God doesn’t always seem to read medical reports.

A lot of prayer from a lot of people — some of you reading this today — helped Ronnie overcome his somewhat rocky start in life. The Houston County school system deserves credit as well. I could write a book about the people in our school system that worked with Ronnie, pushed him, inspired him and encouraged him to achieve whatever he wanted to in life and not to restrain his dreams and aspirations. When a child who starts off in developmentally delayed pre-K ends up taking AP calculus — that is the work of people that believe education is a ministry.

And while his life has not always been easy, our sweet Ronnie’s kind and caring disposition has never been altered. He has already achieved one of his biggest goals in life. Our insurance company denied the surgery that restored Ronnie’s hearing when he was 5 and it was performed — free of charge to us — at the Scottish Rite hospital in Atlanta. Ronnie always dreamed of repaying the men of the Scottish Rite for their generosity and as soon as he was eligible, he joined the Masonic Lodge and then the Scottish Rite. Ronnie volunteers with these organizations, helping to raise money so that other children’s lives can be changed as well.

Our Ronnie. He was a good baby, a good boy and now he has become a good man.

Thanks to our good Lord.

This story was originally published October 16, 2016 at 6:37 PM with the headline "Catching up with our Ronnie."