LAPD Helps A Family Of One Of Their Own

LOS ANGELES -- Firefighters and police put their lives at risk on the job every day. Now, the LAPD is rallying around the family of one of its own.

Officer Scott Taylor's family is struggling with not one, but two life-threatening illnesses. His wife has a disease that is so painful, that its number one cause of death is suicide.

DJ Gregory: His Dream to Walk Every Hole of Every Golf Tournament.

"If you have a dream, go for it. Don't let anyone tell you, you can't." - D.J. Gregory

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With determination, D.J. Gregory walked 988 miles, 3,256 holes of the PGA Tour.

D.J. Gregory's journey began with challenges. Born with cerebral palsy, underdeveloped lungs and his legs entangled, Gregory was told that he would never walk.

Doctors told Gregory's parents about his future in blunt terms.

"I would be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life," Gregory said. "And my dad and my mom, both my parents, wouldn't take that for an answer."

For the first few years of his life, Gregory could only crawl around the house. He had endured five surgeries on his legs by the time he entered first grade.Eventually, Gregory learned to walk with a cane.

"For me, a challenge would be something that possibly nobody would think I could do, but in my own mind, I know I could do it," Gregory said.

Like most kids, Gregory grew up loving sports, especially golf.

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Army Specialist Comes Home To See Her Once-stricken Daughter Walk

Another best ever Christmas.

Cheyenne Leslie, 4, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and seizures as an infant. Doctors said she would be wheelchair bound for the rest of her life (doctors are so encouraging aren't they?...not). But with 200 hours of intense therapy by a wonderful program called Therapies 4 Kids, Cheyenne was able to run to her mother, Cyd Leslie, an Army specialist who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cyd only saw a glimpse of her daughter taking unsteady, awkward steps on video.

The last time Leslie saw Cheyenne in person, she would take a few tentative steps and stumble.

So to finally see her walking, much less running, is nothing short of a miracle, a taste of everything her little girl will be able to accomplish in life.

For years, 24-year-old Cyd has been hoping “kids don’t tease” Cheyenne and “wondering if she’s going to have a boyfriend.”

But when Cheyenne bounded into her arms Tuesday night, she thought, “I’ll never forget this feeling.”

At the playground near her home, Cheyenne would watch other children tumble and climb on seesaws and swings, monkey bars and ropes. But it was the slide that captivated her.

“Grandma, why can’t I do that?” she said, watching the children navigate up to the dizzying descent of the slide.

It broke Grandma Dominga Leslie’s heart.

“Someday you will,” she told her.

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Joy...

h/t to Ace of Spades HQ

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A Mother's Miracle Marine

This is an amazing story of a Mother's faith and hope which lies in the Miracle of God and Prayer.

In June 2005, 19-year-old Marine Lance Corporal, John McClellan, was deployed to Kunar Province, Afghanistan. In October 2005, while on duty as a machine gunner, Lcpl McClellan earned his first two of three purple hearts when he was shot twice in the same arm -- in the same week!

The injuries he sustained were viewed as miraculously minor. The first, an enemy AK-47 bullet, ricocheted off the humvee turret on which he was the gunner. The bullet fragment embedded in his right wrist.

Within three days, Lcpl McClellan was back in the turret. Three days later, he was shot a second time. Again, an enemy AK-47 bullet penetrated the upper portion of his right arm. This time the bullet entered the front and exited out the back. But it didn't hit and it didn't hurt -- anything!

Within two weeks, he was again back in the turret!

On September 11, 2006, McClellan was deployed to Haditha, Iraq. Fifteen days later on September 26 while on patrol, he was shot in the head by an enemy sniper. The phone call received by his parents at midnight that night was every parent's worst nightmare. Immediately after receiving the devastating news from the hospital in Balad, Iraq, John's mother, Connie McClellan, sent an e-mail to her e-mail address book leading and asking for prayer. Her only child had been shot in the head and according to the doctor in Balad, "If he survives the brain swelling, he will never be the same and will probably be a vegetable."

That e-mail was the first of more than 150 e-mails that Connie McClellan sent to her prayer network during the 15 months following John's head injury. The journal created by the daily e-mails is a fascinating account of the 24 miracles that God performed on John, now referred to as "My Miracle Marine" by his parents, family, friends and community.

(Please see Photo Album page for complete pictorial account of John's miraculous recovery along with television newscasts which followed his progress.)

Photo Album w/ videos

True Hope

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World's Strongest Dad - A Lesson in Life

The story of Dick and Rick Hoyt (Dick is a retired Air National Guard Lieutenant Colonel) have been making the email rounds, I'm sure some of you have read their story by now. If not, this video is sure to reach into the depth of your soul and tug at your heartstrings. The love between a father and his son will take your breath away.
The bond is unbreakable...the love, unconditional.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father says Yes.
They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'

To which, his father said 'Yes'.

For those who didn't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island .

Father and son went on to complete the race together.

video

An awe inspiring story of Love and Hope......

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