Jordan’s buzzer-beater in the ’89 NBA championship, Tyree’s Superbowl helmet catch in ’08, Woods’ ‘05 chip-in at the Masters, my brother in-law’s surprise gift of a puppy in ’17. Arguably my four favorite ‘Hail Mary’ attempts of all time, with three out of four of them being successful. Let me explain.
As I’ve led on before, Khrista and I have a great story of how we found each other. At some point I will spill the beans. But until then, a sub-story of this begins a month prior to Khrista’s long-awaited move from Los Angeles to Boston in September of 2017. In a last ditch effort to keep Khrista with her family in Los Angeles, her older brother surprised her with a new puppy completely out of the blue. As absurd and burdensome of a gift it was, to my delight, it did not deter Khrista from sticking to her plans and coming to Boston.
The puppy, now known as Mia Garcia (of Sevilla), was one of three in the litter. One puppy ended up with another family that we do not know, however the other puppy, Leo, went to family-friends of Khrista. You would think Khrista and I have live video feed to the Mars Rover the way we intensely watch social media videos of Leo in Los Angeles. It has always been a goal of ours to reunite the siblings and last week we were finally able to achieve it.
The sibling reunion was everything we could’ve hoped for. After six years of being separated, they clearly remembered each other. They mimicked each other’s actions, mirrored mannerisms, and performed the same tricks in very poor, yet identical fashions. We left the get together with the feeling of fulfilment and ability to check off a bucket list item.
The cherry on top for the entire trip? Mia guest-starring as ‘The Beast’ for a Beauty & the Beast themed birthday party.
