I want to take a minute this morning to respond to all of the wonderful posts and prayers and thoughts of kindness. From all of our family... Thank you all very much.
I want you all to know that I have a very close and personal relationship with God and he has given me an inner peace about this whole thing, however our battle is not over. Mrs. Irish and I together have 5 children and 3 grandchildren. We love them all and all present unique challenges.
I have an older daughter from my first marriage who is beautiful and wonderful. Her mother passed away when she was a young girl, and we all had to deal with that, but she has been able to overcome, married a great young man and given us 3 wonderful grandchildren.
My son's name was Chris. he was 29 years old. He was my oldest son. He and his younger sister Chelsie were very close. They were born only 18 months apart and were almost like twins. They were both teenagers when their mother and I went through a painful divorce. I got custody of them and Irish Jr., my youngest son, who was only 7 years old at the time. He is 19 now and in college and is a fine a young man as a father could ask for.
Chris and Chelsie didn't fare well during or following the divorce, and despite my best attempts at parenting, devolved into drug and alcohol abuse and never seemed to untrack their lives, culminating in Chris' death yesterday. Chelsie now seems to be facing her own demons head on in the wake of Chris' death. She has drawn closer to God and we as a family are hoping and praying that God uses Chris' death as an impetus for change in Chelsie's heart, and a springboard for a turnaround in her life.
So if any prayers are sent up by you fine folks, don't worry about me, I'm a tough old bastard, send them up for Chelsie. She needs a turnaround.
I also have a 22 year old stepson that Mrs. Irish adopted from a terrible broken home before we were married. I could write an entire book on him. It was so bad at times that Mrs. Irish and I sincerely thought he was possesed by a demon and comtemplated an exorcism. I pulled out all the stops just to get him through high school, including forking out over $500 a month for a few years to put him through a highly focused alternative private school, on the premise that he was going to join the military after he graduated. Well... The best laid plans of mice and men, he decided he didn't want that and thought he was going to freeload. When I put the Kibosh on that plan and he left for California and then on to Portland, Oregon where he currently lives as a vagabond. I have pretty much given up hope for him, but I'm sure God and Mrs. Irish have not, so if you want to send up some prayers for him, I'm sure it couldn't hurt either...
God love you all...
