In Loving Memory of Margaret Mary Palermo

Nana passed away this morning at about 7am. While I am sad that she is gone and I miss her. I can't help but be joyful in my heart that she is now in Paradise, meeting up with our family already passed. The reunion must be joyus, much like the joy we feel when a new child comes into our mortal world.

To the woman...

...who drilled me in my multiplication tables until I got them right.
...who I loved to play cards with on Saturday mornings.
...who I told that I was going to get married first.
...who loved my wife like her own granddaughter.
...who I shared my new faith with first.
...who shared my love for Jesus Christ.
...who loved me unconditionally......

I love you and adieu.

Your Grandson,

John

Word of Wisdom.... Anyone?

Scalding Beverages Increases Risk of Throat Cancer

Imagine that... what other tidbits of wisdom can we find in modern this modern day scripture...

The Word of Wisdom

C O L O R B L I N D

I look at society, I look at my coworkers, my family and my friends...

What is the first thing you see when you look at a person?

Do you move away from people who are different then you?

Do you write off one persons actions to represent their race?

I propose that when it comes to race we must become colorblind. We must not judge people by what we see in popular media, we must teach our children that the substance of a man is in his character not his color or creed. It is not enough to "not" teach racism, we must instead teach love. We must become neighbors, go outside of our comfort zones, learn about different peoples and places. Respect the diversity of culture and the richness of the peoples of the world.

The time is near that all the things we have won't be enough, in fact, it has come. The only race we should all recognize is the human race. We must reach understanding, that can only be had through love and service to others.

So, to the world I say... Become COLORBLIND! It is long past time....

My thoughts on a Sunday afternoon.

A Journey Thirty One Years in the Making

Shortly after I established contact with my birth mother Linda, I determined that I needed to go visit her. I thought about this for several days, then I contacted Helen (Linda's Mom) and told her that I wanted to make plans to visit Linda, but wanted to surprise her. She said she would get the message to Don (Linda's Husband) to call me. The in the next day or so I received a call from Don, got his blessing on the plan. Within a few days I had tickets to fly out to JFK late on December 30th, the red eye flight. Don agreed to pick me up at the airport, at 6:18 in the morning.

I spoke a lot to Erica about this, some friends, some colleagues at work. I spoke to my mom and dad, all asked if I was nervous about the trip. I had to say, "No", I have been at ease with Linda and Don since I first started talking to them.

I flew out to New York, arrived just before it started snowing at JFK, very tired and without much sleep. Don picked me up and drove me home. Linda still was not aware of what was going on. On our way home we met with several of Don and Linda's friends. As a welcome to me a number of Don's friends who are bikers got up early in the morning, met us on the Long Island Express Way. To honor Linda and I they they escorted us as far as they could, in what were slick and snowy roads.

We arrived home in a full blown snowstorm, I walked in, Linda was upstairs, Don walked ahead of me. He said to Linda, "Your Son." I then walked up the stairs and for the first time ever was embraced or even touched by my birth mother. I cannot describe the emotions present in me at the moment, the weight of 31 years of not knowing was gone. Linda was speechless.

In reflecting on this moment and the experiences I have had over the weekend. I will say that I am a changed man. For the love that Linda and Don have had for my brother and I over the last 31 years, I have to express my thanks to Heavenly Father. I am grateful for the decisions that were made, by both Linda, my mom and my dad. I am also grateful for Erica's support in this whole process and the patience she has shown me. I am also impressed and touched by the love that exists in Don's heart for Bill and I, he came into Linda's life after she gave birth to us, he choose from that point to love us as Linda had, as his sons.

I have much more to write, stories to share about my family, but I will leave off with pictures of both my sister Michele, brother Pete and me.

A Thanksgiving to remember.

Well, as many of you know I don't post on a daily occurence like my wife. Usually I post about a political issue or something that is on my mind. This time I have a story to tell.

In 2004 my son Gabriel had a siezure, he was just an infant, as parents do, we panicked, we had dozens of tests run on him. After about 6 months of personality changing medication and consulting with his doctor, we decided to wean him off of the medication. Since that time he has not had any seizures, we have come to the conclusion that they were development and that he would grow out of them, and that he seems to have done.

At that time I decided that I should find out any medical information I could about my birth parents. So I researched and found out about a mutual consent adoption registry that the NY Department of Health has online. I submitted my information to it. What I got back was a form stating very basic information about my birth mother, her age, race, etc. There was no medical information of any value, so I believed I had hit a dead end at the time. The form also stated that if she registered we would both get a "final consent" form for identifying information to be exchanged, I held hope that perhaps she would register at some point.

At this time I was driven to find out more information, so I searched the internet, even went as far as to call the hospital I was born at, all led to dead ends.

So we fast forward to October 2008, I have moved several times, relocated to Arizona, doubled the size of my family. I received a final consent form in the mail. This could only mean one thing, my birth mother had registered and also recieved that form. I decided it was time to move forward with things. So my wife and I filled out the form, got it notarized and sent it via certified mail to the State of NY. I was hopeful that within days I would hear something.

On November 21st I recieved the information, my birth mother's name is Linda, she lives on Long Island, NY. (I am sparing additional details out of respect for her privacy.) I was in shock, almost 31 years have elapsed since I was born and given up. What would I find?

Late Sunday night I received an email from Linda. She told me a little about my birth family, she told me that she remembered my birthday every year, that she prayed for and worried about what happened to my brother and I. She told me that I have another brother and a sister, a niece and a nephew. She told me that her and her husband, who she met after giving birth to us have thought about us throughout the years.

I responded with my story and was thankful that she made the decision that she made. I told her about my wife, kids and my brother. She went from having 2 grandchildren to 10! She is thrilled!

I am truly thankful for the very adult selfless decision that Linda and her parents made when she was only 16. I believe that God put things in place so that we could all be happy and eventually come back together to heal a family. I have room in my heart for my birth mom, my new brother and sister, cousins, niece, nephew, uncles and aunts and grandparents.

I hope as you read this you think about your family's blessings and they bring a smile to your face.

-John

A open letter to our new President Elect, Barack Obama

Mr. Obama,


First let me congratulate you for running a very long and hard fought race. You brought many Americans together for a common cause, for this I commend you.

I am a conservative who voted for John McCain. I disagree with you on many social issues, but as the President Elect, I will support you in your office. I sincerely hope other conservatives will join me in this. I do have some specific concerns of a very personal nature that I want to address.

I am an adoptee, born to a mother of sixteen years of age in 1977. I do not know the circumstances around why she got pregnant, but I do know that she made the decision to put the value of my life and my twin brother's life ahead of her own. She made a selfless decision to give up 9 months of her life to carry us to term, and then give a my adopted parents a the gift of something they could not obtain without her help, twin baby boys.

I ask you Mr. Obama, should we not be promoting this sort of behavior? Should we not have better programs to allow more young women to give the gift of life to another, instead of taking it away?

I'm not asking you to outlaw abortion, as I know that is not something your party will allow and it does not seem to be where your mind is, what I am asking is for you to take up the cause of helping to decrease the number of abortions every year by working with other lawmakers to develop programs that promote life by supporting young mothers who wish to carry their babies to term and give them up for adoption. We can provide hope for young mothers, show them that they aren't alone, give them the chance to give a gift of life.

I sincerely hope you or one of your staff will read this and consider my words.

Sincerely,

John T. Leschorn

John McCain and Sara Palin for President and Vice President

I have decided to endorse the McCain/Palin Ticket. I have reservations about McCain, but his ingenious decision to put Sara Palin on the ticket has super ceded those.


He is a soldier, an experienced politician and I believe has the knowledge to do the job well. He has not always shared my views, especially on immigration. He is pro-life and has the wherewithal to shake up DC.


Palin is young and doesn't take crap from anyone. With her leadership, much of the corruption in the Alaskan state government has been flushed out. She is smart and shares most of my very conservative values.


I believe that judgement is a key factor in being president, not years of schooling, years in congress, even years as governor. McCain has shown sound judgement bucking his party many times when it was necessary, and he has shown resiliency in his multiple presidential runs. Palin has shown a tremendous amount of sound judgement in her career, she has made the right decisions at the right time for herself, her family and her state.


I believe Obama's presidency will actually harm our country, I believe he does not posses the judgement to make good decisions and thinks far to much of himself. He has no military experience, and while this is not a sole reason to discount one for president, in his case I believe his arrogant attitude would have been tempered by time in boot camp. He has less executive experience then anyone else on the field. His promises and speeches are great, you really want to jump on the bandwagon when you hear them. But then when you hear the same thing over and over again the good feelings disappear, you wonder if his message has any real substance.

Thoughts?