“Phil, I have to turn around.” At 19,000 feet on Cotopaxi in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador, we could see the summit and smell its volcanic sulfur. Physically, I was strong, but emotionally, I was drained and frightened. After rounding a 60-foot ice column, a nightmarish fear came from out of nowhere, and its shock overtook me, shattering the thin veneer of swagger I had been carefully building since our first day in country.
Well, haven’t you been praying for this?” That’s what my mom asked, while laughing, after I finished telling her about my six-day stint on Summit Adventure’s College Semester Program 12-day backcountry expedition. I paused for a second. That wasn’t the response I was expecting, but God sure had been answering my prayers.
We are just past the halfway point of our 6 weeks in Ecuador and it has been remarkably good. I wish I could say I was now fluent in Spanish but I am still regularly making the most ridiculous comments. Yesterday I was trying to encourage an Ecuadorian pastor and his wife to eat the healthier brown rice instead of the Ecuadorian standard white by saying “mucho gusto.” I was trying to say that I really liked the brown, but ended up saying that I was “pleased to meet them.” So they remained unconvinced, but laughed a lot at least.
In Hold Mine Hand, Tom takes readers deep into the lives of his family. Tom opens his personal journals and shares hundreds of his sons’ quotes to reveal what they consider most important: parents, family, God, grandparents and friends. Often funny and sometimes tragic, Hold Mine Hand applies fresh and unforgettable insights to everyday parenting and life.
