Am I A Fireman Yet?

Here is a touching story doing the rounds this week –

In Queensland, Australia, a 26-year-old mother stared down at her 6 year old son, who was dying of terminal leukaemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness, she also had a strong feeling of determination.

Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up & fulfil all his dreams.

Now that was no longer possible. The leukaemia would see to that. But she still wanted her son’s dream to come true.

She took her son’s hand and asked, “Ben, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up?
Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?”

“Mummy, I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.”

Mum smiled back and said, “Let’s see if we can make your wish come true.”

Later that day she went to her local fire Station in Brisbane, where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Queensland.

She explained her son’s final wish and asked if it might be possible to give her 6 year old son a ride around the block on a fire engine.

Fireman Bob said, “Look, we can do better than that. If you’ll have your son ready at seven o’clock Wednesday morning, we’ll make him an honorary fireman for the whole day.

He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the full Monty!

And if you’ll give us his sizes, we’ll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat – not a toy -one with the emblem of the Queensland Fire & Rescue Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots.

They’re all manufactured right here in Brisbane, so we can get them fast.”

Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Ben, dressed him in his uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting truck.

Ben got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station.

He was in heaven. There were three fire calls in Brisbane that day and Ben got to go out on all three calls. He rode in the different fire engines that day.

He was also videotaped for the local news program.

Having his dream come true, with all the Love and attention that was lavished upon him, so deeply touched Ben, that he lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible.

One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept – that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital.

Then she remembered the day Ben had spent as a fireman, so she called the Fire Station and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Ben as he made his transition.

The Officer in charge replied, “We can do better than that. We’ll be there in five minutes.
Will you please do me a favour? When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over the PA system, that there is not a fire? It’s the department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his room?
About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital and extended its ladder up to Ben’s third floor open window——–
16 fire-fighters climbed up the ladder into Ben’s room.

With his mother’s permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how much they LOVED him.

With his dying breath, Ben looked up at the fire chief and said, “Chief, am I really a fireman now?”

“Ben, you are, and the Head Chief, Jesus, is holding your hand,” the O.I.C said. With those words, Ben smiled and said, “I know, He’s been holding my hand all day, and the angels have been singing..” He closed his eyes one last time.

Lest we forget..

Today was ANZAC day “down under” and my boys were involved in the local parade as part of Cubs.

It is so awesome to see young people remembering our fallen soldiers who died to protect our freedom as Australians and New Zealanders.

ANZAC day holds more reverence to all New Zealanders than our own national holiday of Waitangi Day. It involves a coming together of all faiths, cultures to remember the past. It helps us to appreciate the freedom we have in our country.

Let’s remember – lest we forget!

Rachel Larkin

I Did It!!! I Survived My First Duathlon!!!

Yep!! I did it and it feels GOOD!!

The sense of acheivement is amazing.

I was so worried about the cycle section – I hadn’t been able to train for a couple of weeks and I was so worried about falling off or having to get off the bike to get up the hills – BUT I didn’t need to worry. Nope!!

I am so ready to go and enter another one – YAH!! If I can do it – at 37 years old and three kids later – anyone can. I couldn’t believe it but the oldest competitor was – 78 years old — yep 78 YEARS OLD!!!. So age is no barrier.

Once you have cracked something like a Duathlon , you start to believe in yourself and your thinking process changes – instead of the constant negative thoughts – “you can’t do that” ” you’re no good” -you have positive voices egging you on to acomplish other things. Awesome – Bring it on!!!!

Rachel Larkin

Taking Time Out (over Easter)

I hope you all had an awesome Easter break. I certainly did!.

We decided to go away to Sandspit about one and a half hours north from Auckland (the major city in New Zealand). I am so glad that the weather forecast was wrong – it was amazingly sunny ALL weekend – a bit different from hail, rain and thunderstorms. Even in this day and age, we can’t out guess God – he decided to give us a gorgeous sunny long weekend.

We had no TV and no email – perfect! I only took the basics – books, books , books -Oh there was just enough room for some clothes and food! I had a mini – spiritual retreat – read about how I do this – it is a pdf file called -Taking Time to Pause – FREEBIE!

It was extremely benefical. You can read more about my spiritual retreat in the latest post of the Becoming Beautiful group – click the join button on the right hand side.

Well the countdown has began – only 5 sleeps until my duathlon and wouldn’t you know it – I have fallen ill with a cold virus. So not much training is going down. It is times like this that I have to remember that all things work together to those who love the Lord. I am still searching for the good in my cold

Have a great week!

Rachel Larkin

Training for my Duathlon

There is only two weeks to go! Yep I have been training for a duathlon. I can hardly believe it myself.

My main motivator was watching my sister train last year and I saw how it changed her outlook and her body. So after the January holidays I started training. I am really proud of how far I have come. It has only been two and half months since I started running and now I can run 3.5km with no stopping! (The duathlon is 3.5km run – 10km bike – 1.5km run)

Now, this is a HUGE change. I was NOT a runner , nope not at all. I tried running and only got to the letter box before my lungs felt like they were exploding. It has really opened my eyes to the possibilities of trying new activities that I had previously written off as NOT ME!

Since learning to run, I have learned to push myself – to reach the next level of fitness. It has given me such motivation to do other things – like being a writer. What is sad is that I have waited until I am 37 years old before I discovered that I had it in me to run. I am starting to discover that there are other things I can do. It’s the old domino effect.

I now encourage others to give something new a go – you never know what you are capable of if you don’t HAVE A GO!

Rachel Larkin