To Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott

I was introduced to Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott sometime in 1999, the year after my wife and I were married. Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott were not actually related to us, they were my wife's best friend's Aunt and Uncle. They played a major role in the life of my wife's best friend and really helped to raise her in many ways.

I got to know them as my wife and I were living in an apartment during our first year of marriage and we began to think about buying a starter home. One of the key things you need when buying your first home is a down-payment, this is especially true because you don't have any equity to use from a previous home. It was early-on in our careers, we didn't make much money, we had some debt, and no savings whatsoever. Buying that starter home seemed like a good idea but seemed out of reach. We kept looking however.

Later on, we found out Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott needed some computer work done in their home. Uncle Scott is a gifted surgeon and Aunt Debbie has a psychiatric practice so their talents were exceptional but one area they needed some help with was selecting, buying, and installing some computers for their home to be used for home, work, and the kids. They offered us this opportunity to help them with their needs and to pay us for the help.

We agreed to do that and proceeded to order computers, and I think monitors, from Dell. We shipped them to their home and scheduled time to stay with them (they live a couple of hours away) and get everything setup for them. While we were there we had the wonderful opportunity to stay in their beautiful home in a wonderful guest area. We were also treated to all of our meals.

They were really delightful people who genuinely cared for us and everyone they met. For example, we went out to lunch with Aunt Debbie and not only did she pay for our lunch but she gave the waiter such a large tip that it made a big commotion in the wait staff and the waiter followed her out the door thanking her and telling her if he could ever help her at the restaurant to let him know. I saw multiple instances of generosity and warmness from this family and we truly were blessed by them.

Honestly, the way we were treated was more like we were on a nice vacation, staying in a resort, than working for someone. The way these people treated everyone with respect and generosity made a big impression on me and my wife.

Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott knew we were doing this work to help start a house down payment fund. When we were leaving Aunt Debbie handed us a check and thanked us graciously for our help. I don't know if we looked at the check at that time, or later, but we were shocked by how much we were paid for the work we did. They were so incredibly generous and were clearly trying to help us get a big start on our house downpayment. It was really over-the-top in terms of generosity and was such a beautiful and wonderful thing to do for a young couple just starting out that the memory of it is still a huge blessing to me to this day.

9 years later the memory of that time and what Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott did for us has only become more rich and poignant. I am only more appreciative now as I see what kindhearted mentors these people were to us. I hope we expressed at that time with enough feeling how thankful we truly were for their support, kindness, hospitality, generosity... and yes their example to us.

My children and future generations will learn how to help others and be generous through my wife and I and we owe an unpayable debt to the example we learned from Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott.

A personal note to Aunt Debbie and Uncle Scott:

I posted this exact note on my personal blog site on the Internet at christianbusinessguy.blogspot.com, you are welcome to view it/share it/etc. Your support, help, and kindness to us made such a deep and lasting impression on my wife and I that I wanted to make sure you were included in my personal memoirs. We are proud to know you and your life is a blessing, we hope you can see that in this small way. We have prayed for the Lord to bless you, protect you, and guide you always.

In Love and in Christ,

Brian and Jamie Howard