CONGRATULATIONS Hero :)

Let's give it up for the winner of our "Honor your own Hero" contest, John A. (and his awesome wife) of the Trenton Police Department!!! WOW, what a NAIL BITER it was!!! The voting literally came down to the last SECONDS! Thank you John for all you do to protect each & every one of us (Thank you ALL our AMAZING Heroes!!!)



The nomination entry from John's wife:

~John~

"As I have never thought of myself as a writer or a photographer, I figured, what the heck?!?! Might as well give it a shot. What is the saying...you miss 100% of the shots you don't take....so here goes.

In my eyes, I have a house full of heroes. A big one and a few little ones. Let me explain. My husband, John, is a Sergeant for the Trenton Police Department. He has done this high stress job for 22 years. Most entirely on swing shift, which, as we all know, is a terrible shift to work. This job has aged him. He has given over 20 years of his life selflessly to strangers that he does not know. He was hired into this job with big ideals and dreams of what he (along with every other rookie officer) could do to help others and make this world a little bit safer. By God's grace he has been unharmed physically, but my heart aches for all the heroes out there, doing this job, and having to see what they see. I imagine that what they do see makes them awfully weary and jaded.

On this Halloween night, my son's father had to work yet again. But they weren't distressed because they knew that they could wave to their daddy as he drove by, knowing that he was making sure that all the adorable trick-or-treaters were safe. As he pulled up, you should have seen the absolute looks of adoration on their faces! They are so proud of their daddy and he is all the hero they need. If you could imagine their shrieks of joy as they yelled for their daddy! "That's my daddy...he's a police man!". This photo captures the moment he got out of his police cruiser and one son jumped in his arms and the other wrapped around his leg. They all looked at me just in time to smile for the camera.

I am explaining the scenario so you can imagine the looks of awe my boys give to their hero, their daddy. I don't know if John sees it as his boys look at him. I can tell you that the boys don't see it, when their daddy gets off work, sits on the couch, and stares at his boys with that same look of adoration...that awe and pride of his sons...his heroes.

As I am writing this, I am teary eyed, as I am the luckiest one of all. The one who gets to witness all this love shining from a single look. I hope they all get to see it from my face as I look at my house full of heroes...big and small."