Ethan Maddux James: My Son’s Hundreds of Childhoods without One

People get through tough situations in many different ways. For me personally I’ve learned that writing it all down and hitting publish is what works best for me. This probably won’t be all easy to read and you don’t need to. This is more about my healing than it is about telling you all the details of what the past few days of Heather and my life have been like. The outpouring of love and support that we have already received tells me that you are interested so here we go. The following is raw, personal, extremely emotional at times, extremely rational at others and probably going to be very long. It’s also going to be your typical completely transparent Kyle rant. The start of an eventful week Monday, January 5, 2015 I got up right at 7AM and ran 5 miles on the...

My Thoughts On Gay Marriage

I posted this on Facebook this morning. I thought it would be a good piece to share here for those of you that we aren’t friends on Facebook. — I’m not going to change my photo to an equal sign but for the record I support equality. To give a little bit more personal take I have a couple family members who are homosexual. One was my Uncle Kevin who died of AIDS in 1991 when the common belief was that HIV was transmitted completely by the homosexual community. I was TEN at the time and didn’t halfway understand what was going on but if you remember that time then you know how far we have come on this subject. Sure I know their are lots of Christians who are against this for religious beliefs. Don’t give homosexuals equal rights was...

Today I got Baptized… Again

Today I took a big step in my Christian belief. Today I got baptized… for the second time. Shortly after Heather and I got married last April we began our search for a church close to home. We knew that this was an important step for us and visited a few other churches but we always found ourselves coming back to NewSpring. For me it was all about the sermons, and Heather loved the music. Coming from the traditional United Methodist background the rock concerts at NewSpring every Sunday were a little much, and they still can be. The sermons are always so relevant and powerful, though, and I believe it was a sermon back in October that really got me thinking about baptism again. As most everyone who knows me and reads this blog knows my father was a minister in...

Out With 2012 and In With 2013

Out With 2012 and In With 2013

It is officially a new year and as many people like to think, a time to reset goals and priorities. I don’t know if I’d describe 2012 as a difficult year, but it definitely had enough major life moments that I’ll ever be able to forget it. Moving from Boston to SC, getting married, losing my dog Skip, losing my dad, making the jump to work for myself full time… yeah I think that was enough. Let’s just leave it by saying 2012 was a year of extremes. If there is one thing I felt like I mastered in 2012 it was controlling my investments. The last 18 months have been an education in itself on learning investing and specifically the stock market, but going into 2013 I feel like I’ve made it over the education hurdle and would now consider myself a savvy...

A Fall Visit To The Blue Ridge Parkway

A couple of weeks ago Heather and I went up to Asheville for the weekend with some friends. We took part of the day on Saturday to take a ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway and do a short little day hike up the Richland Balsam. Richland Balsam is the highest point along the parkway. If you are a big fan of fall foliage or the mountains then you might enjoy looking through some of our better photos. Fall on the Blue Ridge Parkway   The Richland Balsam Nature...