|  | |||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
Chad and Lynsey Hedrick
Chad and Lynsey "met" in November of 2005, when Chad messaged Lynsey through MySpace. Because she didn't know him, she promptly deleted his message. He sent her a second message a day or two later, only to have that message suffer the same fate. Who is Lynsey? Lynsey is 24 years old, the daughter of a Houston-area anesthesiologist, Dr. John Adams, and a stay-at-home mom, Lucretia. She was born in Lubbock, Texas while her dad was in medical school. Lynsey has a brother, Austin, 23, who graduated from Texas A&M just three short weeks ago, amid all the wedding hoopla, poor thing. Her only sister, Abigail (Abbey), is 19, and a University of Maryland gymnast on scholarship. She comes from a very large, close-knit extended family. Our family also did foster care for some years while our children were young, and a foster brother and sister were both able to attend the wedding, as they still live in our area. Undaunted, he sent a third message, in which he asked, "Don't I get any points for a third try?" He also mentioned that a mutual friend, Dallas, had told him she was a "nice girl." That was Lynsey's first inclination that she and Chad shared a mutual friend. She contacted Dallas, who confirmed that Chad was not a stalker, but did not tell Lynsey who he was. Lynsey and Chad continued "talking'"on MySpace and soon progressed to the telephone. It was about a week later when "Lyns" (that's what we call her) came in the kitchen and uttered the now famous words, "What's a speed skater?" First Non-virtual Meeting Chad asked Lynsey to be his date for his Olympic send-off party at the Hotel of the Americas in Houston on January 10, 2006, which at that point in time, was about a month away. But first, he wanted her to visit Salt Lake City so he could actually meet her. Imagine that! I felt like his agent had something to do with it and didn't want Chad to show up with "who knows what" at the big red, white and blue soirée. Chad bought her a ticket, and against the advice of everyone, she went to visit him before the January party. We were all afraid for her safety, not knowing anything about this man, not even knowing if he was who he actually said he was. But Lynsey insisted, saying, "He's funny, easy to talk to, kind, charming, and he makes me laugh.".... Well, Ted Bundy came to mind for some of us, so Lyns was told to check him out at the airport, and that if anything were amiss, she was to board the next flight back home. She called upon touchdown, again from baggage claim, and then finally on the drive from the airport, "We are having a great time. Don't worry, Mom." She returned from that visit convinced that Chad was someone special, and they kept the phone lines burning around here for the next three weeks. Then Chad asked us if Lynsey could go with his family to the Olympics in Turin, Italy. Privately, and unknown to us, he told his friends that he didn't want to go to the Games without her. Sharing the Olympics Lynsey arrived during the second week of the Olympics, getting to know and staying with Chad's wonderful family. Chad's sister, Natalie, is one year older than Lyns, and they became fast friends, and to this day, are like sisters. Chad took time off after the Olympics, which allowed them to see each other often, as his family and ours lived, at that time, about 2 minutes apart, in subdivisions next-door to one another.
His parents recently bought a new home, and they now live about three minutes from us, four if you have to wait on the light (wink). When Chad was returning to Salt Lake City in August of 2006, he asked Lynsey to come with him. She had been attending the University of Houston, but decided that she did not want to be without him, either. So, off they went, with Lynsey's Jack Russell, Holly, in tow. Chad wasn't too sure about Holly, but Lyns made it clear ... no Holly, no Lynsey. And the most touching part of all ... a couple of months later, Chad was so taken by Holly that he and Lynsey went out to buy him a little female Jack Russell. Her name: Torino. They have lived in Salt Lake all this time, coming home as often as his skating career will allow. Lynsey is very outgoing and has made many friends there. She loves living in Salt Lake, although she moved back to Houston in late March of 2008 to help me finalize the wedding plans. 'Who's Chad?' Before they met, no one in our family had ever heard of Chad Hedrick. Lynsey couldn't have cared less about what he did for a living or how famous he was. She was taught that a person is not defined by what they do or who they are, but by their core values, their character traits, and their willingness to love others unconditionally. Chad Hedrick, the winningest inline skater in history (as the Inline Planet describes him), is tender and merciful, soft-hearted, loving, affectionate, funny and quick-witted. And last week, before a crowd of about 400 people, he vowed before God to love my daughter for the rest of her life. There was not one dry eye in the chapel. They will return from their honeymoon in Hawaii in a few days, pack up their things, and take Holly and Tori home with them to start their new lives together in Salt Lake City. Chad will continue to train extremely hard. Lynsey will finish her education at a Utah college. And they will have left behind two sets of parents and three siblings who have become family to each other. ...
...
Copyright © 2008 by Inline Planet | ||||||||||||||
 | | | | | | | | | | | ||||
