One thing that we wanted to do on this show today
was talk to a firefighter.
Especially a firefighter who's married to an elementary school
teacher.
And we wanted them to have an adorable two-year-old daughter
named Hazel Anne.
And what you know?
We have the perfect couple right here in our virtual audience.
Hey Taylor.
Hey MaKenzie.
Surprise, you're our next guest.
Hi.
Thanks for being here today.
Thank you for having us.
We like surprises, and we wanted to surprise you.
Taylor, how long have you been a firefighter?
I've been a firefighter for a little over a year,
here in Winny, Texas, my local community.
Yeah, and I've loved every second of it so far.
I thought I would be kicking down doors and running
into burning buildings like Garth's fireman song,
but as it turns out-- it's a lot more of just helping out
people more in need.
And I like that even more.
Yeah, thank you for that.
MaKenzie, you're a fourth grade school teacher.
What do you love about teaching?
I am.
I love teaching because I teach in my home town.
I'm now a teacher where I was a student,
The Title I School called East Chambers Elementary.
And, you know, my students were my whole world.
I spend more waking hours with them in a day
than I do with my own daughter, so it's a real gift
to be able to teach them well.
Our school was actually just awarded a book vending machine
from a grant that I wrote.
We're really looking to kind of reinforce excellence
with excellence in our students at East Chambers,
so I've got a privileged job that I'm happy to do.
Very good.
Thank you both for what you do.
Amen.
True heroes.
All family on the front line.
I can't thank you enough.
So Taylor, I read a letter that you sent into the show.
Tell everyone why you wrote it, please.
Man, Garth, you are kind of the inspiration.
My wife is the inspiration, but I
see how much you love your wife, and I think
I may have a little edge you.
She is my life.
I'm sorry!
I love it.
But no, she is she is my light.
Every time Ellen would post something like "tag your hero"
or "tag a great educator," she's the first person
that comes to mind.
I wouldn't have become a fire EMT first responder
heavy rescue without her.
It is because she is great, and I
have to be great to even live in her shadow.
Amen, brother.
Amen.
very sweet.
You guys had a real harrowing experience, right?
You had a storm hit, and you lost a lot of stuff.
Can you tell us about this Texas storm
Yeah, you know, Taylor had actually
just been enrolled for a two or three weeks in the Fire Academy
when tropical storm Imelda hit Southeast Texas.
And during that time, it was a transitional period
in our life, because Taylor had stepped up.
He was going through a career change, said
I want to be a first responder.
My heart is to serve.
And this is the capacity God has put in his heart to do it.
And so we were in this position where, yeah, we
were losing our house, and we lost our cars,
and all of our things.
But we had a job to do, so Taylor took Hazel Anne and I
in, and with his other free arm, he grabbed his backpack
so he could get back to the Fire Academy the next day.
And we-- you know, he was our own little rescuer.
He rescued our family with the help of others,
and during that time, Taylor actually
got some serious first response training.
It couldn't have been better for his personal training
as a first responder in the Fire Academy
to get natural disaster level training
hands-on during that time.
That's so sweet.
And the fact that you both are still smiling
shows me that where your priorities are at.
That's pretty incredible.
Amen.
Well, we do.
Hey, MaKenzie.
We want to talk some more but it'll be right after the break,
OK, please stay with us.
We'll be right back.
So, when the tropical storm, you guys lose everything.
But something was miraculously recovered.
You want to tell me about that?
Yeah, so in the process of cleaning up our house,
we kind of mentally we're already at a state of-- it's
a wash, it's a total loss.
We get a chance to just start fresh.
We kind of stopped looking for things to salvage,
and we're just trying to move forward.
And so it was about a week later,
I'm back at work teaching.
Trying to pretend life is normal for myself
and for all of my students.
I get a call in the middle of the day from my pastor--
which is not normal-- so I take the call.
And he says Kenz, there's this picture going around
on Facebook, somebody is cleaning up their pasture
about a mile or so from your house,
cleaning up debris from the flood--
and they found your face.
They found a Canvas portrait of my family,
but they didn't know who we were.
So it kind of started going around our local Facebook
chain.
There are people asking who are these people?
Who is this couple?
And our pastor notified us.
And it was our canvas.
And it was something that we hadn't realized
that we had lost, but when it was found,
we just kind of felt such a peace.
And kind of a closure to that season,
so quickly, so much was lost but what remained
was the three of us.
And Hazel Anne was in her tummy right
then, so she's pictured as well, just on the inside.
Well, we know the picture was damaged in the storm,
and so we sent you something special.
I think you have it there.
So if you go ahead and open up the box next to you
and pull out what's inside--
Let's see.
I'm good at tearing things open, so we're good.
We wanted to restore that photo that you love.
Thank you, that's sweet.
Oh that is sweet.
Oh, nice, nice.
That's great.
Can you please turn it around and tear the Velcro
off the back of it for me please.
Shutterfly loves helping amazing families like yours,
so they want to give you $10,000.
Yes!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We don't deserve it.
This is going to go to the community.
Yeah.
Yes.
We love you guys.
Keep loving one another.
Hug your babies for us, OK?
Yeah take care, God Bless.
See you guys.