Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and they are heroes for different reasons. Some heroes save lives and others perform heroic deeds. My hero is different. He hasn't done any of those things yet. o why is he my hero? It is because of the things he has gone through in the past few weeks.

My hero is the 12 year old son of friends. You may have heard of him. He is the boy who was hit by a car while crossing the street on September 11, 2013.

I know that these like the type of qualities that one would associate with a hero, but to have gone through all he has gone through since the accident, I would say that these really do describe a hero.

After the accident, Kaleb was flown by Life Flight to Portland, Oregon. He was in bad shape when he arrived. He had injuries to his head, back and neck. Several ribs were broken as well as his arm and he had suffered internal injuries. He required surgery and afterward was placed in a medially induced coma and placed on a respirator to reduce the stress on his lungs. After a couple days, he was brought out of the coma and when he woke up and saw his family around him, he gave them a thumbs up to let them know that he was going to be all right.

After the surgery, Kaleb needed to be on strong pain medications but he didn't like the way that they made him feel. He had told everyone that they made him feel "funny" and that he didn't want to take them as often as they were needed so he would try to go longer between the doses. The pain must have been intense, especially after starting the physical therapy he needed so he could come home.

Kaleb was in the hospital for about a month, but while he was there he made the bet out of a bad situation. Someone had brought one of his favorite things to him to help pass the time. This item was a Nerf gun. Soon no one was safe. He would wait for someone to come in to check on him and then he would open fire with a foam dart. I even heard that he soon got back to playing his video games. How he did this is beyond me, especially with the way his broken arm was put in the cast, so that it hung straight down.

Kaleb was released from the hospital the first part of October, 2013 and came back home to his family and friends. He still needs to wear a back and neck brace to support the injuries he suffered and his arm is still in the cast. But he is slowly getting back to doing the things he did before the accident. He's going to school, still plays his video games and gives his sisters a hard time. He has short term memory problems but with time this should get better. Even though he doesn't remember the accident, he's not letting that get him down. He's taking things one day at a time.

Heroes aren't perfect. Even the best of them have flaws. So does Kaleb. He can be stubborn and rude. He fights with his sisters and doesn't do what he's told. But is is those flaws along with the traits I mentioned that make Kaleb the young man that his family and friends know and love. It is nice ti know that one day all this will be behind him and maybe one day he will do something truly heroic to make us even more proud of him than we are today.