Ryan was born May 19 1977 in North Platte Nebraska. He arrived at 2:11 am. I can not explain what happens when you see and hold your child for the first time. My heart must have swollen ten times it's normal size every time. His fingers were long and thin just like his toes and yes they were all there! He was a miracle as all babies are!

Ryan grew very quickly and at baby check ups his head was still his biggest feature. His head measured larger than 95% of the other kids his age. I know now that it was to accommodate all the brains he had in there. ha ha No really Ryan was very smart! He could see something and just remember it. He soaked up any knowledge that he could get his brain around. He never really flaunted his smarts. I think that early in Kindergarden he learned a lesson that followed him forever. It was Grandparents day at school and his teacher told me that he shared with the class, and visiting grandparents that he had false teeth. His teacher said, " oh really, can you take them out?" and he quickly answered, "not in front of all these people." I remember Ryan that way. He wanted to have the attention but when he got it he didn't know what to do with it. It some how scared him I think. I believe that after that he tried to make sure he knew what he was talking about before he opened his mouth.

He worked to learn a little about everything and lot about the things that were of interest to him. One of the things that I loved about Ryan was that when he tried something he liked, and he tried alot of things, he never seemed to be afraid of anything. Anyway, when he did something he liked he would come home and tell me, " You have to try this mom it is the best thing in the whole wide world!" He told me this about many things, snow skiing, pole vaulting, roller coasters, scuba diving, doing CPR on someone, seeing the fat cells of a little girl who had cut her leg open. The only one I tried so far is the roller coaster, and he was sitting right beside me when I did. He was my guide for adventure and I know that we would have gone snow skiing one day. That was one of his favorite things! I remember when he went for the first time with your youth group. He had worked for Faussie's to earn the money.

His love to make people laugh is one of the things i miss most. He was always trying to be funny. He could pick up an accent and talk i such a way to make you giggle. His impression of Silverster Stalone in that Brisk Iced tea commercial always made me laugh. The stories of patients he had had were almost always funny because of the way he spoke of "stupid people". I know that most of the stories were to amuse us and ease his mind of the terrible things he had seen. He told of one accident where some of the people in the car had been thrown out. One ended up in a tree and he and his partner would sing,"It's raining Men " when they told the story. How funny and yet how twisted. That was my baby boy! He let you into his world just alittle and when he did he made light of it so that you wouldn't see the real pain.

Ryan showed alot of compassion for people. I watched how he tried to help Michelle once when she twisted her ankle and I thought to myself ....I hope if I ever need medical help that they are as gentle as Ryan was. I have heard nothing but good things about his care of patients. I would expect nothing less from him tho.. I DO wish that I would have gone to see him more but who knew that he wouldn't always be there? Not I!

         - Jo Ann Ostendorf