My parents taught us it's important to give back.

I'm aware that not all kids can pick up and fly to Panama. I'm very lucky.

As a teacher you can see the difference in kids who have parents who were involved. That difference, by the time these kids get to the third grade, is drastic.

Kids are so dynamic; if you're tired and you walk into a roomful of kids, your energy is brought up to their level.

The Russell side of my family is a clan with some serious genetics.

If watching your child die is a parent's worst nightmare, imagine having to tell your other child that his sister is dead... Although I am certain that he cried, that we all cried, what I remember more is how we collapsed into each other, as if the weight of our loss literally crushed us.

If you've never had a mother or a father, you grow up seeking something you're never going to find, ever. You seek it in love and in people and in beauty.

Now I have children of my own. They ask their mother what will I be. Will I be handsome, will I be rich?