November 16, 1982 is a special day to me. On that Tuesday afternoon at 4:09 p.m., I, Amanda Marie Burns, was born in Bedford County Hospital, weighing in at seven pounds and five ounces. My mom and I spent my first week of life in Shelbyville, Tennessee, where my paternal grandparents lived and where my dad spent his childhood. On Thanksgiving Day, one week later, we traveled to Huntsville, Alabama, back to where my parents currently lived. My maternal grandmother later came to Huntsville to help my mom take care of me. I was a sick baby ....