Nine Years Ago Today

Nine years ago today I got the best Father’s Day present ever. My son, Judah, was born in a little hospital room in a small town in North Carolina. I’ve been blessed with some great moments in life, but none prouder or more joyous than the birth of my children. I’ll never forget that day. Holding him in my arms for the first time. Counting his toes and fingers and making sure he was all there. He has been and continues to be a gift.

When he was a baby I’d let him rest on my chest without having to hold him at all. Now he’s so big I can barely hold on. We’d fake play the drums to his favorite Blue’s Clues songs and he’d laugh as if nothing had ever been funnier in the history of the world. I learned those stupid songs too. I can still sing them to this day. And I remember the day I took Blue away. We traded him in for Transformers and “big boy” things. Some days I wish I could go back to that little boy and his notebook. He barely knew most of his words then, but he’d sing with everything he had. But now we’ve transferred to pickup games in the driveway and bigger dreams.

He turns nine today and it’s made me think a lot about what these years have been and what time I have left with him, Lord willing. He’s at the halfway point of my in-house parental leadership. He’s brought so much joy to our world. He is curious, thoughtful, loving, gleefully oblivious to his surroundings most days and filled with imagination. His empathy for others makes me believe that he’ll one day be a missionary. I’m pulling for technology to become so crazily advanced that he and I can stay in contact in amazing ways if that day comes.

Don’t get me wrong…he has his flaws. But honestly, who’s counting. My clearest calling is helping him become the man God desires him to be and that he is destined to become. We share the same genes. The same hard on yourself guilt. The same hearty laugh and love for all things sports. The same shirt off your back mentality combined with an uncanny ability to be unwittingly selfish. He’s quickly become my best buddy in the world. In his nine years he’s taught me more about God then I think I’ll ever be able to repay.

Someday; when he’s older, he’ll read this and understand. That the daddy he loved and revered loved him even more. And when that day comes my hope is this…that my boy Judah will have grown to become more than I am and more than I was. He’ll read this at nine and he’ll laugh & I’ll cry. He won’t get it totally now but I guarantee this…he’ll live his next nine years in my house continuing to feel the love he was born into and I’ll be there every step of the way. I love you Judah. Bigger than the whole world…Dad