It didn’t look like it was headed that way…

Happy Father’s Day, y’all. I write this at the end of the day – the kids are in bed (sleep comes much later than “in bed”, but eventually…I hope). A great day of getting gifts, eating food, and some “time off” to take in a movie, then a webcam call with my father (he’s such a techie – that’s where I get it, I think). 

For some reason today I kept thinking of Jerry Seinfeld. I remember seeing Seinfeld one Leno on night. It was the first time I had seen him do anything since the end of the show Seinfeld. He had gone back to stand-up, and was on the show doing a set. He began by saying that he had recently gotten married and had a baby. His first laugh line was something to the effect of, “I know this comes as a shock to many of you, because it really didn’t look like things were heading this way!”

He was of course referring to his celebrated bachelorhood and lack of “settled-down family guy” qualities. But I think of that statement sometimes in a totally different way that applies to me…

For a long time, it looked like things weren’t headed toward me being a father.

Most  anyone who reads this thing I call a blog (loosely so) knows what I mean, so I will spare the details, but in case someone gets here by unfortunate web searching luck, the short version is that it took ten years for my wife and I to have our first kids (twin girls). For a long time, it looked like fatherhood might not be in the cards.

We have three beautiful girls now (three year old twins Janae and Corinne and five month old baby Maya) and a crazy life, but I love and live every second of it (even the parts I complain about). Every sleepless night, every full diaper, every potty training fiasco and every one of the tens of thousands of dollars already spent are well worth it for the gift of being called Daddy.

I am profoundly thankful for the gifts God has given us in giving us these three to love and protect. I don’t know if I’m a great Dad, but I try. And it always means something to me – every step along the way, because we are living a dream that we thought, more than once, was lost to us. My Father understood the desires of our hearts, and though for His own reasons we had to wait, in the end we feel like we got the Job deal – the blessing we received later was far greater than what we would have had without enduring the hardship.

I am a lucky man, and I just had to tell someone. Now for the obligatory proud dad photo. Enjoy!