Welcome to your forever home Kid

-
Your Momma called me Thursday, November 29, 2012 about 11:30 a.m. to tell me the good news, we were named your legal guardians.  It's one step closer us becoming your adoptive parents but you're home now.  As our dog Barney would tell you, this is your forever home.

Gladys and The Kid at our first meeting, just before the nap.
For you, the process has been pretty quick.  You've known us for a few months.  For us, we've been waiting a lifetime for you.  I can't speak for Momma, but the past few months have been some of the longest months of my life because I couldn't wait to be able to call you my daughter.  The day we met you and you fell asleep on Momma's shoulder, I knew you would capture my heart as my daughter. 

Now that Momma and I are your guardians, there are a few things you should know.

There is a difference between a house and a home.  A house is a location, a home is a place where you will always find people who love you.  This is your home.

Your Papa isn't a perfect person.  I will never claim to be either.

What I am is a man who you can count on to be in your corner for the rest of your life.  You will be embarrassed by me sometimes and there will be many times you won't like the decisions I make that concern you.  I will utter strange sayings sometimes.  I will have a million nicknames for you.  I will tease you and tickle you.  I'll hug you and give you kisses as long as you'll let me.  I will take you to as many baseball games as I can, explaining every detail of the game until you're tired of going to the corner of Witherell and E. Montcalm during the Tigers baseball season.  I'll read to you every night I put you to bed until you tell me you don't need to be read to anymore.  I'll take you to every Daddy-Daughter Dance you invite me to attend.      

There will be times when you do fall down.  Right now, it will be mostly as you continue to learn how to walk.  As you get older, you will fall down literally and figuratively.  I hope that I can help you prevent the falls but there will be times when I can't catch you.   When I can't catch you falling, I will be there to kiss the boo-boos, bandage the cuts, to give you a shoulder to cry on and hopefully remind you that everyone falls sometimes.  Falls themselves are rarely fatal, they are only bad when you don't learn anything from the fall. 

I hope that you remember that I only want the best for you.  I want the best opportunity for you to have an incredible life.  I want the best education for you.  I want the best partner for you.  I want you to have a kind, loving, forgiving and loyal heart.  I want a healthy, happy, well-adjusted daughter and everything I do will be striving to make those wants a reality.

Welcome to your forever home Kid.  I'm looking forward to our lives together.  




Popular posts from this blog

Marching for hope in our neighborhood

-
Image
The Kid and I walked our neighborhood this evening, but with a different purpose than usual. Many in our neighborhood gathered at Gesu Catholic Church to March for Hope . Roughly this time last year, a federal judge who lives a few streets over, was shot on his front porch in a botched robbery attempt. His physical recovery from the single bullet to the knee took the better part of a year and extensive rehabilitation, and his emotional recovery was sped by his church community and immediate neighbors. I don't know the judge, nor am I a member of his church Gesu Catholic. I'm not much of a protest guy either, I prefer to work behind the scenes. I read about the walk this morning , and almost forgot about it until Gladys started to do some work for a class she's taking. So we bundled up The Kid, and the two of us walked over to the church to support our neighborhood. When we walked into the church, I was struck immediately with the knowledge that this was not a protes
Read more

Yet another blog of parenting advice

-
Image
A friend whose wife is expecting their first child was asking me for advice today. He's going to be a new dad, so he was asking in general terms because until you're in it, you really don't know what to ask for. My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him to get rest. Lots of it, whenever you can from now until the kids are adults. Forget the idea of work/life balance too, because balance is a myth. Sometimes work will take priority, sometimes the kids will, and sometimes dad has to be a priority. If you're too concerned about hitting a false measure of balance, you're going to miss something. The End of the Beginning And that was it. That's all I could come up with until I got in the car and scarfed down one of the sugar cookies I bought for myself as a treat that I had no intention of sharing. Here's what I came up with. Avoid watching Caillou at all costs. For some reason, kids are absolutely mesmerized by him. No adult on that show holds the kid acc
Read more

But you're so young and athletic

-
Image
I fully expected to be writing a few humble brag posts on my social media channels by now of my athletic prowess, or at least tales of how I survived my first couple of organized classic cross country ski races. I’ve long thought about what it would be like to participate in the Noquemanon Ski Marathon , but living in a snow-desert like Detroit makes training tough. Since I’ve never done a race in my life on skis, I figured it would be a good idea to take on some shorter distances to see if this was something I would really enjoy doing. My training for the Krazy Klassic closer to home was fun. My walks with Barney were longer. So was my time on the yoga mat. When the race began, it was harder than I expected but I chalked that up to a lack of time on skis this year. Ultimately, I hit my goal, which was to finish the race. My 5k time was among the slowest that day , but I left the experience encouraged that my fitness was going in the right direction for the White Pine Stampede a few w
Read more