For Graham

Dearest Graham,

The day has arrived. Today our family grows by one more. As we walked last night, your mother and I spoke about how blessed our family was, about how this crazy life started when two college kids fell in love, how we were blessed with the sweetest daughter, and now with a son.

There are so many things I want to teach you, experience with you. I think back about how much I looked up to my father and know that I have a legacy to fulfill, a lineage of honorable fatherhood to bestow to you. I'll teach you how to throw a football, how to throw a baseball, how to shoot a basketball, how to find your rhythm, how to play a guitar, and your mother would like me to make sure you understand how to clean your laundry and cook dinner. There are so many things I want to teach you, but I know that you will teach me so much. 

I know that you will have the strong determination and compassionate heart of your mother. As I have learned, you will learn wisdom from her. 

My heart swells with joy today. I will give my life to you, invest my heart in you, and anticipate the joys of growing with you, watching you become that which you have been created by God to be.