On Birthdays

Posted on July 31, 2009 
Filed Under Fathering, Parenting

The Fullers are in the middle of summer birthday season, which began in May and ends tomorrow. In the span of 10 weeks five members of our family mark their entrance into this world. Appropriate to summer time parties, we have a lot of outdoor cook-outs and we eat a lot of watermelon as we celebrate. And of course there is the ice cream and cake!

I have some pretty strong recollections of our kids’ births. Every parent remembers the events surrounding the labor and delivery of that first child (Moms more than Dads, I suspect, for obvious reasons). We had done our homework and knew – to the best of our ability – what to expect for various stages of labor and what the delivery might be like. Of course, in many ways we were clueless, but how can you really know what birthing a baby is like until you’ve experienced it firsthand?

Our second child was born only eight hours after I accepted a job with Focus on the Family.  We had spent several days in prayer and conversation after the offer was extended, and over the weekend we determined that a move to Colorado Springs to join the staff of Focus was a good thing. My wife went into labor shortly after making that decision and hours after I called to say, “Yes,” we were at the hospital and she was pushing. Who could forget those circumstances?

I caught one child. Really. That was an unplanned home birth, and I was the attending “physician!”

The last couple of births were in different hospitals, but as I recall, both went well and there were no problems at all.

Alright, enough strolling down memory lane about the summer birthday season, and where I was. By the way, I noted that one of our kids was born hours after I accepted a job with Focus on the Family. That was 18 years ago tomorrow. Where did the time go?!

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