Fatherhood Tuesday
For this first issue of Fatherhood Tuesday, I want to take the time to give you my background as a father. This will be quite long, so get a cup of coffee.
Since I was young, I always enjoyed working with kids. Some might say I liked being around people on my maturity level, but those people are not worth listening to. Anyway, I usually took the time to volunteer helping to teach the kids at church when I was in High School. When I was in College, I regularly taught them on my own. It was always a joy.
When my wife and I got married, we both knew we wanted to have a large family. We waited 2 years to begin trying so I could graduate from college and find a stable job. Well we started trying and nothing happened. For two and half years we tried.
We went to the fertility doctors and there answer was that all the test came back good, they did not know what was wrong, so take these hormone pills. Whoever heard of prescribing something for something that you do not even know what it is? I found this totally maddening.
After one cycle of the pills we decided to stop. They were too emotionally difficult on my wife, so we quit. We decided to pursue other options.
We spent about a year trying to find babies to adopt. We sent the word out to everyone, we looked on our doorstep, we were even getting near considering kidnapping. Just kidding, but I wanted to give you an idea of the level desperation infertile parents achieve.
After no leads on any potentially adoptable babies, we decided to pursue foster to adoption. This required six classes with the county to certify we were able to parent.
After our first class we got a call from a friend of ours about a birth mother wanting to give her baby up for adoption. This was a perfect illustration of God at work. The birth mother was in the hospital visiting her father with a broken arm. Our friends great Aunts used to take her to Bible School when she was a child, and 'happened' to be at the hospital because one of them was ill. They 'happened' to pass each other in the hallway. The birth mother pointed to her stomach and said, "Do you know anyone who wants a baby?"
Wow, I still get a little teary eyed just typing this. There were some ups and downs in the whole ordeal until the adoption was final, but God saw us through.
To make matters better, about a month later we found out we were also expecting. So now the size of our family doubled within a year. Our oldest two children are six months apart in age. We took our daughter, our first child, home from the hospital the Saturday before Father's Day 2003. The next day, Father's Day, I spent laying on the couch with my baby on my chest. This is one of the best days of my life.
Our son was born six months later, 4 days before Christmas. To this day he is my best bud and pal. At four years of age, I am honored to be his father, and cannot imagine how our Father sent his Son to die for us.
God was not finished at this point. About a year later, we got a call from the birth mother, she was expecting again and wanted to know if we wanted to adopt this child as well. Of course we said yes. So in November of 2005, our second daughter was born. She is a lover and is so precious.
A week after we brought her home from the hospital, my wife went to the doctors to get a physical for the adoption process (mandated in Pennsylvania). Yep, you guessed it. Pregnant again. Our youngest is eight months younger than her sister. She is my little peanut. Born in July of 2006, she may be our last. We plan it that way, but who knows what God has planned.
So there you have it. Those are my credentials. Each week I will be bringing either a funny anecdote from my kids, or a lesson learned from fatherhood. I hope you enjoyed.
Since I was young, I always enjoyed working with kids. Some might say I liked being around people on my maturity level, but those people are not worth listening to. Anyway, I usually took the time to volunteer helping to teach the kids at church when I was in High School. When I was in College, I regularly taught them on my own. It was always a joy.
When my wife and I got married, we both knew we wanted to have a large family. We waited 2 years to begin trying so I could graduate from college and find a stable job. Well we started trying and nothing happened. For two and half years we tried.
We went to the fertility doctors and there answer was that all the test came back good, they did not know what was wrong, so take these hormone pills. Whoever heard of prescribing something for something that you do not even know what it is? I found this totally maddening.
After one cycle of the pills we decided to stop. They were too emotionally difficult on my wife, so we quit. We decided to pursue other options.
We spent about a year trying to find babies to adopt. We sent the word out to everyone, we looked on our doorstep, we were even getting near considering kidnapping. Just kidding, but I wanted to give you an idea of the level desperation infertile parents achieve.
After no leads on any potentially adoptable babies, we decided to pursue foster to adoption. This required six classes with the county to certify we were able to parent.
After our first class we got a call from a friend of ours about a birth mother wanting to give her baby up for adoption. This was a perfect illustration of God at work. The birth mother was in the hospital visiting her father with a broken arm. Our friends great Aunts used to take her to Bible School when she was a child, and 'happened' to be at the hospital because one of them was ill. They 'happened' to pass each other in the hallway. The birth mother pointed to her stomach and said, "Do you know anyone who wants a baby?"
Wow, I still get a little teary eyed just typing this. There were some ups and downs in the whole ordeal until the adoption was final, but God saw us through.
To make matters better, about a month later we found out we were also expecting. So now the size of our family doubled within a year. Our oldest two children are six months apart in age. We took our daughter, our first child, home from the hospital the Saturday before Father's Day 2003. The next day, Father's Day, I spent laying on the couch with my baby on my chest. This is one of the best days of my life.
Our son was born six months later, 4 days before Christmas. To this day he is my best bud and pal. At four years of age, I am honored to be his father, and cannot imagine how our Father sent his Son to die for us.
God was not finished at this point. About a year later, we got a call from the birth mother, she was expecting again and wanted to know if we wanted to adopt this child as well. Of course we said yes. So in November of 2005, our second daughter was born. She is a lover and is so precious.
A week after we brought her home from the hospital, my wife went to the doctors to get a physical for the adoption process (mandated in Pennsylvania). Yep, you guessed it. Pregnant again. Our youngest is eight months younger than her sister. She is my little peanut. Born in July of 2006, she may be our last. We plan it that way, but who knows what God has planned.
So there you have it. Those are my credentials. Each week I will be bringing either a funny anecdote from my kids, or a lesson learned from fatherhood. I hope you enjoyed.
Labels: Fatherhood Tuesday
posted by Kurt | 6:01 PM
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