Dark Lord:
That's totally awesome news ... there's no greater blessing on this earth, and no job that's as demanding, or rewarding. All the very best to you and your wife for a future filled with joy and happy memories! Please let me share a little thing I wrote to another blogger when I was first here in December, (he had just become a "first time" father) ... kinda sums it up for me. God Bless!
My "baby" is finishing her second year in college, and honestly, it was just a moment ago I was singing her lullaby's and rubbing her back while she went to sleep each night. I was a single dad... it was just me and her against the world, and I gotta tell you, she saved my life ... more than once.
Without that precious little angel, (and the halo slips from time to time), counting on me, looking to me to help find her way in this crazy world, man ... I just thank God for whatever heavenly mix-up landed her in my life, and I've been thanking Him since the day I first laid eyes on her, (and mine were the first she ever looked into).
I used to hear other dads talk about their babies, how they wouldn't sleep through the night, and what a relief it was when they finally did, and I would think to myself how much I cherished those times in the middle of the night, giving her the bottle and rocking her in my arms ... singing softly until she went back to sleep.
Yeah, there was always a brief moment of wanting to go back to sleep myself, but the reward was so much greater ... we bonded then, in a way inexpressable, and I wouldn't change it for the world. Yes, that age IS special ... priceless, really ... and you're blessed, my friend, in a way that's beyond words.
So cherish it with everything you are, for it's gone in the wink of an eye. I look back on those times with awe, when life was discovery and wonder ... and I begin to wish them back.
Then I get a call or a surprise visit from her on the weekend, and see what an amazing human being she has become ... so smart, beautiful, talented, and driven, and I know that I wouldn't trade THESE times either, for she's still that little girl, and so much more.
Each moment has it's own reward ... each age it's special accomplishment, and it's REALIZING how precious each ONE of those moments are that makes the difference.
I'll tell ya, there's nothing like a child to put things into perspective, even when it's "sports trauma", that we Boston fans have come to know SOOOO well! No championship or world title can come close to the joy of a first step, or a first "Da-da", or the sound of a belly-laugh.
Didn't mean to wax nostalgic here, but I did want to relate to you that there are many of us out here who have been where you are right now, with that amazing bundle of smiles, at the point of realizing the TRUE priorities in life, and you're a lucky man, my friend ... a truly lucky man.
Someday a while from now, when you have to change a nasty diaper, or warm a bottle at 2AM, or clean crayon off the wall, or watch "Barney" just "one more time", try to remember that it's those really mundane moments, those "daily grind" kind of moments, that make up a little life that's irreplaceable, and that's looking to you to light the way.
Even though there will come a day when your heart will break, with the first real date, or the last Father & Daughter Dance, or dropping off at college ... you'll still have a FULL heart, knowing this was a love that was "born to fly away", and knowing that maybe, just MAYBE ... you did something right!
God bless you and your little one ... I pray there are many such times to come, and a life full of blessings!