For Father's Day

One amazing part of a marriage is watching your husband become a father. We did not/could not have a child for the first almost-6 years of our marriage. While I was consumed with having a baby, my husband - as per his usual manner - calmly trusted that God would come through when the time was right.

When the time WAS right, in September of 1998, we had a baby boy! One of my favorite memories is of Dan holding the baby in that awful, weird-shaped chair in my hospital room, singing to him in the middle of the night. I knew Dan would be a great dad - and he was from the very first moments. My parents, who were visiting us in Germany, said that they were amazed at how naturally we took to parenting. I think it was because we had been anticipating it for so long, observing other families, talking about how we wanted to be as parents. We were just ready.

Seeing Dan as daddy to a daughter was equally as wonderful. He created a lullaby just for her and sang it her each evening. As she got a little older, he'd pat her tiny back, and her little hand would pat his shoulder in time. She is something I always longed to be - Daddy's Little Girl. I am so thankful my daughter has such an adoring dad!

I will never forget the night I miscarried our 3rd baby. I won't go into the sordid details of that evening, but due to circumstances, I went to the hospital alone. When the doctors finally released me around midnight, having lost our baby a few hours before, I will never ever forget walking into the door of our home - and straight into Dan's arms and crying together over our baby who was now in heaven.

I am thankful for one more chance to see my husband as a father, Lord willing, at the end of this year. There are several reasons I am excited to be having a baby - for one, I think it will give me closure on being able to complete my family. For the last 6 years, I have wondered why we couldn't have our 3rd child - and tried hard to just trust that God knew best. I am so incredibly thankful for the two children I have - and really shouldn't have wanted anything else ever! How blessed we are - and yet ... someone was missing! A new baby will not replace the child we lost; but it is my personal gift from God that He has agreed with me that we should have one more child after all. Aside from that reason, I have always said that my husband should have had a wife who could have given him many children - just because he is so good with children and enjoys them so much. He has always said he would have accepted it if God had not seen fit to give us children at all, and I believe him - but I am so thankful that he is a father - and the father of my children.