"thoughts on being a husband & father"

our friends in minnesota recently posted a great article on fatherhood and, eh, er, husbandhood?? anyways. it's a good read and i agree wholeheartedly.

as i've most recently kept up with this whole blog thing and no one has left any comments it got me to thinking probably no one reads this on a regular basis and surely why would anyone care. but then i thought even if no one else ever in the world reads these posts, i'm leaving a legacy for my kids. here immortalized forever (or at least until Christ's return) is a day by day memory of our lives.

so anna, danielle, julia, kid #4, and any other's that follow. if you're reading this years down the road when your father is absent from this world but present with the Lord, i want you to know how much i love you. you girls/(other kids) mean the world to me. and i want you to know that i've always loved you even before you were in your mother's womb. in fact i can remember a day at Northwest College (now University) when i woke up just absolutely thrilled/estatic about the day that i would be a dad. this was before your mother and i were "together"; i'm not even sure if i knew her then; and NO i wasn't going out with anyone else. i just was excited about being a dad someday. my heart felt like it would jump out of my chest by how much i was longing and excited about having a family. in fact i remember running into chapel before it began with a huge grin on my face and sharing with all my friends about how exciting it was going to be a dad. everyone's response was, "you're gonna be a great dad". and kids i hope that you can look back on your family and respond, "yep, you were!"

and finally remember i wasn't the only one thinking about you before you were born. Psalms 139:16 tells us that God is the one who knew us before we were born, and had a plan for each of your lives all along the way. are you living it? do you know Him?

i love you kids! i love you!! i love you!!!