Jack

 

Twenty-two years ago today,

My world changed.

Early that the morning,

We received a phone call saying that my sister-in-law, Gretchen, was in labor.

Having only seen labor and delivery on TV,

I thought this phone call meant that my nephew’s entrance into the world was imminent.

I immediately got up and advocated for Mom, Dad, and myself to go to the hospital.

We did.

And then we waited a long time…

Until my Jack was born.

Come to think of it,

I don’t think we knew beforehand if he was going to be a girl or a boy!

But he was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

I remember holding him,

As I did all my nephews and niece,

And my friends’ babies as well,

Telling him how much he was already loved

And praying blessings over his life.

 

I remember going back to school and pulling up pictures of him on the classroom computer in my mentor’s room and showing him off to my colleague friends.

My mentor was Marion K. Hudson.

She taught Kindergarten.

I used to walk through her classroom to get into the building.

She had a computer in her classroom.

I did not.

Computers were just becoming the rage.

Now, I can’t imagine my life without them.

Just like I can’t imagine my life without Jack.

 

A lot has changed in 22 years.

But my Jack is still the same

Smart, kind, easy-going, hair-twirling-when-he’s-not-thinking boy

That he’s always been,

Getting ready to graduate from college and enter the “real world”

Where his pre-frontal cortex will continue to develop and

He will continue to grow into the man we are so thankful he is and will be.

 

Jack is much taller than me now,

Handsome,

Muscular,

But if I could hold him in my arms again today,

Then I would whisper again just how much he is loved and

I would pray blessings over his life

Again and again and again.

Amen.