Eclectic Amateur

You know, you’d think that after seven years of fatherhood (and four children!) that I’d have understood this a little bit before now.

But it’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day struggles, that you forget what a gift your children are. And just how much grace we can receive through them.

But today: I am, face it, a grump. I am tired, I am feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders from what I haven’t gotten done at work and at home, and I have more self-pity about this than I know what to do with.

And Andrew, bless him, knows nothing of this. He just knows that Daddy is home. And he laughs, a pure bubbling laugh to cure what ails ya. And smiles at me with his million-dollar smile that says I am full of joy and I love you, Daddy even though it comes out more like “HA-ha! A goo ga ga SQUEAK! HA-ha!”

(After that, how can I mind cleaning the baby food off of his face?)

This is what Grace looks like, transmitted through a 12-month old.