Reflecting On Dylan Turning Two!

Primary Audience – Heads up here, this is a pretty sappy post written by a proud father. I imagine this will only appeal to my family members, special friends, and for the few who love either their parents or their children.

So our second just turned two this week and like I do typically do , I’m blogging my thoughts on these “milestone” birthdays. So here are a few bouncing around my head.

Dylan is a special kid – he’s the one we never thought we’d have.  We felt that God answered our prayers when we adopted Nathan and then after Dylan, we felt God saying, “I heard those prayers too.”

Though he doesn’t look like me, I know he has inherited a few traits of my personality, among them is mischief. He also has the loudest voice in our home (future preacher or football coach?). He’s a curious soul yet he finds contentment readily (a trait from my wife) and probably my favorite attribute of his – he’s joyful.

He also happens to really love me. Don’t get me wrong, our first loves me too, but I am definitely place second in the “Favorite Parent” contest. Dylan, on the other hand has brought a little equity to the imbalance here. (No verdict has been reached with our third yet but I keep buying her chocolate to win her over – worked for her mom).

Anyway, Dylan loves me. It used to just be one of the cats that greeted me when I came home and that was only if there was not any food in the bowl. Now, I get my own little homecoming celebration and a report on how “bad” Mommy and big brother have been that day.

After we had Nathan, I thought that we’d likely be a one-kid family and though we briefly speculated of the prospect of adopting one day, we were pretty overwhelmed with parenting on 3 weeks notice (while serving full-time in ministry, full-time in seminary and managing my fantasy sports teams. Still don’t know how those teams performed so well). Anyway, we didn’t have this conversation often because nine months into Nathan’s life, Susan told me she was pregnant. Two kids?

In the excitement, I quietly wondered if I had it in me to truly love another child. It turns out just about every parent wonders the same thing and I knew that but it’s quite the natural sentiment. Among the blessings of the second child is that they teach you new things about love. I imagine this was true for my parents when they brought home my sister (who in my estimation is the “favorite” ☺ and with my in-laws as they brought home Susan (who in my estimation, growing up was the favorite.)

Now I don’t believe in favorites and if I did, it would be the tiny 8 week old because she’s the only kid to have not poked me in the eye or stepped on my face yet. But Dylan turning two is a big deal for us. We are learning new lessons of love, family and marriage with him.

I’m excited for my children and this being Dylan’s birthday, I’m excited for what I pray the Lord will do through him. May he seek his own calling and I hope he continues smiling, “mischiefing”, and being joyful.