Welcome To The World!

Sweet Abbie. I'm so glad you're now able to read this. As I write it, I'm watching your mom hold you in her arms. You're two weeks old and you really are the cutest little girl in the world, and your daddy loves you very much.

Let me catch you up a little on your life to this point. About 9 months ago, your mom walked in and gave me the happy news - that we were pregnant. It was a difficult time for us. We were so excited about you coming into our lives, but so unprepared.

We were living in the basement of a home we didn't own after moving from Texas to Oregon to join the staff of a tiny little church that couldn't hardly pay us anything. We did that because God called us to it. Had we known you were coming we might have made a bit of a different plan, but it turned out to be the perfect situation. God was clearly at work as we had already put in an offer on our first home and were waiting to close on the house you would someday come home to.

The coming months were exciting, but not always easy. Your mom did such an amazing job taking care of herself, eating the right things, staying away from the wrong things and so on, and her pregnancy went smoothly, but as you'll someday learn, no pregnancy is easy.

A few months after finding out about you we bought our new home and started getting it ready for you. We had a lot of work to do and honestly, it's still not quite ready, but someday it will be. Hopefully before you can tell us how much you like it.

As the months went on, we found ourselves doing lots of fun stuff - buying your crib, painting your room, taking childbirthing classes and getting ready for your arrival. Your mom read so many books! Every time I turned around she was reading something else - childbirth books, parenting books, breastfeeding books - books, books, books. She learned so much. She wanted to be totally ready to bring you into this world and take amazing care of you. Your mom was an amazing mom before you ever even got here.

And two weeks ago, on February 26, you were born. The night before, we realized you would be coming. So we called the hospital, packed our bags and waited. Sometime around 4am we headed out the door and into a beautiful chapter of our lives. Again, your mom was so amazing. I've never seen anything like her. It wasn't easy on her to bring you into this world, but she was absolutely committed to doing things the right way. She knew that using anesthesia could have a negative effect on you, so she never asked for any. She brought you into this world totally naturally because she knew it was the best thing for you. Amazing. And, after struggling for a little less than 3 hours at the hospital, into this world you came. You were already beautiful. From the very first moment, your mom and I were totally captivated by you. I cut your cord, the nurses cleaned you up a little and then your mom held you in her arms much like she's doing as I write this. You were so tiny and fragile. We were so glad you were here.

The last two weeks have been an incredible time in our lives. You've been such a little angel. Over the last couple of days you've been sick with a cold and even during that time, as you've labored to breathe, and clearly felt bad, you've barely made a peep or cried at all. You're such a sweet little girl.

My favorite thing to do right now is to hold you while you're awake. Looking down into your sweet little face with your eyes shining back at me, it's hard to believe that your my little girl. I'm already looking forward to all that the future will bring. I don't know what will happen, but I can't wait to see you grow up, and be there for my part in it. And what is that?

Well, my role in your life is one of the most important roles I'll ever play. I'm your dad. I'm your protector, your provider, and your best example of what a man should be in the life of a woman. More importantly, I'm the example of what your real father is like. You see, I'm just your earthly father. I'm supposed to take good care of you so that someday you'll give your life to your real father, God. He's your real protector, and your real provider. He loves you more than I ever will. It's hard for me to believe that it's possible for anyone to love you as much as I do, but I know that it's true. I know it because he loves me that way, too. It's my job to make sure you see that, too. Hopefully, I'll be successful.