Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Everyone,

It was the day before Thanksgiving and I was helping give my son a bath. My sister, Jillian, is staying with us for the four day weekend. It was a good time for me to reflect. I really love being a dad. We have a beautiful son. At times Melissa and I will look at Levi with the realization that he is actually here, to stay! And that he is not inside his mother anymore. No going back now. As new parents (he will be six months old tomorrow) it is amazing to think that this little, growing, squirmy, giggly baby is a small human, made in God’s image, with dignity, value, and worth, inside my wife, and now he is here. We look forward to him walking and talking with us, but right now we still can’t get over his laughs and smiles. Our son is whole, fully and beautifully formed, in amazing and wondrous intricacy. Life truly is a work of the LORD. Levi is a scosh over 16 pounds. He started out as a single cell and was the size of a poppy seed when my wife told me the news. Then we found out he was a boy and, while I would still love to be daddy to a little girl someday, we were thrilled. He is growing well, actually it is a good thing he slowed down. Little known fact: if Levi continued to grow at the same rate he did inutero, he would be the mass of the earth by his 20^th birthday. That poppy seed now weighs the equivalent of 23,948,100 poppy seeds and counting. It is a both a great challenge and great blessing to be a parent. It comes with great responsibility and great joy. I have learned just a little bit about God as a Father by being one myself. My wife, son, family, friends are just a few of the relationships I am thankful for. May I be found a good steward of all that God has entrusted to my care.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Jonathan