Fatherhood

Hey there everyone. Thanks for checking out the blog, fully updated with pictures of Clark. As you all know if you are visiting here, Mary Beth and I had a major life change a week ago. Clark Dellinger Metz entered our lives. I have been off work this week and we have enjoyed being around the house adjusting to our new family. I have to admit that the emotion and craziness of the past seven days has been incredible. From leaving the house a week ago to "check in" to the hospital, to watching Mary Beth go through some serious contractions, to seeing the epideral go into her back, to watching the baby's head poke through, to watching her deliver the porker, to going out to the waiting room telling everyone it was a boy and his name, to seeing the grandparents see their first grandchild, so seeing my grandpa become a great grandpa, to putting Clark in the car for the first time (quite an experience let me tell you), to bringing him home for the first time, to changing his first diaper, to being peed on for the first time, to watching him sleep for the first time, to being up all night for the first time, to being up all night the second time, to watching Mary Beth feeding him, to changing his clothes, to watching him stare back at me in his alert times . . . and on and on I could go. It's been a pretty incredible past week. My appreciatiation for God has grown immensely. My fondness of family has increased exponentially. My love for my church has gone up immeasurably. And my ability to care for someone has risen, and continues to rise.

Forgive the cliched nature of this post, but in reflecting on a week like this I have been left with little more than cliches. My blog is dedicated to many things. Those of you who don't know me well may see some of my more idealogically centered posts and wonder who I am, and those of you who know me well may have had no idea that I think as often as I do. Those of you who aren't church people may not make much sense of any of this. But, with the birth of our first child, we all meet on similar ground. Clark went through something that all of us have gone through, and I have expereienced something that most people experience. In that experience I can choose to grow or to stagnate, to broaden my horizon or fit everything within the small confines I have already created, to open my eyes to brighter lights or to be satisfied with the dim reflection. In each place, I choose the latter over the former. May I continue to bless those I come into contact with, and may I raise a son who does so beyond my wildest imagination. God is called Father . . . I now relate just a little bit more. Thank Jesus. Thank you family. Thank you Father.