Thoughts of a Sojourner

After our oldest daughter, Lillian, was born we decided it was time to grow our family by one more. On April 11, 2002, Olivia Caroline would make her entrance into this world. Our girls were 10 years apart, primarily as I shared earlier because Kim had very hard pregnancies. This wide gap though would provide many blessings. Our first ten years with just Lillian was such a blessing and this gap also allowed us to enjoy each girl’s extracurricular activities and experiences. For Lillian, it was the high school band. We followed her to many football games, concerts, the parade at Disney World and of course many band competitions. Over those years, we made many lifetime friends and enjoyed watching her grow from the many experiences of being part of the band. With Olivia, it was athletics. She played basketball and softball. Until she was a sophomore she played both and then decided to concentrate on softball. We followed Olivia around to many gymnasiums, ball parks, travel tournaments and she was blessed to receive a scholarship to play softball at Calhoun Community College as a pitcher until she suffered a shoulder injury that would end her softball career. Our girls were the joy of lives and still are my joy. They both have become very successful in life and more than anything they are just good young women and continue to make me very proud. Kim and I tried to instill in our girls a drive to be faithful to our Lord, faithful to His church, the concept of hard work, a sense of independence, a desire to be kind to others, generous hearts and to always enjoy life and have fun while living it. Kim and I always strived to make our home one that while having structure and discipline, but we also desired make it a place of sanctuary for our girls and their friends. Kim and I always desired that our girls never had a doubt that we loved them and always wanted the best for them and I believe we succeeded in this endeavor. I found so much joy as a husband and a father watching Kim just being a mom. She just had that “it” when it came to being a mom. She was always a source of strength and encouragement while never shying away from instilling discipline in our girls. She was so skilled in having the hard conversation with our girls and even their friends, but the conversation would always end with them never doubting for a minute that they were loved. Our journey as parents was one filled with joy and thankfulness to God for our girls and now for our grandchildren, John Patton and Molly Caroline. Did we make mistakes as parents? You bet we did! I believe if you are active as a parent in your children’s lives, you will make a mistake or two along the way. It is in those moments that you still get to teach your children about humbleness and a willingness to learn from your mistakes. We were protective of our girls, but we also were firm believers that you have to let your children enjoy life as they grow up. We gave them freedom to experience life and then when life would throw them a curveball, we wanted to be the first ones to pick them up, dust them off and help them learn from said curveball. Kim and I found joy in not sheltering our kids from this world because we knew that one day they would face this world head on. We believed it to be our job to prepare them to face this world and be successful while navigating it. We also, never wanted our girls to ever doubt for one minute that the love that Kim and I had for each other superseded our love for anyone else (other than the Lord). As parents, Kim and I believed that one of the greatest gifts we could give our girls outside of introducing them to their Lord was to teach them what love looked like between a husband and wife. Other than the joy of my salvation, the greatest joy in my life was found in spending time with my bride. Again, we did this because we loved one another more up to the day my bride went to heaven than we did as newly weds. I believe our girls know this and found joy in seeing us love one another. Finally, if I could sum up mine and Kim’s journey as parents (which never ends by the way) it would be with the word JOY. We found joy in the journey of raising our girls and then joy in watching them flourish as they grew into young ladies that were ready to face this world with confidence and strength.