Fathers Day 2012...

I've started this blog post at least 10 times but I can't seem to get the words to come out right. It's strange...you'd think the words would come easy but sometimes there just aren't enough words to describe how much you could possibly love another person.

Jeremiah and I were pretty young when we became parents. I was just 18, he was 22 and fresh off a mission, I don't really think we, or at least I, had enough "life experience" to know what we needed to be as parents. We loved our oldest fiercely and together we made our little apartment a home full of love and laughter for each other and for her. From the moment she was born Jeremiah took her in his arms as tears streamed down his face he told her over and over again how much he loved her...and how oddly shaped her head was, lol. She just stared into his eyes and as I watched them make that connection I knew right there that I had made the perfect choice to marry my best friend and to create a beautiful family with him.

Our family expanded quickly and in 3 short years we were the parents to 3 children under the age of 3. Our 2nd oldest, Brinton, required a lot of attention and had many medical needs. It was madness. It was happiness. There was joy but it was frustrating and there was sadness. I suffered through some major, major bouts of postpartum depression and all along he stood right by me. He lifted me up. He took care of the children so tenderly when I could not. He was everything a father and a husband should be. We were going through literal hell and there he was right beside me guiding me through the fog.

3 years later as we were expecting our 4th child we chose to have a home birth for the first time. Neither of us had ever experienced natural child birth before and when the time came we weren't sure we were prepared to really go through it. As I labored he held me, he massaged my back through the contractions, he lifted me and I leaned on him as I brought our daughter into the world. He held her little body and cried, he told her he loved her and would always protect her. Again I was grateful for the man I had married, the man I had chosen to be my partner and the father of my children. Two more times he sat with me and comforted me as I brought our two sons Liam and Aidan into the world, at home, and each time he held them and cried and each time I've fallen more in love with him.

As our children have grown he has taken care of them, diapered them, clothed them. He has always worked so hard for their needs and even their wants....taking on two sometimes three extra consulting jobs just so he could support their talents. He bakes pretzels with them, holds "Daddy Cafe" where he makes them all custom shakes better than Sonics, he takes them to the swimming pool, the zoo, camping, on long, long car rides with no destination. He loves to take them on long bike rides, hikes, to the movies and the park. Even more than that he teaches them from the scriptures, he gives them blessings when they are needed, he has baptized each one as they've turned 8.

Mostly, he loves their mother. ...and their mother...loves him more and more every minute of every day.

Happy Father's Day, Miah.