It’s 4:03
in the morning on Friday. I awoke needing to use the bathroom.
My first thought
was that I’m thankful that I’ve just had almost five hours of
sleep without
interruption. As I’m about to hop back into bed, I heard our
bedroom door open
and I knew someone else was up too. Oddly enough, Luke, my
three and a half
year old needed to use the bathroom as well. However, he
didn’t make it off the
bed in time. So there he stands in my room, well soaked and
half asleep telling
me, “I’m wet.”. I quickly rushed out of my room so as not to
awake
Spring, now eight and a half months pregnant and truly
enjoying every
precious moment of sleep.

So there
I am in the dark. I head right in to the babies room to search
for another
matching pair of pajamas. I find the Spider man pants and
undies and go ahead
and help him get changed. As I move to address the bed, I’m
trying to move
quickly because we are both tired and want to get back to bed.
Lastly, I find
the matching Spider man pajama top for him and while I’m
finishing getting him
dressed, I see him smiling. So I started smiling. Then we were
both laughing
just a little bit. I asked him what was so funny, but he just
laughed again.
After we laughed for just a bit, I finished making up his
sheets, and gave him
a hug, and rubbed his back while he want to sleep.

I found
myself in this odd moment smiling and thankful to be a parent,
thinking that I
won’t have too many more years of these kind of events. Some
might think that
is good because we need our sleep and some of us loathe the
intrusion in the
middle of the night. I found myself instead, thinking that I
am going to
treasure this moment because soon little Luke will be fifteen,
nearly grown up
and sleeping in as long as he can. Even as I think of that, it
starts to bring
tears to my eyes. So then, I am all the more appreciative of
this moment. I
spend a moment in short prayer, telling The Lord how thankful
I am that He
fulfilled my wish to become a husband and a father and how
much I appreciate my
beautiful wife, and four wonderful children.

I can
remember not long ago when Gregory was three and a half, or
close to that. He
used to run around the house singing the theme song to the
Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles. And like his favorite turtle, Leonardo, he carried
his plastic toy
samurai sword around with him. The best part for me, was the
choice for his
sword’s holster. He didn’t have all the necessary equipment so
he made due with
what he had and neatly tucked the sword into his undies and
continued running
around the house singing and defeating the enemy.

It’s that
kind of memory that is so special to me. Now Gregory is only a
few weeks from
becoming a teenager. He no longer uses play swords or watches
the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. He no longer gets up in the middle of
the night to come
see Spring or myself because of a bad dream. Instead, he now
rides a scooter,
plays video games, and watches, and plays many sports. He has
an iPad, and is
sending text messages to friends at school. He eats a ton and
is now over five
and a half feet tall and seemingly growing by the minute.

There is
still so much that I enjoy while he is continuing to grow up.
Now I have
someone to talk sports with. We enjoy playing catch, and
basketball together.
I’m amazed to see him throw a curve ball and sink back to back
three point
shots. But, the first stage of his life is over. Many parents
will understand
this. Playing with toys and watching cartoons is over. I cant
sit with him on
the couch and read him “When you Give a Pig a Pancake” while
he
giggles. Those days are behind us. All that is left of those
days are the home
videos, pictures, and the memories. I can’t go back and enjoy
them just one
more time.

I’ve
realized at thirty four years old how very, very blessed I am,
and also how
extremely important it is to enjoy each and every moment in my
life. We’ve all
heard so many times to cherish the moments in life because it
all goes so fast.
We’ve all heard the phrase, “time flies”. You know what, it
truly
does. All these special moments with my wife and my four boys
(soon to be five)
are passing by quickly. I have only a short time left to enjoy
the next
memories coming around the corner. So maybe it isn’t so crazy
to be laughing at
4am when my son has wet his bed. God has given me wisdom to
realize that I need
to appreciate these days now so that I don’t look back twenty
years from now
with regrets that I didn’t enjoy each moment enough.