A Fathers Mind #2

Eight Months Later

Getting ready for a baby seemed hard at first. 9 months can either be long or short depending on how you spend it. In our case, it was slow and bumpy. At the time my finances were a wreck, working as a Graduate Assistant and a Media Coordinator. For seeing my son’s birth towards the end of the semester, he was projected to come on November 27. So we looked forward to possibly seeing a newborn on Thanksgiving. Meaning I had plenty of time to find another job, find a house/apartment, have marriage counseling, and even maybe go on a mini-vacation.

My prayers were answered first with a job opportunity that would turn our financial status around. Landing a job at a local church running cameras and taking photos was one of the best things to happen in 2020. Along with my other two jobs, allowed me to save, pay my bills, loans, utilities, and family needs. Next was to find a house or so we thought. Being new home buyers we had to face the reality of all that comes with the purchase. Home maintenance, utilities, additional housing needs, looking at windows for moisture, evidence of termites, and the list goes on. The first issue we ran into was the interest rates were too good to be true because of the pandemic. This is great once you buy, but our offer would not get accepted when someone else offers in cash. We attempted to close on two houses, both with sewage issues. Sewage problems can take thousands of dollars to fix. So we decided to look for apartments or houses to rent. We first were set on applying to only rentable houses. This trend slowly died as all of our applications were looked over because of a lack of renter’s experience. After giving up on renting a house we settled for a nice-sized apartment two months before the due date. For the entire first month, all my wife started nesting. I make fun of her about it, but honestly, we would not have had the apartment ready without it.

For the fall semester, I decided to only take two classes, knowing that the little guy would come close to finals. This would give me a little wiggle room of freedom for the baby. The semester was smooth. Even had time for a small vacation for my fiance at the time’s, birthday. It was a lovely escape from the city, to get us ready for the baby’s arrival. The following month we finished our pre-marital counseling and got married in our pastor’s backyard (So romantic). Just as we tied the knot and completed all we needed and had a month left to spare. Until October 29th, when my wife went into labor and she didn’t even know.

To Be Continued…

A Fathers Mind # 2

Now that my son is here, he cannot get enough of me. He is always smiling when he sees me. During the first few months I was confused because he would always start mean mugging out of no where. So I decided to return the mug and to my surprised the little guy smiled back. These little moments make fatherhood such a found experience. Every new discovery about my son’s experience is like a huge achievement as a parent. I would give him a gold medal for that adorable smile if I could.