Ten Years

In roughly twelve hours from now, I will have been a father for ten years.

I remember the day vividly. We had been sent home from the hospital several times for false alarms and that sucked because the hospital was in Camden (Lady of Lourdes) and we lived in Cherry Hill.

Labor was awful and Deb didn't hold back her displeasure with the discomfort she was feeling. The nurses looked at me and told me that they were not allowed to hit her but since I was her husband, I could do whatever it took to calm her down. We were going to be bringing my parents their first grandchild and it would be the first boy on Deb's side of the family in around 25 years. It would be a historic moment and I knew that I would never forget any of it.

Of course, in the end, Deb delivered the most precious gift to us and to the world.

These ten years have not been slow to pass. No, they've been lightning fast - just like everyone told me they would be. Of course, we have had two more gifts since then with the arrival of Hannah and Sadie, but those are memories for another post.

Becoming a parent not only changed my life, it's practically made my previous life disappear. I don't have many memories of life before fatherhood. Most everything in my memory banks now involves the kids in some way. I am perfectly OK with that because, as I've said many times before, I believe the reason that I am on this earth is to be a Daddy. Now that I've been a Daddy for almost 25% of my lifespan, I feel like I am finally getting a grip on how to do this right. It's both the most wonderful and most challenging thing one could ever do and I would not trade it for anything in the world.

So thank you to my parents for teaching and preparing me for December 11, 1999. Thank you Deb for so perfectly marinating our son for nine months and for keeping it together on the table that morning. You did great. And Happy Birthday to life's most wonderful gift and the most remarkable and beautiful boy on the earth...

Elijah Jonathan Borenstein.

I love you!!!!