Like Father Like Son

This post is a little bit of the past and present. It is Father's Day 2011, and I wanted to share about how amazing Justin is as a DADDY.

First of all, here is Justin as a little boy.

How sweet is that face?

He has always looked up to his father in many ways. One way that you know your son admires you, is if he tries to be like you.

Here is Justin watching his dad mow the lawn.

And here is Justin walking step by step behind his dad, mowing the lawn with him.

Well, here is Justin (as a Daddy now) with James walking step by step behind him mowing the lawn.

We have a pretty nice size back yard, and James follows Justin for hours, right behind him, making every move his daddy makes. He even lifts the lawn mower on the back two wheels to turn it around like Justin does.

It's usually about 100 degrees outside when they are doing this, so I make sure they get their popsicle breaks!

Mowing the front yard... watching daddy once again.

Getting lined up with daddy

James rarely takes his eyes off Justin :)

What a little trooper. You can't tell, but he is sweating bullets out there in the heat. But he could care less, because he is going to follow his daddy.

Like Father, Like Son

I knew before I married Justin that he would be an incredible father. And he has even exceeded my expectations, and I know he will keep surprising me more and more as we have more children.

I had to be in the hospital for over 6 weeks on bed rest when I was pregnant with Reese. I can't tell you how many people told me how amazing Justin was doing as he handled James like a single parent. Yes, we also had incredible help from friends and family, but Justin took on so much on his own. He worked full time in the day, and became full time daddy in the evenings and on the weekends..... preparing meals, changing clothes, changing diapers, instructing discipline, dealing with tantrums, bath time, bed time, play time, scheduling, and the list goes on and on. These things are hard when you have TWO people helping....so needless to say he stayed pretty busy. After putting James to bed, he couldn't just crash and sleep. He had math lessons to plan, papers to grade, preparations to make for the next day with James' schedule, bags and lunches to pack, dishes to wash.... and then, he needed to call a distraught, worried wife and have a long discussion with her reminding her that everything was going to be ok. I cry right now thinking of it all. Justin stayed so strong through it all. Just so our little baby girl could stay put in mommy's womb for just a few more weeks.

Justin, I can't tell you how much I love you. I am so proud of you, watching you help raise our two sweet children. James and Reese are so lucky to have a daddy like you. I am so thankful that we both had amazing fathers to look up to when we were kids, and I am so thankful we still look up to them now. (Thanks Papa and Pops!)

God, the perfect Father, has richly blessed our family.

Thank you Lord, for such a beautiful gift.