Dear Future Son

Dear Future Son,

It is a Sunday morning in February. February 22nd to be exact. I am sitting here with your future wife, Emma Kate. And as I hold her, my thoughts keep going to you. You have been on my mind a lot this week which is strange because I am not sure if you are even alive yet.

You see, my Emma Kate is fighting hard to meet you one day. She has not eaten today, and has not for the last week in order to correct a complication from surgery. Her second open heart surgery in her short 5 months of life. And this road isn’t finished yet. We will head to Atlanta tomorrow where they will perform another surgery to hopefully correct this complication.

It has been a rough week on me and Bethany. Watching our sweet angel cry because she is hungry has, at times, been too hard to handle. But for some reason, thinking of you makes me smile. I smile because she won’t remember this. She fights hard today, so that one day she will know nothing but happiness. Sure, times will be challenging, but nothing will compare to this. And she can overcome anything.

I smile because she has inspired me more in 6 months than I will be able to inspire her in a lifetime. And you better be amazing, because I can guarantee that she is. Know that I will not make it easy on you. Not because I don’t like you but because she is worth it. And I will have to make sure that you are worth it. She is not fighting this hard now for nothing later.

Every day, until I give you her hand, I promise to kiss her good morning and good night, with hopes that you will do the same. I promise to dance with her in the living room to cheesy Disney songs, with hopes that you will do the same. I promise to read her fairy tales of knights in shining armor, in hopes that you will be the same. I promise to listen to her and get to know her heart, with the hope that you will do the same. And I promise to love her unconditionally, forever, with the hopes that you will do the same.

One day I will walk her down the aisle and hand her to you. But know that my love for her will never stop growing. My prayer is that you will love her even more than I do, which in my mind right now is impossible. But I pray that you will strive every day to reach that. Her heart is fragile and I pray that you will make it whole. I pray for you daily and promise to do so for the rest of my life. I pray that God is molding your heart right now to beat perfectly with hers.

But most of all, I pray that God draws your heart to His. I pray that He teaches you how to be a man after His heart. I pray that He teaches you to love others more than yourself. That you will know how to love Emma Kate’s heart through how you have loved your mother’s heart. That you will respect her how you have respected your father.

And I pray that you are a better man than I am.

Love,
Brooks