Hey 19

Last Saturday (the 25th) was Jonathan's 19th birthday. He didn't want anything big and didn't even specify a gift (so we gave the gift of money).

I'll always remember that day. It was the day I took over one of the most important roles a man can take (after Christian and husband) which was Dad. I remember rushing to the hospital in the middle of the night. Jonathan was born at 11:01am. I remember that first night when we got the bright idea of sleeping in his room. We didn't get any sleep because we got up with every noise he made.

He was the one that suffered the brunt of our mistakes as fledgling parents. He doesn't seem to have suffered too much for it.

He hears all the time how much he looks like his dad. I know he thinks of the opening scene of the Goofy movie where Max has the nightmare of growing up to look like and be like his dad. I'm personally flattered when people say we look alike.

He (and his brother) have that rare mix of intelligence and athleticism. He became one of the few students at Ballard Memorial to go to state in two sports in the same year (cross country and track). It was his first year in cross country and second in track. Now he's training for the St. Jude marathon in December. He was also the valedictorian of his class.

His college is pretty much paid for. He's won several scholarships. In fact he just got another engineering one. Josh says that he is the luckiest person he knows and things just fall into his lap. I'm a firm believer that we make our own luck though.

We have really good conversations about sports (especially football). He is a fan of New York teams (Yankees, Knicks and the Giants). We've seen the Yankees a couple of times and the Giants this year (see my earlier post on that). He is especially passionate about his Giants. He's caught grief about them for several years but he certainly got the last laugh when they beat the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. We've enjoyed a thrill that few UK football fans have. We've seen them win two straight bowl games in person (at the Music City Bowl). The last time they did that was in the early 50s. We're hoping for three this year.

He can make me laugh even when I am not happy. He'll crack a joke or do an impersonation of someone and get me laughing. Or he'll say "It's all good" and that I shouldn't worry about it.

He's a great kid (actually not a kid now) and fine Christian young man. I couldn't be more proud of him.