My Boy- Aldous Gray Sullivan

       It's almost been a year since my son came into this world. Hard to believe a year ago I watched his birth, his first breathe and watched God prove to me that he is "God". Aldous Gray Sullivan is a miracle, anyone who has met my boy can tell you that there's truly no other 1 year old like him, whether its the fact he's the size of a 2 year old, or the fact he learns at the pace of a 3 year old there's no doubt the first time he smiles at you or says "God da God da God" (I translated that to mean "My God is good") you will fall in love. There has been no greater joy to me than to be a father, I cherish every moment I have with my son good or bad because he is a gift from the greatest of all fathers my Aba Father. I remember the day he was born, and boy was it a day!! 

       I got off early from work to go on leave and had made plans to go golfing with Ben Webb, Nathaniel Munson, and Stephen Shupe. We all arrived at the golf course and began to play our 9 holes, on the 5th hole is where the hard part of the day started. Stephen was teeing off and I was standing 10-15 feet off to the side...all I heard was "tink"...and a sickening "thud" that sounded like a wet towel hitting a tree..then I went down with my hand on my head, and there was blood and lots of it, strangely enough the pain didn't arrive until later but the nausea and not being able to put how I was feeling into words came imediately! I heard my friends saying "did it hit him?" after getting down to look at me and hearing their reactions to the apparent gash I had in my head I knew- even though I pleaded with them that I was ok- that I had been hurt and that I wasn't gonna forget this day! After loading me onto a golf cart and trucking me up the hill to get into my car and head to urgent care came the hardest part of all...telling my 9 month pregnant wife that I had been hurt...yeah that wasn't gonna be good! So w proceeded to get nates wife/kristys best friend to call her and fill her in! Well after going to urgent care, making sure I had no permanent damage, and stitching me up I was headed home!! Needless to say I was tired and had a headache (don't know why my head hurt?) so at midnight we curled into bed....not even a 1/2 an hour later I hear "Adam...I think my water broke..." My response "are you serious?" I jump out of bed and try to put together in my head what I needed to do forgetting the one thing that actually made sense at the time which was calm down and listen because if I had I would have heard my wife laughing at me in the background. So I got my composure and we got ready to head to the hospital, I called her parents, sent out text messages and loaded the car...and off we went.
     The next 48 hours went by in a flash, from us getting to the hospital and having to get checked in and get all of the insurance info, to the point where her parents showed up and later when my brother and his wife and my dad showed up....it was a time where our families were one and the same where we were all anxious to see this first grand baby of the Sullivan side, and the first male on my wife's side...he was on his way and we couldn't wait to see my beautiful boy!! It came to the point where the doctor came in and started talking to us about the epideral...my wife decided she wanted it...so we left the room to grab some breakfast and breathe while they did it. We came back and things sped up quickly before I knew it we were all getting ready for kristy to push! And did she ever!! 2 1/2 hours of pushing!!! The end result was a healthy baby boy named Aldous Gray Sullivan!! The moment he came into the world I truly felt gods love and blessings all over me, it was a feeling like I had never experienced!! Today he turns 1 and its been the best year of me and my wifes life. 

      If you ever get to spend more than a few minutes with my son you will experience his infectious laughter, his gorgeous smile and just the most amazing little fellah in the world! ( I am a little partial ) its truly an honor to be his dad, god gave you to me and your mother Aldous Gray Sullivan and for that we are forever greatful! Being a dad has taught me a lot things like sleep is over rated and poop isn't scary, and getting peed on really isn't that bad as a matter of fact it's kinda funny!!! But most most of all...and I can't stress this enough...it's taught me that Gods promises are faithful and true...we prayed and prayed and prayed and yearned for him to come...we leaned on mans understanding....and we leaned on Gods understanding...we didn't always know why things would happen, but we knew our god had already went before us and prepared a way...God gave us answers to our prayers....he gave us our God Daughter when we lost a child, he gave us Aldous Gray Sullivan when we were ready...in his time not ours. It's not always easy waiting on god, honestly it frustrating, but if you listen to his word and do what he asks of you he will bless you...if you look at the pics below you will see MY BOY,MY BLESSING, MY LEGACY....A CHILD OF THE ONE TRUE KING!!! ALDOUS GRAY SULLIVAN THE MOST AMAZING 1 YEAR OLD BOY YOU WILL EVER MEET!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON! DADDY LOVES YOU! 

Humbled

Its funny when I was 20 years old I had this vision of myself- strong, confident, and in my own mind humble. I could run around with my friends and family and not have to worry about the consequences of my actions because my body was strong. Well fast forward 10 years, actually 9 years 363 days to be exact to Friday June 14th where all my confidence in my abilities was halted by one stubborn act of rebellion against what I know and have always known " you have to stretch before any type of physical activity ". There I was suited up and ready to play on my families soccer team at a benefit soccer game for my mother, I got up jogged down field and thought " hey this feels good " and there it was that little voice in your head that reminds you that your human, that your flesh will forever be in battle with your spirit, so leaving all common sense behind I turned with a smile on my face and put every ounce of strength I had into my left leg to sprint back to my seat...well there it was, a feeling I hadn't felt in years- sickening pain- my upper thigh was on fire and the pain made me sick to my stomach. This once strong body, although in the best shape I had been in years, had let me down. I had been humbled by my ignorance.
      It wasn't until fathers day the following Sunday did I finally realize why I had ignored everyones pleas for me to warm up, you see I am a man, hey I'm not ashamed to admit that I am stubborn and that even though I have grown up mentally and physically over the last 30 years I still like to believe I am invincible. As I listened to our pastors sermon I sat and thought about what I had did Friday, I hurt myself and then even though I was hurt I still played in both soccer games. To a lot of people that may be dumb but I had something to prove to myself and I did it to the best of my ability, but that's what god was telling me, if I had warmed up stretched and prepared the way I was taught then I could have given a full 110% but because I leaned on my understanding ( you see what I did there ) I ended up injured and broken so I couldn't give my all to the team I had committed to play on and committed to give my 110%. It hit me hard on Sunday, I have got to start letting go... and let god...so simple right? As long as we are plagued by the flesh on our bones its a constant struggle.
       I have been humbled by own ignorance, how many times have we all been in that situation? You know better but you do it anyway. Story of my life!!! But guess what? My god is a god of forgiveness and he's a teacher, he knew I was gonna be dumb and he also knew I was gonna get something out of this. I was humbled not only physically, but spiritually as well. That's how my god works, he's amazing! So as I start my 30th year of life I am anxious to see whats in store for me and my family! And most of all I am getting prepared, stretching my faith and warming up, preparing for my new adventure, and most of all accepting that I am not 20 anymore, and that's ok!!