Dear Campbell,
This is your dad. Today you celebrated your first birthday . You don't remember anything about it, I am fairly certain, and I'm guessing now if you are reading this, you are probably about 10 or 11. Maybe 9. Maybe 13, I dunno. What year is it, 2023? The point is, this is your Dad's blogsite that, I'd like to think, is still going strong with somewhere around 4,000 posts--or maybe it ended in 2013, before I got to 1,000, who knows.
You were born one year ago on this date. Yesterday, a year ago, I got a call from your mom that things were progressing quicker than we thought... And it was the next day, or today-one year-that you came to meet us... (it was a week later when we brought you home)
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| This was you, maybe two weeks old. You've grown a little since. |
What to tell you about your first year? Well, the biggest songs of the year belongs to a dude named Gotye, called "Somebody That I Used to Know"... a chick named Carli Rae Jepsen doing a tune called "Call Me Maybe"... and some pop star from Korea named Psy, doing this goofy song called "Gangnum Style". If you've never heard of it, go find it on whatever version of iTunes you have on your 17th generation iPod Touch or whatever.
For movies, "The Avengers" is really all you need to know. Cause that movie was awesome, and by the time you read this, you will have seen it about 2,000 times, thanks to me. And if the latest Star Wars movies were awesome (or awful), then this is the year that it all went down with Disney and Lucasfilm.
But that's not why I'm writing this open letter to you, for the world to read. I'm writing this to tell you how much I love you, Campbell.
I watched a movie yesterday, while you slept in my arms. You had your bottle and were totally zonked out. You have (had?) this thing with your pacifier where you suck on it... but when you get sleepy and are drifting, the paci moves less and less... and eventually, it falls out of your mouth... gotta say, its darn cute.
Anyway, it was this movie from 1996 called "Ransom", starring Mel Gibson and one of your dad's favorite actresses from his teenage years, Rene Russo (she was also in Lethal Weapon 3 and 4, and Major League, both some of my favorite movies)... and in this movie, they play the parents of a kid named Shawn. The kid is kidnapped by the bad guy--Gary Sinise, who was in "Forrest Gump" and a few other films, and he's also the lead commander guy in Mission: Space at Epcot. Well, he was in 2013, anyway.
I hope I don't spoil this for you--its a decent film, though a bit predictable, so unless you just find it on Starz in Black or something, I wouldn't make a huge effort to see it... but towards the end, there is a scene where both Tom (Mel) and Susan (Rene) thinks that Shawn has been shot and killed... and they both have deep emotional breakdowns on the balcony. Now, this is a movie I've seen several times over... but not really since you came into our lives... and as I watched Tom and Susan cry, fall apart, I actually teared up a little. Because, though I tried not to, I imagined what would happen if we lost you. And I could barely finish the movie.
You probably know I'm a big Stephen King fan... one his first books is called "'Salem's Lot", and though I won't go into the plot line (unlike "Ransom", this book is something I can highly recommend--when you're older, anyway), there is a part where a teenage mom is frustrated at her newborn baby, and she ends up striking him in anger, punching him in the face. I usually re-read this book every year around Halloween, and in October 2011, this part came and went, only adding to character development... well, this time, in October 2012, this part turned my stomach, because I couldn't imagine anyone hurting you (or any other child) like this. It gave me chills.
Our jobs as your parents are to protect you, and we'll do our best. We will fail sometimes, and sometimes you'll catch heat for things you didnt do, and sometimes we may punish you too harshly for something small, or inconsistantly, and then other times, it might be that we are too distracted to talk to you and so on... we aren't perfect. But we love Jesus, and we are hoping you will find Him too, one day.
Make sure its real and that you understand it before you make the that step, though. See, Campbell, your mom and I... we love you so, so much. And in loving you so much, we want what's best for you. Trust us when we say, what's best for you is, in fact, a life in Christ. It won't be easy. It will be tough, as a matter of fact. But God promises to love you, take care of you, give you hope and a future. As much as we love you, He loves you a billion times more than we ever could... and He wants to take care of you.
We love watching you learn new things. Lately, you've learned how to open drawers and cabinets... and even more so, you are just now figuring out there is stuff IN those drawers and cabinets. You love crawling up to the dryer and banging on it with your hands, because you love the hollow sound. And you will go up those stairs like no one's business.
Now I'm going to go to bed--where you might be sleeping. I love you, my sweet son.
And happy birthday.
your dad
ps... please stop messing with the Blu-Ray Player. I hate having to keep un-plugging and re-plugging it.
pps... I know tonight at your party was kind of loud and obnoxious. This is called "Alabama Football Gameday". Your dad is a Florida fan, but everyone else belongs of the Roll Tide Nation. Get used to the yells.
