Before our son was born, I don’t remember having any preference about the gender of our child. I was excited that Susan was expecting and I enjoyed attending classes and learning about birth and parenting. I am sure that I would have been delighted had our firstborn been a girl, but as it turned out a boy was born. Not being a smoker of cigars, I bought a box of Babe Ruth candy bars and handed them out to all of my friends. Having a son has been a truly wonderful adventure for me and he has been a blessing for us all of his life.

Our daughter’s entry into our family was a bit different. We received a phone call asking us if we could pick her up the next day. She was almost a month old. We didn’t have the length of a pregnancy to gather supplies. I think we borrowed a couple of sleepers from some friends. We gathered up a couple of baby blankets. We stopped at a store and bought disposable diapers and formula after we picked her up.

It was, however, love at first sight for me. I was every bit as excited and shaky as I had been when her brother was born when the social worker handed her to me for the first time. I had to force my hands to stop shaking so I could hold her. I could barely contain the tears in my eyes.

Some of my friends, who are older than I and who had families of their own, told me that there is something special about a daughter and that I would find being the father of a daughter to be a special experience. They were right.

Because she was fed formula, Susan didn’t have to wake up to feed her in the middle of the night as was the case with her brother. I could wake up, change and feed the baby and return to bed when she was settled. Susan took her turns, and when she had an ear infection or was somehow hard to settle, there were times when I had to ask for Susan’s help when I couldn’t think of anything to do for the tiny one. But what I remember most are the quiet moments when most of the rest of the town is sleeping when I would rock her and hold her and sometimes fall asleep with her in my arms.

She didn’t stay a helpless infant for long. Soon she was crawling. When she learned to walk she was so short that she could walk under the dining room table. Then she grew a bit more and was too tall to fit. More than once she crawled under the table and stood up only to bump her head. I’d rush to grab her and sooth her tears.

She begged to attend ballet school when she was too young to enroll in the classes. As soon as she could she started dancing and she danced her way elementary school and high school and on towards college. I loved being a dance dad, even though my role was mostly giving rides to and from the studio. I also got to attend all of the recitals and take photographs of our daughter in all of her costumes.

When her brother got his first call, I made a phone call and asked him if it would work for him to have his grandmother’s car. He agreed and I bought the car. His need for a car lined up with her need to give up driving. When she needed her first car, we shopped and shopped and took a few cars for a test drive before agreeing on a little red Chevrolet Cavalier. I went to a service advisor at the Chevy garage who I had met at his daughter’s wedding. I said to him, when your daughter came to me to officiate at her wedding, I treated her right. When my daughter comes to you with a problem with her car I expect you to treat her right. He always did. When she moved to England, I drove that car for four years. I loved the way it made me feel to drive it because it reminded me of her.

She had a natural talent for teaching and caring for children from a very early age. She would help out in the church nursery and I’d stop by after worship and see her reading to children, singing songs with them and teaching them games. It seemed to me that she would be a wonderful mother, a prediction that came to be very true.

A while ago, our son commented to us, “When we were growing up, if you had been told that one would be a world traveler with a small family and the other would live on a farm with chickens and cows and four children, which would you have predicted would fill each role?” I had to giggle, because I would have definitely predicted that his sister would be the mother of four in a farm family. Our lives, however, rarely turn out as predicted. It is her brother who lives on a farm with his large family. He settled in Washington after he completed his formal education and hasn’t wanted to live elsewhere. She has lived in England, Missouri, Japan, and South Carolina, and has hinted that her family may be moving over seas again soon. She and her husband have one son and it seems quite likely that he will be their only child. She is happy and content with her life and excited about new adventures. She is a loving and devoted daughter and always makes me feel like she would do anything possible for us.

Today is her birthday. I wasn’t there when she was born. I was told she stayed in the hospital a few days longer than usual and became a favorite of the nurses who cared for her. We exchanged a few letters with the foster mother who cared for her before she came to live with us, but the agency discouraged too much contact.

What I do know is that being her father is one of the greatest gifts any person has ever received. Her birthday is a day of celebration for me. It was love at first sight and that love has only grown stronger as time has passed. Happy birthday, beautiful! You have made me the most fortunate person in the world.