I’m in Awe

Time flies when you don’t get much sleep. Jonah will be one month old on Saturday and it has been an adventure. There have been challenges but also an incredible amount of memorable moments and realizations.

The first realization is that I have become much more prone to become emotional than before. I was on twitter¹ and saw a video that a father, who was recently diagnosed with ALS, made for his son . It starts with him saying, “By the time you’re watching this…” and I had to stop it. No way was I going to start bawling my eyes out. That was in a span of 30 seconds.

The second, and probably more critical, realization is that I am in awe of the strength of my wife. This past month has not been easy. Unless the 1994 film Junior is actually a documentary, I will never truly understand the physical, emotional, and mental toll that having a child puts on women.

There has been more than one occasion where I have had to change Jonah’s diaper several times within a span of 20 minutes, and by diaper 4 I tell Jonah, “Are you freaking kidding me?” And I hear Claudia calmly say, “Don’t get frustrated with him, he’s just a baby.” She shows the utmost poise and self-control.

She is the one who stays with him all day and tends to his every need. She is the one who wakes up in the middle of the night to feed him. She has this gear that I didn’t know she had. Don’t get me wrong, I knew she was capable, that’s one of the several reasons I married her, but this is something else. It’s like when you hear about those people who can lift a car off of their child . I can ultimately see Claudia doing that, without hesitation.

And I can see her heart is full.

And I’m incredibly blessed.