Papa Sarge

Some time ago, two little bundles of joy came into my life. Aimee was born in Sep 1978, Katie in Nov 1980. It seems like yesterday. With Aimee, they made me sit in the waiting room...waiting...just waiting... I remember holding Aimee the first time, a couple hours after she was born. She grabbed my finger and tried to pull herself up. A midwife friend said it was just a reflexive response. But not to me it wasn't. For two years, she was the center of my world. Then my wife got pregnant again. Because my wife had a C-section the first time, the docs said she had no choice for the second. So we attended child birth classes so that I could be in the delivery room for the birth. At the time, only two hospitals in Florida would allow fathers in during C-sections. So we were in Miami at one of them. I got to sit at my wife's head and talk to her while they did the slice and dice. I remember them saying, "She has her eyes open." I stood up so I could see over the little curtain. There she was. All covered with goo, with the darkest eskimo hair. After they cut the cord, they brought her to me so I could hold her. She had her eyes closed, but whenever I shaded them from the light, she would open her eyes. Memories of my first meetings with my two daughters. Memories I will never forget....


Flash forward to July 27, 2005. At 332pm, central time, my daughter Katie gave birth to my first grandchild, Eleanor Louise Gordon, in Oklahoma City. Due to my current active duty situation, I wasn't able to be there for her birth. I won't get to see her until August 12 when I get back from Belgium. But I am sure that my memories of that first meeting will be ones that I carry for a long, long time, right up there with the other first time meetings. I won't get to be there every day for her like I did for Aimee and Katie since she will be in Oklahoma City, or Japan, or Germany or Alaska depending on where Travis will be stationed, and I'll be in Florida. So that will make every moment I do get to spend with her that much more special. Guess I'll have to start making 'Read to Your Kids' videos to send to her.
Welcome to the world, Eleanor Louise...

Papa Sarge