A Dad Looks Back (and Forward) With Love

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    "You can send in your entries now for this week’s CD Giveaway. On Sunday, 6 year old Katie will draw the names of the winners…"

    Twelve years ago, that’s how SoulTrackers met Katie.  She was the youngest of my four kids, and my first girl. And she was my buddy, even then. One of our regular highlights was when we ran CD Giveaways on SoulTracks and she was the one who got to randomly choose the winners from hundreds of entries. She took her job seriously, right into her teens, and SoulTrackers made it even more fun for her when they would write “Hey Katie, pick me!” And her Dad just loved watching.

    "You can send in your entries now for this week’s CD Giveaway. On Sunday, 6 year old Katie will draw the names of the winners…"

    Twelve years ago, that’s how SoulTrackers met Katie.  She was the youngest of my four kids, and my first girl. And she was my buddy, even then. One of our regular highlights was when we ran CD Giveaways on SoulTracks and she was the one who got to randomly choose the winners from hundreds of entries. She took her job seriously, right into her teens, and SoulTrackers made it even more fun for her when they would write “Hey Katie, pick me!” And her Dad just loved watching.

    Next week, my not-so-little girl will walk across the stage with her high school cap and gown, and, like millions of fathers everywhere, I will reflect on how quickly it has all gone. When Colette was pregnant with our oldest, other parents warned us that the child rearing years go by in a flash; four kids and 26 years later, they were right. I often joke that I have no memory of the 90s other than working, changing diapers and playing with toddlers. And time hasn’t slowed down much since. Suddenly my boys are grown men and my baby is getting ready to go off to college.

    They say that fathers and daughters have a special relationship, and I’ve spent the last 18 years thanking God that we didn’t stop after having the three boys. That little girl has grown up a wonderful combination of sweet and tough (like her Mother), with a deep sense of empathy contrasted by a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor (her last words to her parents as we went out on an “adult date” last night was a tongue-in-cheek warning, “Make good choices”). She’s added a dimension to our family that I couldn’t have understood before, and she’s given Colette a welcome ally in the otherwise testosterone-filled household.

    Parenting is never easy (I can see you nodding), and every child is a roller-coaster adventure. But your prayer as a parent - especially when your children mature and increasingly make their own decisions (and your sleepless nights correspondingly increase) - is that all that hard work and some grace from God will result in a child who is happy and whose life makes the world a better place. As my youngest walks across that stage, I’ll say a prayer of thanks that we and the world have received much more than we could have ever hoped for from this special young woman.

    So, after a Summer at home, Katie will enthusiastically head off to college this Fall, and we’ll officially be empty nesters. I’m excited for the next stage of our lives while also unsure how I'll feel when high schoolers are no longer routinely coming in and out of our house at all times.  SoulTracks will say goodbye to Katie, the only contest name picker we’ve ever known. And sometime this Fall, while Katie continues her journey, going to classes and meeting new friends, her Dad will quietly draw the names of the winners of a new SoulTracks contest…with a lump in his throat.

    By Chris Rizik
    (May 24, 2015)