[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtn8aiE-esE&hl=en&w=425&h=355]

It wasn’t so long ago.  At least it didn’t seem that long ago. 

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I left my office and drove.  Drove and drove and drove until I reached the hospital. Judy had just had her third child.  She cradled him in her arms, this beautiful newborn with a magnificent head of shocking red hair.   They were ahead of us in the game and we enjoyed walking alongside them, learning from them, sharing this amazing experience.

We’ve been friends since forever.  We were there when they brought their oldest home from the hospital.  We watched her learn to recite her ABC’s, count to ten in Spanish and recite Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat as she swung for hours in her baby swing.  We were there at basketball games and soccer games, birthday parties and high school graduation. And then one day we turned around and she was a beautiful young lady.

The second one grew too. Many Christmas Eves were spent as Santa’s elves, assembling high chairs and climbing structures and bicycles too numerous to mention.  We watched his gentle soul and compassionate heart grow larger, as he, like Jack’s beanstalk, grew and grew and grew until one day his head almost touched the ceiling.

But this one was the baby.  This one was the last.  This one, the red haired precocious one, wasn’t supposed to grow up.   At least, not so fast.  Shouldn’t one of them stay little for ever?  But here he is.

Kid number three is an athlete.  Kid number three is creative.  Kid number three has an alter ego.  Kid number three is emoney. 

This one is for them.  This one is for the parents of emoney.  This one is to say, you guys have amazing kids.  All of them are different, unique and distinctly themselves. And all three of them are parts of you.

I know what you’re saying.  If we only knew.  And we do, because now we have kids too.  They may not always take the straightest path.  The straight path isn’t always the most fun.  And their path doesn’t always make sense, at least not to us.  But we hold steady and we hold the hope and most of all, we believe.

It sure has been fun to watch them grow.