1st Grade Program

I am a bit late in posting this, but Ben had his program at school a few weeks ago. He was so funny. The theme was about family and they sang songs about each member of a family. Ben had to have the last line of the program memorized, which he did, which was the good bye and the thank you for coming. He did such a great job! They had to dance to a few of the songs during their program. It was hilarious. I guess Ben doesn't really like to dance, so his teacher told him to do the "air guitar" instead. Well, he did, and it was so funny!





Last Sunday Mark and I were asked to speak in church and Mark's topic was the joy of fatherhood. I thought I would share with you an excerpt from his talk:

In my line of work – Investment Banking, the few days following the end of the calendar quarter is a particularly stressful and busy time. Long days are the norm and vacation time is essentially unavailable. It is not uncommon for my staff to work through their lunches and log an additional 10-20 hours of work per week each during these periods. As luck would have it, on April 3rd (just three days into our crunch time) ******** Elementary School’s First Grade scheduled its annual student program, the aptly titled, “Love Makes a Family.” Compounding the bad timing was the start time for the program - 2:30 pm – late enough in the day that by the time the program ended, there would be nearly no point in driving the 30 minutes back to the office as by the time I arrived it would likely already be after 4:00 pm.

In the days leading up to the program, I struggled to find a way to attend without shirking my responsibilities at work and without creating morale problems with my staff by cutting out on them at the worst possible time. The night before the program, I was resigned to having to miss it entirely.

As I met with some of my staff that Thursday morning, I found myself trying to find a way to bring up the program and my desire to attend. As the meeting progressed, I found myself simply beginning to relate to them the excitement Ben had been feeling as the program approached, how he’d learned his lines and how he was so hoping that I would be there. Much to my surprise, all three of them immediately insisted that I leave work early to attend the program. In turn, each of them volunteered to cover a portion of my responsibilities for the remainder of the day.

Relieved, grateful and humbled, I left the office and quickly zipped down I-15 to the school. Upon arriving at the school, I sat by Lisa and Max in the audience and began to scan the stage for Ben. As I looked over the children on stage, I could see that some were very excited and some were quite uncomfortable, but all of them seemed to be searching the audience looking for mom or dad. Finally, I found Ben sitting right on the front row. Initially he didn’t see me. I could see the apprehension on his face and I knew what he was thinking. In his mind he wondered, “Where is my dad? Why isn’t he here yet?”

As his eyes finally met mine, I could see a sense of relief wash across him, as his entire countenance changed and a smile suddenly beamed across his face. His dad had made it just in time. Suddenly the thoughts of the emails, the meetings, and the conference calls melted away. I do not remember the songs they sang or the lines they recited, but I will never forget the look on his face when I was there for him.




Each child made a portrait of their parents for them to keep. It was so sweet. Ben is such a loving, tender boy. We love him so much!!