Dear Reed,
Happy fourth birthday! Even though this is year four of your journey, it’s also been a year of firsts! Your first year of preschool, your first steps, your first time as a big brother.
At four years old, you’re favorite question is “Where we going?” You ask it when we’re putting on shoes, when we’re riding in the van, when you’re bored at home and want to go out, or just when someone walks from one room to the next. It’s your question du jour. And I wish I could capture in words the sound, the intonation, the upward tilt of your voice when that question comes. I hope it’ll forever be imprinted in my mind just the way you say it now.
Unquestionably, you look like your daddy, but you also think like him. When daddy and I first got married, I told him that under no circumstances should he ever EVER listen to me if I gave him directions somewhere; no matter how insistent I sounded or how angry I got that he wasn’t following my directions, he was not to listen to my misguided navigation attempts! Your mama is hopeless when it comes to good directions, but your daddy, he’s a human GPS. So every time from the van’s backseat that we hear “Where we going?”, I smile at the 29 years younger version of your daddy. Inevitably, you’ll follow-up my answer with “Where?”, searching for the right word to continue our conversation. You want, you need more details. And so sometimes I navigate our drives out loud, while pretty sure you’re downloading all this information so that one day you can navigate just as good as Daddy. And one day, I’ll tell you too to ignore any road directions I ever give you.
Sometimes, buddy, I wonder where we’re going, too. Where will your journey take us? What will it look like, feel like, be like? I can’t look into the future. But I can look back at the last four years that have brought us to right here, right now and I’m confident that we’re going somewhere that only you can take us. Mostly, I’m confident in the One who created you and I celebrate His creativity in making you YOU.
We love you buddy!!