On Christmas Eve 2000, I sat Marcy down, got on one knee and asked her to marry me. Before she was able to respond, I added, “And I want to adopt Patrick!” Much to my relief, she said yes to both!
A few months after our wedding, I was honored and privileged to adopt Patrick. I didn’t have to adopt Patrick, but I wanted to either way, I would have loved him and raised him as my son. However, I wanted to adopt him. It was important to me, to Patrick and to God. To me this was a declared commitment to accept Patrick as my son.
As the years flew by, I was busy taking Patrick to football and baseball practices and games, a season of school band practices, and many church activities. Before my eyes, he grew into a young man of God, graduating from high school and going to Lee University.
Amy, his high school sweetheart also enrolled at Lee University. They married in June 2012 and I was honored to officiate their wedding. They graduated from Lee together in May 2014 and moved back to our native Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they are settled in as their own family.
As I look back, I try to figure out where the time went. It was just yesterday when I first met 6-year-old Patrick at our friend’s house, playing in the downstairs room with our friend’s son. Now he is a man with his own family, his own direction, and his own calling in life.
One can never turn off being a dad; there isn’t a stop button! I pray for Patrick and Amy every day. Even though he now has his own family, I still worry about him, wanting the best for him, sometimes pacing the floors because the miles between us keep me from hopping in the car and driving over to his house to give him a big hug, and to see with my own eyes that everything is ok. A day never goes by without thinking about him.
..........................
Don Steffy; MDiv. is Lead Pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Great Falls, Montana
(The above blog are excerpts from my article titled “Fatherhood Predestined” published in the February 2015 Church of God Evangel. Click on the following link to read the full article http://reader.mediawiremobile.com/PathwayPress/issues/100501/viewer?page=23 )
A few months after our wedding, I was honored and privileged to adopt Patrick. I didn’t have to adopt Patrick, but I wanted to either way, I would have loved him and raised him as my son. However, I wanted to adopt him. It was important to me, to Patrick and to God. To me this was a declared commitment to accept Patrick as my son.
As the years flew by, I was busy taking Patrick to football and baseball practices and games, a season of school band practices, and many church activities. Before my eyes, he grew into a young man of God, graduating from high school and going to Lee University.
Amy, his high school sweetheart also enrolled at Lee University. They married in June 2012 and I was honored to officiate their wedding. They graduated from Lee together in May 2014 and moved back to our native Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they are settled in as their own family.
As I look back, I try to figure out where the time went. It was just yesterday when I first met 6-year-old Patrick at our friend’s house, playing in the downstairs room with our friend’s son. Now he is a man with his own family, his own direction, and his own calling in life.
One can never turn off being a dad; there isn’t a stop button! I pray for Patrick and Amy every day. Even though he now has his own family, I still worry about him, wanting the best for him, sometimes pacing the floors because the miles between us keep me from hopping in the car and driving over to his house to give him a big hug, and to see with my own eyes that everything is ok. A day never goes by without thinking about him.
..........................
Don Steffy; MDiv. is Lead Pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Great Falls, Montana
(The above blog are excerpts from my article titled “Fatherhood Predestined” published in the February 2015 Church of God Evangel. Click on the following link to read the full article http://reader.mediawiremobile.com/PathwayPress/issues/100501/viewer?page=23 )
RSS Feed