Forty Valentines!

There's the 7-year itch, 16 candles, 25th everyone's new baby.  He was showered with love from everybody we knew...from the fire department to the police department.  His arrival was met with smiles, gifts, calls and visits.  Grandma and Grandpa Hatfield even delayed their Florida vacation to welcome him home.

anniversary, terrible 2s but not much slaps you into reality like 40 Valentines.  Forty years ago today, we headed north to pick up our Valentine gift.  He was just about the most perfect thing on earth....or anywhere.  He was a smiler, a sleeper, an eater and a perfect baby.........well until I kept waking him with my finger under his nose to make sure he was still breathing.  He was

Barely a reprimand or a stern look in all 40 years.  They don't make kids like that...or at least I couldn't.  He loved everybody and everybody loved him right back.  Some things stuck even 40 years later.  He still calls his Uncle Ray, "Honey Ray" and his name in return was, "Hank!"  He still has a profound bond with his babysitter and (2nd Mama) Resa Dee.  We knew her then as "Ah-Rah!"   He loved his Dukes of Hazard ta-gar and would sing the chorus of Elvira like it was a concert on stage. He had no fear from birth and carried it right into Motocross.  He was our champion and we loved every minute (minus the breaks, ambulance rides and hospital stays.)  He raced hard, worked hard, liked hard and loved hard.......pretty good attributes, I'd say. 

When he moved to Charlotte our hearts ached but we knew everybody flies sometime.  He broke hearts and some broke his.  More than a decade plus, he came home. Second best day ever!

He's our poster child for the nature versus nurture theory with nurture winning by leaps and bounds.  Disappointment will never be associated with this guy. We couldn't be more proud of his work ethic, his commitment to his family, his sense of humor or his joy of fatherhood. 

We couldn't be more joyful in those who chose to allow him to be our son.  A gift of love far beyond what most could do or would do. We were lucky then and so much luckier now. Forty years have flown... with every single one happier because of that Valentine's Day in 1979.  We gotcha and what a gift you are ♥