Happy Birthday Katie

Happy Birthday Katie

January fifteenth 1982, it was a day long awaited by two very young, very happy, very in love people, a day that will never be forgotten. A day filled with such intense pain that no wonder on earth could ever , erase the memory, or so we thought. I remember as if it were yesterday Dawn waking me form my slumber, it’s time to go honey, Katie’s coming! At 4:10 am on January fifteenth 1982 I was handed the most amazing gift a father could ever ask for. Created in love, and birthed in pain, I held in my arms the very essence of love, never before could I have imagined the ability to love so quickly so deeply someone I had never met. I held in my hands flesh of my flesh bone of my bones and amidst streaming tears of joy, I now understood better the love the Father had for me. Dawn and I rejoiced over the treasure Katie was, the gift we knew came from above, and often Dawn would say, I can’t remember the pain, I’m to happy to.
As the years went by so many lessons learned, so many trials overcome, and so much joy from this precious gift. We loved to wait in room for the sound of shuffling feet as this bundle with a bulging diaper would launch herself into our bed. All too soon she left that bed, and our home, now starting her own, she too could now understand the depth of love that we have known. The bond between a parent and a child, one that can never be broken, no matter what the tragedy, not even by death.
No one can ever imagine, no matter how much they desire to, the depth of pain that our family has suffered over the past fourteen months, the tragedy, the heartbreak, the hopelessness, the fear, the anguish, and feelings so painful words would fail to describe them. Yet through it all the love of a family never fails, through it all the bond cannot be broken. No man could ever be prouder of a child than I am of Katie Ristow! She is truly a woman of God, she has more gifts and talents than the world will ever know, and her father on earth loves her as much as any earthly man could! We have been through the most intense of pain, and yes we have caused each other pain , something neither of us would ever desire to do, yet in our humanness we have. Never with intention, never with malice, never with forethought. There are no rules to grief, there are only truths, someday the pain subsides, someday the memories fade, and love never fails!
I love you Katie Ristow, you will always be my treasure, and I pray that today your day of first birth will be a most treasured day, one filled with memories, one filled with joy, one filled with love. And when you look into the eyes of your children, when you feel the flutter in your heart, I pray that you are reminded, that your daddy feels the same way toward you.
Happy Birthday Tater Bug!
Dad