A Parent's Love

EDITORS' NOTE: For the most part Jeff does the writing, and Kendall does the design work. Jeff just wanted to make sure you all knew that he is still a red-blooded American male.

When I look at my daughter, I realize why God loves me. Because He just does. That's it. That's the way it works, just like there's nothing that Eden does to make me love her. I just do. She's my daughter, and I can't help but love her.

While it melts my heart when she gives me a hug or a kiss, or when she dances with unreserved, uninhibited joy, that's not why I love her. I'm not checking boxes or keeping count of how many times she's doing sweet things. I'm her dad, and I'd do anything for her because I love her.

And these days it's a good thing Kendall and I aren't keeping a balance sheet of sweet and ornery. Eden has definitely discovered that natural-born ability to make everything more difficult than it has to be. I know those of you out there with a toddler, or who have had a toddler, or who have ever spent any time with a toddler are nodding your head right now.

Seriously, the neighbors must think we are torturing the child. If we try to put Eden's shoes on - SCRRRREEEEAAAMMM!!! Try to take her shoes off - SCCRRRREEEEAAAMMM!!! ! Put her in her stroller - SCRRRREEEEAAAMMM!!! Take her out of her stroller - SCCRRRREEEAAAMMM!!! Try to give her milk - SCCRRRREEEAAAMMM!!! Try to give her juice - SCC ... "Ju!"

But it's not just the bone-rattling scream that goes into her tantrums; she gets her whole back arched into it with her head thrown over to one side. If we put her down, that's when the rolling on the floor comes in. Sometimes she'll mix it up a little and just sit motionless except for her powerful lungs pumping out those prolonged cries of protest that must be violating our noise ordinances.

Of course, there are also plenty of those precious moments when she is sweet and loving. Sometimes those moments oscillate with the tantrums in intervals of about every five seconds.

Still, those times when she brings me a book and crawls up in my lap with her blankie, or spontaneously grabs Kendall's face with both hands and plants a big kiss right on her mouth, that's the good stuff. And it gives me a glimpse into how much it must delight God when we just want to spend some time with Him.

The last few weeks have been a wonderful chance to remember the beauty of a parent's love as we celebrated Easter and Mother's Day. And as we all know, there's no better way to celebrate the love our heavenly Father showed through the death and resurrection of his Son than by dipping unfertilized female reproductive poultry cells into dye.

I'm joking, of course. It was a lot of fun helping Eden color Easter eggs for the first time at my parents' house. She got the hang of it, sort of. She was really good at getting the eggs into the dye. She was also really good at getting the dye into her mouth, all down her chest, and all over the counter. But the eggs turned out nice, and Grandma was able to wash all the dye off the baby. A good time was had by all.

And what do you do with Easter eggs? You hide them from your trusting toddler, delight in watching her comb the yard for them, and then once she's finally found them, you hide them again. Muahahaha!!! Again, only kidding.

In truth, Eden LOVED hunting Easter eggs. She was on a mission out there! She had such a look of serious determination. She got double the fun, too, as she hunted eggs at both grandparents' Easter weekend.

For Mother's Day we went back down to Tampa. We stayed Friday and Saturday night with Kendall's parents. Saturday afternoon, we went to my friend Brenda's daughter's first birthday party. It was nice to see friends I hadn't seen in a while. It's crazy to see folks you knew when you were single and carefree and how everybody is settled with kids now.

Sunday we went to my sister's house and had a fun time with my side of the family. Kendall and I were dominating at corn hole (also known as corn toss) until my sister's father-in-law, Jim, got out there. I think he must play in a league or something. He was sinking three-pointers left and right!

Kendall got a few charms for her Pandora bracelet for Mother's Day. It is starting to fill in nicely it seems. I don't know what I'm going to do when it's full. She's kind of made gift buying easy on me for the last couple of years with that bracelet. If I'm stumped for ideas, I know I can always get her a new charm!

All is well on other fronts. I recently walked in graduation for my Ph.D. I was blessed that my parents, sister, niece and Kendall's parents came up to join Kendall, Eden and me for the ceremony. I technically still have a few loose ends to tie up before UF awards my degree, but I successfully defended my dissertation last month, so the rest is pretty much formalities. I couldn't have done it without the support of Kendall and all my family.

We continue to prepare for our move to North Carolina. I'm teaching the first part of the summer here in Florida, then I'll stay home with Eden in July. Kendall will be working through the first few days in August. We'll be taking a trip up to Wilmington soon to look for a house. God has ordered our steps to bring us to this point. I know he'll keep it doing it. He loves His kids.

That's the news for now. We'll keep you posted.