A Reflection

14 years ago today, we celebrated the end of a 2 day blizzard which dropped over 30" of snow on our region.

As I dug out my trusty Ford F150 4x4, my wife sat inside, tremendously pregnant. As I neard the end of my task, she got up and made me soup and grilled cheese for lunch.

As I sat eating my hot, steamy comfort food, I called my folks in Philly to see how they were faring. As I spoke to my mother on the phone, Karen started making hand gestures at me...she was putting her hand in the air and opening and closing her 5 fingers.

Puzzled, I asked mom to hold on and Karen said to me "I'm 5 minutes apart". I looked at her funny, and she said "I'm in labor". And thus began my second adventure of that day, as I returned to the phone and said "mom, I gotta go, the baby's coming...call you when it get's here".

We called the doc, who told us to stay put until Karen's water broke, which it did early afternoon. There was a state of emergency in the region, with the roads closed to all but emergency vehicles. We climbed into the F150, locked in the hubs and went on our merry way.

After a brief detour, we arrived a Suburban General (Mercy Suburban, now) and welcomed the arrival of our son, Jesse Colin Shaw, at 11:14 pm.

It's snowing again today, not the epic snow of 14 years ago, but enough to remind me and enough to compel me to share this with you today.

Happy Birthday, Jesse "Scraps" Shaw. I hope your next 14 years brings you all fo the joy and happiness that the first 14 have. Love ya!

As an aside, today is also Elvis Presley's birthday. Jesse is a budding musician, so it's fitting that he was lucky enough to be born on this day.

Dad.