Some Verbage to Jordan...

In just a little while, it's going to be your birthday.

You're going to be around nine years old now.

Nine is a fine number, it's just one year away from having a double-digit number. Once you break those double numbers, it's pretty much rocky from there.

But for now, you're nine. Nine years.

Just imagine all of the things that took nine years to create.

Unfortunately I can't think of a single thing off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are a few great things out there that have taken nine years of manufacturing to be perfect.

Luckily for you, you already have that.

As a person, you're a wonderful boy. As a son, you're a gift to me. Logical, smart, witty, creative and well adjusted.

As I write this for you, knowing that the Internet will forever keep it in place for you to review later on down the road, unless www.blogger.com goes suddenly belly up... I wonder what all I can write here.

In much the same way that I impact your life, you impact mine as well. You forced me to grow up even more, and be a man that I only saw on television.

The smart, confident, bold, stable man. The man that even when kicked, somehow manages to stand up again. Not to fight, but rather, to shield and protect. Nurture and assist.

It's you and your needs that drive me forward. It's your smile that makes me walk into a downpour of rain and go to work. It's your wants that make me make a U-turn through four-lane traffic to go to McDonald's.

It's your future that makes me stop, rub my chin and glance to the sky and rethink a rash decision.

It's my love that makes me urge you into more things, new adventures, to not ever say no to something you want to try that's different. It's why I stood out in the rain (lots of rain these days) to watch you kick a soccer ball around. It's why I told you to never give up when you kept losing those games, too.

I know it might seem like it, but you're not the only one who's growing up. We both are. It's an adventure in life. Something where the next turn isn't necessarily a page you can skip ahead to to read to see what happens. We're getting bigger, and older, and smarter, and soon nine will be nineteen, and no doubt you'll be educating me in things.

I love you, I miss you.

And when I get there, even though I won't be there for more than a couple days, we'll still go to the toy store. I do it for that smile...