Kevin D. Hendricks

Just Call Me Dad

With fear and trembling I expected the day when fatherhood would be a short nine months away. Who knew it would come with a ‘wahoo’ some weeks ago? Of course fear and trembling came shortly afterward, but there’s plenty of joy and excitement as well. We finally broke the silence yesterday when we told my parents and now I feel like we’re telling random strangers on the street, which I suppose I am with this.

We’re about 11 weeks along now, which makes January 22, 2006 the big day. A baby. Parenthood. Wow.

I’m still getting used to the idea, and I’ve known for a month now. But it’s beginning to set in as we tell more and more people.

I think the thought of parenthood has always filled me with terror. I’ve never liked the idea of that much responsibility. I think I let the weight of it crush me like an elephant. But I think I’m getting more and more excited. The idea of another person relying completely on me, and knowing that I have the power to totally screw them up (nevermind handing them a set of DNA that practically guarantees their geekiness), still weighs heavy on my heart, but the idea of sharing the world with that little person is amazing. That’s probably off the hokey end, but that’s how I feel.

It seems a lot of our friends are having babies now, so I guess I have some company. One was born last week, one’s expected in a week and a half, one was born five months ago, another will be born five months from now, another will be born a month after ours.

A baby. Can you believe it? It still takes getting used to, especially when the only evidence is morning sickness. Pregnancy has been a wacky ride so far, and that’s only from my limited perspective.

So that’s the news, a big bang so to speak to finish off the 4th. Since I’ve been holding on to this news for four weeks you’d think I could have come up with a better announcement, but there it is. You might want to get used to that feeling.