your dad is graduating

"May the roots of your family tree grow deep and strong."
-- Irish blessing



Dear Carter,

Today your dad graduates from medical school. It's a day worth celebrating for obvious reasons, and celebrate we will.

But in my estimation, documenting today is more important than the party itself, so that one day when you're older, you'll know the story behind the party. Always ask for the stories, because hidden in the story is where you'll discover your roots, and you, child, come from deep, strong roots. I want you to always know that.

For some doctors-to-be, medical school is a step toward worldly distinctions, like a large paycheck and an elite social status. This has never been the case for your dad.

In fact, I doubt he ever said he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up.

Instead, he was simply given a heart to serve others, and while he was busy looking for ways to do that, he found himself on this road the Lord had him travel to best steward that gift.

As is often the case with our God, the journey ordained for your dad wasn't easy. Did you know his first year of school was also the first year he and your mom were married? He told me once that was the hardest thing about medical school -- not the tests, and not the studying, but finding that balance as a new husband.

He worked hard at school, but he worked harder at protecting your mom and their marriage. Remember that.

He sacrificed and struggled and battled some discouragements along the way, but he pursued this call on his life with patience and a steady countenance, because he saw the bigger picture, and the higher purpose.

This story would not be whole if we went without honoring your mom, too. For all intents and purposes, she married your dad, picked up her life, and moved it to this foreign place called south Florida. She endured lonely nights while he studied in the library, stayed gainfully employed to pay the bills, and fought to build a home in a place that didn't feel much like home at all.

In short, she gracefully embraced the not-so-attractive parts of life married to a med student, and in doing that, she showed some of the truest, purest love toward your dad.

They make a good team, your mom and dad, and their example will be important in your own story one day. In their most challenging times, they just kept going, as if they knew the whole time that they were building a legacy for someone like you. I'm so proud of them.

So today, med school ends, but your dad's mission work is only beginning. He will serve someone, somehow, just about every day of his career, and I love that you will grow up knowing no different.

You'll get to see him care for people in need, which we're all called to do in one form or another, and you'll be surrounded by a family framework of selflessness that I hope you never escape.

Those are the roots that run deep, Little Man. Never forget how they got to be yours.