The day I became dad

So I figured that there was enough depression to look at, and even though there'll be more to come, I wanted to put some actual family stuff in here as well. I wanted to talk about each one of my kids and how we were introduced.

Joram
Although we'd been talking for some time, the first face-to-face meeting between Jagadish Joram Rath and I was on 28 March 2002, about 5 days after expected. Nancy and I, being first-time parents, were unsure of what to expect. So, on the morning of the 27th, as soon as the contractions were close enough, we drove up to the hospital. After having Nan checked out and monitored for a few hours, they decided we weren't quite ready and sent us out.

Since the hospital was a bit of a drive from our house, we decided to grab a late lunch and ate some Mexican food. We walked around the Foothills Mall for a while, and when the contractions picked up again we went back to the hospital. We sat in peaceful quietude for some time, and early in the morning on the 28th Nan's contractions got stronger, and with some minimal pushing our baby boy came to us around 4:30am. We named him Jagadish(after my paternal grandfather and means "ruler of the universe" in Hindi) Joram(from a king in the Old Testament) Rath. (The picture is the oldest I had at hand, before we had a digital camera)

That moment marked a new era in our family, as we were no longer just the two of us, but now a functional family unit in the household of God.

It has been an interesting life since then. Joram is quite an inquisitive soul. His curiosity is abundant, and while it helps him learn relentlessly, it also sometimes gets him into trouble. In some things he has tremendous focus, including math, science, and video games, yet in others he often wanders.

In all things, however, Joram is a wonderful son and big brother, doing much to help the function of our family and being a good example to his little sisters and everyone else who associates with him.

Joram is now in first grade at the Montessori Schoolhouse (this is him going to school). Although I still have some qualms about their teaching method (including calling teachers by their first name), they are successful in many things and we absolutely love one of his teachers, Mandi. Joram is, from what they tell us, a veritable math wizard. He is a first-grader who does multiplication and division, and when we are out and about people are amazed by his math prowess.

He loves his sisters, his mom and dad, and everyone else in his extended family. He loves going to school and church, and really enjoys reading. He has great faith in his Heavenly Father, as shown by what he says in his prayers every night. We love our Joram and are thankful that our Father has blessed us to have him in our family.