Last week I got a call from your mother, I could tell by her voice that something was wrong. She had received the results of a blood test back and the results said that she had contracted a virus called CMV. There was a 50% chance that you could get it from her, and that if you did it could result in numerous negative outcomes.
          I was at a work meeting in Maumee Ohio. I stayed on the phone with her for hours as we tryed to wrap our heads around what was happening. I began to call our family and friends that night to pray for you, that God would protect and if necessary heal you. I felt their support in that night as I laid awake with a pain in my heart. You should know that before you even entered this world people were praying for you, and their hearts went out to you.
         The next morning I managed to catch an early flight home. I took your mother to get a test done that would examine the amniotic fluid to see if you had gotten the virus, it took 2 days to get the results back. We received the call Friday afternoon that you were ok and had not gotten the virus, we both immediately prayed and thanked God that he was watching over you and keeping you from harm.
         When I was in the airport flying home I saw a father pushing his daughter in a wheelchair, she appeared to be physically handicapped from birth. I looked and knew that I could very well be that father in a number of years, I was afraid because of the unknown, but not because I doubted my love for you for even a single instant. I feared how others would judge you, look at you, fell uncomfortable around you and even pity you if that was to be your fate and I felt angry inside. You are already my daughter and I don’t know how I could ever love you more no matter how you are born or what takes place in your life. I will always protect and defend you, your body and soul, your precious heart, your sweet spirit.
         We all fear the unknown, more so we fear what we can not control. Your mother had no idea her patient even had the virus, the driver in the intersection has no idea of the car speeding towards him through a red light, a soldier does not know which of the enemies rifles are pointed at him. Each of us face uncertain peril every day, and at any moment God could call us home. What carries us forward is the knowledge that it is God we return to, and that through him all things are worked for the good. We learn and we grow, we dare and we persevere through trial, because a life of timidity is no life at all. We follow the example of our Lord Jesus who undertook more suffering than any and yet remained true to his purpose. He is our strength, He will be with you, with me, and with your mother forever.
         For the first time in my life thus far I have felt what it is to be a father; for to be a father is to care first and foremost about your family. You were all I thought of, all I prayed for, and all that passed through my mind. I felt you inside me and knew that I could have no joy in this life if yours was at risk. I found myself just staring at your mommies belly. I whispered things you will never remember, but that will always be true, and as I did so many people prayed for things you never heard. Those prayers surrounded you just like your mothers womb and will continue to do so long after you leave it. You were loved before you were known, and you will be loved no matter how you come to be know. You are my daughter, and I am forever your father, you are loved greatly and will always be.