Father of the Year

That time of year again -- Time to name the Father of the year! Drumroll........ The envelope, please. And the award goes to.....


Derek!!!

[wild applause]

O.k. he was kind of a shoo-in. But really he does deserve the award. He is an amazing husband and father. Although, this year he's lucky the award ceremony occurs in the morning, before church. You see.... he lost the baby today.*

I was teaching the two year old class. Right at pick up time, one little boy had to go to the bathroom, but his parents weren't there yet. So I took him to the bathroom and on the way I saw Derek standing outside of Nate's classroom door holding Max.

What a great Dad, I thought. He's right on top of it picking up the kids from their classes. The little boy finished his business and I got him to his parents and then went to find my brood. I found Derek standing in the same spot with neither boy. I inquired as to their whereabouts and the response was--

"I haven't pick up Nate and I'm not sure where Max is."

"HUH?!? You aren't sure?"

"Welllllll..... He was here a minute ago."

So off I go on a frantic search. First, the parking lot. No, thank God. Then the bapistry, no, again thank you, Lord. I made a complete circuit with no luck and ended back at the same spot where I left Derek. And where he stood, still chatting. At that point, I almost lost wife of the year award, suggesting in a none too nice voice that since he lost the baby, he should probably help look for him.

At that point I also realized we'd never picked up Nate. And since Nate is one of the best at getting lost in church- he could probably be helpful in finding his little brother. So I went to Nate's classroom and low and behold--- I find both boys with the very sweet teacher whom I about kissed.

Kaylee and her friends showed up then to play with Max and Nate took off to find Daddy. On the way, he ran into the worship leader and I saw them have a conversation in which the worship leader looked a bit perplexed so I just had to ask what Nate told him. Here's what Nate said:

"If you see my Dad tell him that we found Max and he's with me."

The reason for the perplexed look was that the worship leader hadn't known Max was lost but could clearly see that he wasn't with Nate at the moment either.

The rest of the day was uneventful. Derek took the boys to a playground, while Kaylee had youth group and I visited a friend in the hospital. Tonight, he snuggled Max to sleep. It may not have been the best day of his fatherhood, but He's still definitely Father of the Year around here!

*For the record- Derek says that Max wasn't really lost. Just temporarily misplaced.