A Chair...

Growing up my family and I were what some people might have called “Baltimore Gypsies”: a nomadic clan traveling from house to house and side of town to side of town every two years or so.  By the time I was 15 we had lived on Schroder Street (west side), Vine Street (west side), Druid Hill Avenue (east side) Calvert Street (east side), Calverton Road (west side), Warwick Avenue (west side), Eagle Street (west side), Fulton Avenue, (west side), Furrow Street (west side), oh and there was a brief year in Hartford, Connecticut somewhere in there as well. Sometimes the moves were prompted by my mother becoming bored or growing out of love with a certain neighborhood but more often financial difficulties forced us to abandon a house we owed back rent on for a new abode. Despite so many moves, so many new schools and so many new friends, the moves were never sad occasions to me. They just meant news starts, new places to have Christmases and represented new chapters in my family’s life.

Much of the same continued when I got married at 20 years old. Working part-time at the bank while taking 18-college credits and with my new bride working part-time at the Children’s Place and part-time at the Body Shop meant that we made a combined 25k a year and shared a car whose right front axel often fell off when you hit a pot hole (true story).  So to say our living options were limited would be an understatement.  Our first “house” was a two-bedroom townhouse in Highland Village Townhomes. It was a gem: No A/C, No dishwasher, No backyard. But it did include mice all throughout the trash bin next door, random Saturday morning cookouts with loud Hispanic music blaring from our neighbors’ speakers and a frequent police presence but not in a cozy “care about the neighborhood/ Roland Park” sort of way.  The highlight was sneaking a window A/C unit into our bedroom so that our newborn son wouldn't die of heat exhaustion in the Baltimore July heat and we wouldn't have to pay extra for the rent. Owning a home seemed the farthest thing from possible: we just wanted some A/C.

Our second house was a bit nicer in the Dundalk of Anne Arundel County: Glen Burnie. It had some nice stuff: central A/C, a dishwasher, no mice. A cop even lived next door (nice ones who weren’t freaked out by young black men at night…). The only problem was across the street…where my in-laws lived. And while I love them dearly (I really have grown to love them) , living across the street from them was probably not the best idea we ever had.  Lets just leave it at that. (LOL)

When we found out we were having twins, we scrambled to find a 3^rd house. We stumbled into Arbutus after a larger house in Brookyln Park was snatched away from us right before we were to move in (a blessing in disguise). Like Goldie-Locks and the 3 bears, this one felt “juuusst right”: Three bedrooms, a basement to store our things, a small backyard for the kids to play in. For the past five years, we’ve watched our family grow from 4 to 6 and we’ve done everything in it from hosting our first Thanksgiving and Christmases, Baby Showers and birthday parties. But like the two houses before them, we outgrew our townhome. With a son in high school, another nearing middle school and 5 year old twin girls with a growing wardrobe, it felt like we were living on top of each other. 

            Today we closed on our first home. It has rooms for both boys, a fancy closet for my wife (with apparently no room for any of my clothes) and a backyard big enough for the kids to rip and run for years to come. It's the kind of house I would have thought was never possible for me as I bounced with my family from house to house as a kid.  And as moving date draws closer, I am reminded of Luther Vandross who once famously sang, “A Chair is still a chair…even if there’s no onnnnneeee sitting there! But a chair is not houuussssee and house is not a home….” I finally get what Luther meant. I’m not looking forward to moving boxes and setting up new furniture but I AM excited to move our memories, our laughs, our tears and our special bond into a new space where they can continue to grow.  I’m excited and blessed to be able to help provide my family with the stability I sometimes lacked as a kid but more importantly, what I’ve come to realize is that long before we had a house, with all the love we share, we already had a home; and no house can provide that kind of stability.  

A Perfect (UN)Plan

Growing up, I always wanted a big family. I was the only child for 11 years before my brother was born and because my mother and father both moved to Baltimore from South Carolina, I didn’t grow up playing with cousins, aunts or uncles. The Cosby Show provided me with a visual for what fun a large family could provide. Arguments and fights but lots of love and laughter. Like Cliff and Claire, I wanted 5 kids. Or so I thought.

            Fast-forward 25 years to my wife and I lying in bed one night. We had 2 boys, the second of which was finally school age, had 1 car, lived in a 2-bedroom townhouse (without air conditioning, Yikes!) and I was wrapping up my 4^th year of my lucrative career as a teacher (#brokeville USA. This was long before the idea of a “Model Teacher”). I could tell my wife was nervous as she rolled toward me and very quietly and hesitantly announced: she was pregnant. We had talked about having another child… sometime down the road. Maybe even adopting but this caught us both by surprise. We’d have to find a new house, find more money and push back our dream of beginning to save to buy a home. She cried nervously and I held her and assured her that everything would be fine (even if I wasn’t exactly sure how it would be myself).

            From the beginning this pregnancy was different. My wife became violently ill. This wasn't your typical morning sickness. Violent nausea and fainting spells landed us in a hospital, panicked that our unexpected bundle of joy might not make it full term to meet us. The Doctor calmed our nerves and increased our anxiety all at the same time with one question: “Did you know there were two babies in there?” The fainting happened again.

            The previous pregnancy had been a breeze. Fun even. I’d pick my wife up from work, rub her feet at night while I read the Communist Manifesto (yup, economic equality for all, down with the bourgeoisie!) to her pregnant belly.  No complications. No sickness. The due date came and the baby came the same night. A special gift to my mother who shares the same birthdate.

            But not with the twins. Money was tight and worry high as we scrambled to save for two babies. Two sets of diapers each time, two sets of clothes each time, two bottles of formula each time. Two, Two, Two, Two. It was like I was Noah on some bizzaro Ark.  The belly rubs were less frequent. The reading non-existent. My wife was in so much discomfort that she needed an electric wheelchair to get around the grocery store (she still doesn't trust me to stay under the grocery budget). We were both highly stressed.  With about a month to spare until the due date, we found a new house with an extra bedroom and a basement and I pretty much moved the entire house by myself. This was not some beautiful baby story.

            As November rolled around and the due date grew closer, at school I was preparing my soccer team for the state playoffs. We had just won our first City championship and we had a good shot of upsetting perennial soccer power Eastern Tech at home the next day. As we wrapped up practice for the day I got a call from my wife; panicked again. She and Noah, the youngest son, had been at a routine doctors visit. When the doctor did the sonogram to check up on the babies, She could only hear one heart beat strongly. The other was very faint. I needed to get there as quickly as possible. The problem was “there” was Annapolis and I was in East Baltimore, which considering the circumstances might as well have been Fallujah. I jumped in the truck and off I went. As I got close to downtown, I got another call. There was now no heartbeat and the doctors feared that the ambilical cord might be wrapped around one of the babies and she might not make it. They were going to have to do an emergency C-section. As panic overwhelmed me, I hopped on the highway:  295 to 695 to 97. My wife often criticized me for being such a slow driver. But not that day. Jeff Gordon would have been proud. I-97 was backed up. I drove on the shoulder hoping a cop would see me, ask questions and then lead the way (of course this never happened, no cop to be found of course!). As I neared the exit for the hospital, I got a final call. This time it wasn’t my wife, but a nurse, asking how far away I was in hopes I could make it to be by my wife’s side. I hoped so too.

            I finally arrived. I double parked the truck and hoped out, racing in soccer cleats up three flights of stairs because I couldn't afford to wait on an elevator. I grabbed a badge and raced through double doors. As I went through the doors, a nurse asked, “Are you Mr. Smith?” I guess I said yes and she handed me a set of scrubs and a mask. As we entered a second set of double doors, there sitting at the front desk, coloring and eating a hot dog was Noah. He was a hit with the nurses but I had no time to chat. At that moment all that mattered was getting to my wife and those babies. I needed to see them to know that everything was alright.  The months of worry, the panic, the stress all seemed a distant memory at that moment. We would make a way if God would just let my wife and babies be okay.

            I opened a final door, walked in and it seemed like life slowed down; my life changed forever. In the room was a tiny, 4-pound little girl in an incubator. Abigail was resting on her side. I could barely see what she looked like as the tears streamed out of my face. I didn’t have to see her clearly to know she was beautiful. Across the room, 2 doctors, with stethoscopes checked another baby. At 5 pounds, Audrey looked like a butterball compared to her sister. The doctors backed away so that I could see her. The tears came again.

            I’ll never forget that moment. The stress, the worry, the panic all seemed so silly, so indescribably pointless when I saw those two perfect faces. No pre-made plan I made, mattered. I knew everything would be okay when I saw them. A few minutes later I got a chance to see my wife. She was groggy and didn’t remember any of the actual procedure, as she had to be sedated for the emergency operation. Turns out Abby had just flipped and was breached which was why the reading probably was inaccurate.

The past five years have been more amazing than I could have ever dreamed. From obsessions with everything sparkly, to car ride One Direction and Taylor Swift sing-a-longs to random kisses on the cheek, I could have never imagined how having daughters would teach me to a better father. I’ve learned how to perfectly lay out a bed at bed time, how to not cut food for Audrey but to always cut food for Abby and how to always buy two of any toy to avoid a death match to the heavens.

But maybe the best lesson I’ve learned is that no matter how much you plan and worry, save and strategize, God has a plan that you have very little control over. So instead of living in worry, I try to enjoy the moments each day where all I can do is sit back and laugh and be thankful that everything turned out the way it was supposed to.  Happy 5^th birthday to my hilarious, beautiful, intelligent, kind and caring twin daughters Audrey Ava and Abigail Lillian Smith. I love you more than I could have ever planned. And if you ever hear me talking about having a fifth child like Cliff and Claire, feel free to call Sheppard Pratt because I will have clearly lost my marbles.

 

 

 

 

Holding Hands

It may not come as too big of a surprise that I wasn’t exactly the toughest kid growing up. I mean, I was always athletic and into sports but I was much more likely to try and negotiate my way out of a fight than join in one.

It is probably also then, no surprise that I was also a momma’s boy. This was primarily because we spent so much time together.  We’d write stories together (I know…I know…) she’d make uniforms and clothes for my wrestling action figures (not DOLLS, thank you very much) and let me use whatever household ingredients I could find to mix and match to make my latest secret potions. I loved that time we spent together. My dad and I didn’t spend as much time together one-on-one primarily because he worked when I was young and my mother didn't. But in many ways, that made the times we did spend together, just the two of us, that much more special. They wouldn't be major events: a walk to the store, a ride in the company truck before he had to take it back. But they were special because it was just me and him. We always lived in pretty rough neighborhoods on the West side of the city but I always felt safer when he was home, which is ironic because my dad was 5’7 and maybe 150 pounds. Looking back on it, if danger did occur there probably wasn’t  much he could do about it. But just his presence made me sleep better at night.

We often hear of the maternal instinct: those instances when a mother reaches beyond any logical strength she may have to lift a car off of her injured child or protect her baby cub from the advances of a hungry lion. But I believe fathers (at least true/dedicated fathers) have a similar instinct. It is a primal need to protect. In most situations I’m still more likely to try and use my wit and smarts to negotiate the terrain but involve my wife or children and something primal engages within me. My safety, nor the consequences of my actions, are of concern any longer. My only thought is protecting my family.

            Today I got to spend some one on one time with my baby boy, Noah. He’s not much of a baby anymore: he turned 9 this summer. It’s eerie how much he reminds me of myself.  He’s pretty smart and a hard worker in school. He’s super polite and respectful. He loves his momma (and truth be told she loves him even more) as much as I loved my mom as a kid. I love the bond they share.  He’s always making those same weird concoctions I used to make. He even has my crooked smile (sorry for passing along those bad genes dude, braces soon I promise!) Just like me and my dad, Noah and I don’t spend as much one on one time together as I’d like primarily because I’m usually working on something: grading school work, grad school work, a paper, a lesson plan, a game plan, something.  But today, my wife took the girls and Kaleb was somewhere being too cool to hang with his family anymore (he’s 14, pray for me) so it was just me and my guy. We didn’t do much, just went to the mall and grabbed some dinner. But it was just us guys. We talked about school, Ipods, phones, minecraft, angry birds, why Ray Rice was playing in the pre-season  (he asked) and the little league world series. And it was just as special as the times when my dad would take me to watch Nascar with his roofing buddies or when we’d walk to the grocery store to get fatback for breakfast or go to the park to play catch. It was just us and I knew I was safe.

            I always wondered if my kids would feel that same protection around me. My wife says she has trouble sleeping when I’m not home, but I chalked that up  mostly to flattery and her not having anyone to throw her leg on in the middle of the night. I often asked myself, do I make my family feel safe the same way my dad did?

On Monday night, my best friend and I took my boys down to DC for an Orioles game (O's won! How 'bout dem birds hun?!). As we walked out of the stadium at about 10:30, literally thousands of people surrounded us as we trekked the couple of blocks back to the car. Kaleb (my oldest) and D (my best friend) walked to my left and on my right, as we crossed the street through a throng of people, I felt a hand grab hold of mine. It was Noah. He had a bit of a panicked look on his face, as if there was too much going on around him and he was afraid of getting lost in the shuffle. I grabbed his hand tight to mine, to let him know that I had him, everything would be fine and we walked back to the car. No words were exchanged but he had answered my question. I knew he felt safe with me.

            My father was far from perfect but what he was, was always there when I needed to feel safe. From a car accident when I was 16 to my first day of orientation at high school, he was there when I needed him most. I think that’s what I miss most about him. But in those special moments, when the world slows down and it’s just me and my boy, I can feel my dad there too, holding my hand on the other side. 

10 years later...

            

           Many things change over time. For example, I have gray hair now. Not a gray hair: gray hair, as in plural. I'd always had one or two that I'd shave off from time to time or let grow when I wanted a more "seasoned" look. But when I went to shave last week I noticed something different: I'd reached the point of no return. I had so many gray hairs on my chin that I'd have to shave the entire goatee to get rid of them! And not only have they invaded my chin but they're on my head now too! Ummmm...when the hell did this happen?! Like most things in life, it was a gradual process. Little by little, I've grown older in many ways without even noticing. I mean didn't I just graduate high school yesterday? No? Ok well definitely college was last week, right? Nothing made this gradual time elapse more evident than playing basketball last week. I consider myself to be in good shape. I coach two varsity sports, work out 3-4 days per week, eat decent meals (deserts don’t count obviously) and run 5-10 miles a week. But after 30 minutes of 5-on-5 in the gym yesterday, I looked around and noticed I was one of the 30 something's yelling, "slow it down fellas, let's walk the ball up court". There's a difference between being 30 something "in- shape" and 20 something "in shape". Some things change.

            The same is true of relationships. This past Thursday I celebrated 10 years of marriage to my best friend, closest advisor, and most intimate confidant. Our love continues to blossom with each passing day but that doesn't mean that it's the same type of love as 10 years ago. When I was 20, I loved my wife in a territorial way. Think of the way a baby loves her pacifier or the way Kanye West loves Kanye West: You know, so much that's it's almost too much. I always wanted her around. I wanted to show her off. And who could blame me, she was (and remains) the most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen (in real life of course; Celebrities don’t count but if they did it would be: Nia Long, Zoe Saldana, early 2000’s J-Lo and pre-nervous breakdown but post-Fugees, Mis-Education of Lauryn Hill era Lauryn Hill, in no particular order but I digress). I'd get upset if she wanted to hang with her girlfriends or wanted to stay a little longer at work to finish things. I loved her in a possessive way. She was my wife. I loved her because she was beautiful and because she made me feel happy. That doesn't mean that our love wasn't strong but it did mean that we had to work out the kinks.

            Over these past 10 years, like my hair, our love has changed in many ways without my noticing. With 4 kids and a large extended family, I've learned to share my love for my wife. That's not to suggest that I love her any less but I've realized that she has enough room in her heart to love me fully and others as well. Love doesn't mean ownership as I thought it did at 20, it means partnership. I love her now not just because of her beauty but because we bring out the best in each other. Because of how forgiving her heart is. Because of how genuine her emotion is, whether in joy or sorrow. Now, a night out without the spouse only makes me that much more excited to get back home to be reunited with her. Long hours at work only serve to provide more financial security for our family so that we can afford to take those special trips, like we just did and create those special memories that we'll share forever.

            On this, our 10th anniversary, I am keenly aware that while the nature of our love may have changed, at its core our love will forever remain the same. Marriage does not come without its challenges and its crises but any strong marriage will consist of memories and moments that make the not-so-great moments seem not-so-bad. We were blessed to celebrate our 1st year of marriage in Paris and even more blessed to have spent our 10th in Hawaii. Only God knows where we will be for our 20th but I know for sure that the best part of that trip will be the same best part of these two trips: having someone worth sharing those moments with. For as much as some things change, some things remain the same.