The day my wife and I found out the gender of our first baby, my mind started racing. All of a sudden I was an old man at Christmas time with a living room full of our kids, their kids, their kid's kids, and a partridge in a pear tree. It was terrifying. From the hospital I wanted to go straight to the bank and open a new savings account, then jump online to research colleges, and later that night I wanted to go to Wal-Mart and buy a gun. But more than anything I just wanted to talk to our baby girl. Immediately I wanted to share stories, jokes, and ideas. I wanted to tell her how I fell in love with her mommy and why she is the most creative and beautiful person I've ever met. I wanted to buy matching fitted Oakland A's hats and watch the premiere of "Money Ball" with her. I wanted to tell her all about living in the Philippines, why I was a pastor, how I wasn't very good at math, and that when someone tells her not to eat the yellow snow, she should listen.

Alas my fatherly joneses would remain unsatisfied. I'd have to wait for years to share most of those things. I wasn't going to be able to talk to her for a long time. But I didn't want to wait.  

This website is me, not waiting.

I'm sure I'm not the only dad who feels what I feel. Whether you just found out she's pregnant or your life shattering insights are just a bit too complex for your two-year-old to comprehend just yet, "Daddy Letters" is for you. We are in this together. Young dads are in a waiting room of connection. Not to say that moms aren't waiting too, but they've been gifted with this Jedi-mind-trick connection with their kids from conception. We men don't have that.

So I thought we needed a place to wait together. To encourage each other. To capture the power of fatherhood together. We write letters because we hope one day our kids will read them. Eventually We want them to see the deep joy they immediately were to us. Letters will capture the stories of our lack of sleep, our kids' first steps, and their inability to cease our love. One day they'll read about the great length we ventured to protect them, provide for them, and show them the world they were beautifully brought into.

True to masculine form, this is a monument to our collective impatience. We desire that this chronicled character flaw will be a gift to a community of young dads waiting to fully connect with their kids. Our hope is that what we can't wait to tell our boys and girls will be an encouragement to your story. The dream is that we will write those stories, jokes, and ideas so that we won't forget.  We write them today so that someday they will know just how much we love them.

Peace...
Jason