The Espinoza Family: When Four became Five: Happy Father's Day!

I was having a discussion with my sister since I have been visiting Colorado off and on over the past month or so. And we were talking about if we believe that there is a one true love. I believe that you do have a true love, however it is not "Cinderella" all the time. We are human, we change, we grow. It is how we learn to change and grow together that allows us to stay together. I did not seek to find a man that had been married and have a son, and if I would have had a choice back then I would bet that I would not have picked to been with someone who had been married or had a child. The difference is we do not select or choose who enters and comes into our lives. Well, we get to choose if we want to continue having friends in our life but circumstances leads to different people entering and leaving our lives.

Now, onto the Happy Father's Day part of this blog. I have been married to Juan for almost 3 years and we have been together for 7 and like I said previously, I would not have chosen this as a teenager with a "Cinderella" fairytale but I am glad that Juan came into my life. He is a great Dad, he works really hard to make sure his two children have everything that they need. He loves spending one~on~one time with both kids. Sometimes he takes Nick hitting or they go to the park to spend quality time together. Juan will sometimes just take Addi for little drives and they end up coming home with sand buckets for the park or crayons and coloring books. I think that seeing him taking care of his son on his own (with family help of coarse) helped me see in advance a small glimpse of how he would be as a father. It allowed me to see if this is the kind of man that I wanted to help me in raising children.

Many of you know that I am not a risk taker I am getting better but it is not one of my top qualities...I am just getting to the point in my life where I will ride a roller coaster and think that is it awesome the whole time and not over analyze the whole situation and every scenario that can occur from start to finish on the whole stinkin' 5 minutes tops of the ride. But, I know that for my personality it helped me get that reassurance that I needed.Juan is a great Daddy, Da~Da, Dad, and Father. He always greets his children with a hug and a kiss. He always asks, "how was your day?"(Nick) or "what did you do today?"(Addi~Girl)! This is something that I have had to work on. (Sometimes I let the business of my day get in the way of how I come home to my family)...but not Juan...he always remembers to stop and do those things first thing as he walks into the door and to see the kids light up when he walks into the door is the sweetest thing. Rosa says, that Addison knows about when it is time for him to get home and she will start at 3-3:30 saying, "Daddy coming!" Daddy coming!" And she has to tell her"soon." She watches and listens for the door. She listens for the door and then she freezes and looks to see who is going to walk in and gets a huge grin from ear to ear on her face. It is priceless. Who would not want to come home to that everyday?

Addi, on Sunday's has been visiting Sunday School in the preschool nursery at my parents church. And with yesterday being Father's Day her teacher had the kids make the cutest little framed poem with their footprint on it. When I saw it my eyes welled up with tears.

Here is the little poem...

"Walk a little slower, Daddy," said a child so small.
I'm following in you footsteps,
and I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,
sometimes they're hard to see.
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
for you are leading me.

Someday when I am all grown up,
You're who I want to be'
Then I will have a little child,
who will want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
and know that I was true.
So walk a little slower, Daddy;
for I must follow you.

Juan is a great leader for our children. Juan was nervous to have a little girl. I think it was a good thing...it softened his heart. It was good for him to have a son first. He was able to play sports with him and give him the wisdom and knowledge of being a "man!" And boy is he a "mini Juan" many, many people call him Juanito because he is a clone. Having a daughter I can see the sweeter tender side of Juan. I can also so the more protective side that does not allow her to get very far out of his sight.