THE ASHER SERIES 3/5: Chris, Dad

(THE ASHER SERIES 3/5: Chris, Dad)

My memory of our youngest son Asher is one of those scary but funny parenting moments. I was desperate on a Saturday afternoon. I was 3 days out of knee surgery and my wife was out of town. One thing we can pretty much count on to entertain our kids is the pool. So I loaded up the crew and took them over to my buddy’s pool.

Asher was practicing jumping in and doing a great job of it! Believe it or not after about an hour the kids said that they were ready to go. Naturally we settled in for some snack time before hitting the road. I went ahead and got Asher dressed to go. He decided to go around the corner and throw stuff over the gate to the driveway-hey what’s the harm in that? I was soaking in the down time with a few minutes of peace prior to the infamous call to “load up”. Out of the corner of my eye I see a teal streak (the color of his shirt) shoot across from where Asher was to the pool and lay out the most monumental cannon ball. I mean Asher launched himself at least 5 feet straight into the deep end. We are talking fully dressed, no swimmy here.

Needless to say my brain spasmed and in what seemed like slow motion I lurched up and hobbled at top speed all 15 feet to the pool. I laid myself out on the concrete and was able to reach out and grab Asher by the arm and pull him out. I can remember thinking the whole time, “Wow Asher way to keep your head near the top of the water, you’re almost swimming!”.

Two things came out of that. One I was really proud of how well he did “almost swimming”. Two, I just chuckled out loud several times thinking about the Teal Cannonball. I always tell people that Asher has changed my life in ways that no other person ever could. I thank God every day for the challenges, joy and the smiles. I thank God every day for Asher!

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