From Daddy

three days a week to get you to remember. three days a week to hear your laugh. three days a week to hold you.

Five years is the time we get with our kids outside of school. outside of sleep. until they’re out in the world on their own.

I try not to think about that. hold on to the guilt that your mother and I couldn’t make it work. I try so hard. Because it couldn’t and wouldn’t work.

the sacrifice we make for our kids. So that they may see better versions of us. that was the plan.

you act just like me. Particular and curious. Independent and still wanting a presence.

daddy will be here always. To help you stand up and try and walk. to help you breathe through your frustrations.

you’re my shining light, and I’m doing the best I can to show you a shred of happy that I so desperately needed as a kid myself.

daddy loves you. Always. Forever. And forever after that.

a life without you isn’t a life worth living. Daddy is trying