There is really just a handful of moments in your life that
will stick in your mind with perfect clarity for the rest of your days. These
moments resonate in your mind and your heart for the rest of your life.
3 weeks ago, I had one such moment.
It all began in two days prior on the eve of Fathers’ Day.
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| The Royals team, the Chiefs team and the Sporting team posing for a group photo at the Wiffle Ball field. |
About a month ago I received a call from my good friend
Mitch Wheeler who informed me, that he and Mitch Holthus (voice of the Kansas
City Chiefs) invited me to attend a Wiffle Ball game for charity. Mitch
explained that 3 teams would be competing. One team was a Chiefs team captained
by Mitch Holthus. One team was a Sporting KC team captained by Sporting player
Matt Beasler. The third team was a KC Royals team captained by Royals’ legend
George Brett. I was certain that Mitch just wanted me to attend, so you can
imagine my surprise when they asked for my jersey size and what number I
wanted, for I was to be the offensive coordinator.
Just hours before the game, it was uncertain if the
offensive coordinator would even be able to attend the June 15th
game. By this time, my wife was 9 months pregnant and the birth of my second
child could be any minute. My parents were in town visiting and to top it off,
a big storm was in the forecast that very evening. Despite all those factors, I
was standing next to my father as we were given our VIP wrist bands. I was handed
a an official NFL jersey, with the number 16 emblazoned upon the front and back
of the jersey - my daughter’s birth year and the year we moved to Kansas City.
The name on the back read “THE BLIND QB”.
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| Your Blind Quarterback sporting his official NFL jersey with "THE BLIND QB" on the back and #16. |
Later on we joined Mitch Holthus and the rest of the Chiefs
team for batting practice. The team was made up of several Chiefs’ super fans
and two Chiefs 2019 draft picks. I was lucky enough to strike up a conversation
with Khalen Saunders, a defensive end that the Chiefs drafted in the third
round.
For the rest of that night, the 3 teams “mashed plastic” and
mash plastic we did. Wiffle ball is basically baseball with plastic balls with
holes in them and plastic bats. The Chiefs’ team would not end up mashing much
plastic. At one point, Mitch called upon me to give some offensive advice, to
which I yelled, “I think we should hit some balls”. My impassioned speech seemed to work somewhat,
because we went from 0 runs to 4 runs in the next two innings. The Royals team
and the Sporting KC team would tie at 17 runs while the Chiefs team would have
only 4, but as Mitch Holthus and myself agreed, we were the football team and
each point (or run) is actually worth 7 in football terms which gave us 28
points, meaning that we won.
I hugged my good friend Mitch and thanked him for including
me, but I had one more thing I had to do before leaving. I shook the hand of
Royals’ great, World Series champ George Brett. We talked for a few minutes
before my dad and I headed out.
The next day – Fathers’ Day - I took my Dad to see the third
installment in one of our favorite movie series, John Wick 3. It was just up
our alley. We returned home and my Dad and I grilled burgers for the family for
a very low key Father’s Day.
Monday morning, at around 10:00, my wife grabbed my
shoulder, her grip tightening on my arm. I turned to her and asked if she was
alright, and she responded with a smile in her voice, “I’m fine, just having a
contraction.
Next thing I knew, were at the New Birth Company in Kansas
City, Kansas in a birthing suite. My wife lay in a warm bath tub very much in
labor. She gripped my hand with all her strength as she pushed, all the while
me telling her how she was doing amazing and how much I loved her. AT one
point, searching for a part of me to grab onto, she reached up and firmly
grabbed my head and squeezed for her entire contraction.
My wife pushed for around 30 minutes. Weeks before she went
into labor, my wife had been adamant that she wanted me to deliver our child.
That is exactly what I did, with our midwife coaching me through.
“Honey” I said to my wife, “I need you to let go of my hand,
because I need to catch our baby.” I plunged my hands into the water and came
up with my beautiful child.
My wife began to cry, I had been crying already. I wrapped
my arm around the most beautiful, strongest and most amazing woman I have ever
known.
I said to my wife, “It’s our son. It’s our Cian.”
I placed our son on my wife’s chest.
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| My newborn son, Cian, sleeping in a blue blanket. |
Several minutes later, the midwife assisted my wife out of
the tub, as I lay on the bed in the birthing suite, my shirt off and my son
laying on my bare chest. I knew that soon would come the trials and struggles
of raising two kids, but at that very moment, I was at peace. My family was
complete, my life was totally and utterly complete.
Monday, June 17, 2019, my son was born and I became a father
of two. My amazing, bright and funny girl Addelyn Claire Black and my new son
Cian Allen Black. A little while later, the midwife assisted my wife over to
the bed, where she lay down next to me and I almost reluctantly handed over my
son so that he could feed for the first time. I turned my head to gaze once
again on the most perfect woman my blind eyes had ever seen, and a tear fell
from my eye.
The best weekend ever, moments to remember.
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