Looking Forward to the Journey.

Parenthood really does take a lot of time! My wife and I have spent the past few weeks since our daughter was born trying to figure out how to get things done we normally wouldn't have problems doing!

Like visiting family and friends. With a newborn, it is really hard to get out of the house!

Like cleaning. We actually had a hard-ish time doing this in the first place! Now it seems like everything has fallen behind, and even when we get caught up, it falls behind again!

Like sleeping. Yeah, we've lost a lot of that.

Like posting on blogs...

But I love being a dad! And I have the most perfect little girl! She's so adorable! I can hardly believe that she's really mine!

Let me tell you that there are very few things that feel as good as taking a nap on the couch with your little 7 lb baby sleeping on your chest.

It is so weird and amazing that I am a father. I am looking forward to this experience! Teaching and learning. Trying my best to help this little one grow and learn the things that she needs to learn to get through this life.

I know that I very much love and appreciate my parents, and the lessons that they taught me. I know they tried very hard to be great parents. And I know that they loved me fiercely.

I hope that my daughter, and my future children will know how much I love them. And hope that the knowledge of my love will help bear them up in hard times. And that they will know that I am always there for them to be a shoulder to cry on (right now, I'm a shoulder to cry, and spit up on).

I truly am looking forward to the adventures to come!

I am so happy and grateful that...

I've been re-reading the secret this morning. I will get through it this time! I've started it 4 times I think, and each time I allow something to get in my way. It's probably the shortest book I haven't been able to get through.

Not this time though! This time I will read it from cover to cover. And I will read it again.

Originally, I was a skeptic. Mainly because I didn't want to believe. I was first introduced to The Secret in a sales meeting for a job that I hated.

Subconsciously I think I knew from the first time I saw it that The Secret was a real thing. I can think back on my life and see it at work in many of the things I now have. My loving wife is one example. My debt is another.

I remember knowing from a young age that I wanted to marry. I thought about it all the time, even when I was 10 years old. When I got a little bit older, I knew more specifics. I knew I would meet and date the woman I was going to marry before I left on my mission. After I met my wife, I knew that we would have challenges, but that we would be able to overcome any obstacles that we encountered. Now here we are, together, happy, and excited new parents!

I attracted my wife and family to me. And if you ask my wife about the person she always envisioned as her husband, you will see that she attracted me to her as well.

As I have been reading, I have come to realize that I have attracted my debt to me as well. Another thing that I knew from a young age was that I didn't want to follow my parents footsteps into crippling debt. I focused so hard on it! So hard that now I have the debt that I didn't want! Even now it's hard for me not to scream inside my head, "I don't want this debt! This debt is burying me alive!"

Little did I know at the time, that by focusing so much on debt, I attracted it to myself!

I come from a very cynical family. It's been a part of my life for a long time. But my bishop said something the other day that really hit me. He said it takes like 1/900th of a watt to change. Just a little bit of energy to rearrange a few brain cells. I don't remember the exacted measurement of energy he quoted, but it was small, and that was the point.

Again, thinking back on my life, I can see that this is a true statement! I remember being so opposed to wearing a seatbelt as a child! I hated it! It was uncomfortable, and restrictive. Then one day, I think I was eleven, something clicked in my head, and I decided that it was safer to wear a seatbelt than to be thrown through the windshield. I have never failed to wear a seatbelt since.

Another example: My dad was a big advocate of men putting down the toilet seat after they were done "taking care of business". I would get a lecture every time I failed to do it. I was relatively rebelious about it, until one day it just clicked in my head. I have been very consistant in this practice ever since. I rarely miss, though it does happen.

So, I don't have to be a cynic! I can be a very positive person! All I have to do is decide! I can think positive thoughts, and be an unshakeable optimist, and attract great things into my life! All it takes is a little bit of energy!