First, My Own Journey

For as long as I can remember, I wanted to get married and I wanted to have a family. I have done a ton of writing in the past on it, and I have bothered my mom a ton on the subject as well. Believe me, you can ask her. As I turned 30, and no prospects of a wife in the immediate present, I started to question when this was going to happen. I know that I would make a good husband, a good father, and I wanted it so bad. But I just had to leave it up to God, and keep believing it would happen when it happened. The thing with me, I hate the wait (as I am sure many of us do). I just want to know the plans now and how long I have to wait; I just want to know. I HATE the wait and the unknown. I FEAR the unknown.

God had already put me through trials of my own. Trials, which at the time, seemed huge and big and affected my whole world. Things that I don’t need to discuss in this blog, nor the focus of this blog. But it is important to how I ended up with Las Vegas, and met my wife, and had our daughter. Very basically, I taught for a year in San Diego. And it did not go well. But I learned a lot and God was preparing me for my new adventures (even though I didn’t know it at the time). I honestly thought I was going to a new job in Northern California. Like they were going to fly me up to check out the school. Then a school in Las Vegas calls me out of the blue, I scoff like “Las Vegas...really?”,  and I told a good friend/co-worker and I scoff and say “a school from Las Vegas called me...like really?”, and what she said changed everything...that is a really good school and you need to talk to them. So I do a skype interview, and it goes really good, and I feel really good about it, and something (Holy Spirit) pushes me that direction, and I take the job. I don’t visit, I don’t follow up more, I take the job, it feels right.

I have always believed in God. But that was the first time I have really felt that feeling of being pushed somewhere. It is a feeling I can’t really describe, but I will always remember it. It was a good feeling.

So, I end up in Las Vegas. At a good school. With great co-workers. And it is where I need to be.

Halfway through my first year in Vegas, I have two co-workers who set me up on a date with a girl they use to work with from a different school. Her name is Andrea, and things go pretty well, because she ends up being my wife. She is a perfect compliment. She believes in God, we have the same morals and ideals, she is easy going, she is funny, she has a great laugh, she is great with children, and I know that she will be an exceptional mom.

I know that God has a plan. He took me to Vegas, when I thought that was a joke, and within 7 months of being there, I meet my eventual wife. So, that was pretty cool.

We get married June 10th in 2017. Within a couple months, SURPRISE, the wife is pregnant. We really weren’t trying to have a kid yet. We really wanted to be married a year first and enjoy that. The wife would tell you that I was definitely shocked and had to get my bearings about this (I like to follow a plan), but was excited to be a father; something I wanted to be for a long time.

Emerson Lee Buskirk was born on her actual due date; June 26, 2018. We knew she would be special. There is no feeling of absolute and total love for something than seeing your baby for the first time. I know that forever she is mine, and I will do anything in my power to love, support, and protect her. She quite literally changed my entire outlook of life the moment she was born. I couldn’t be more proud, happy, all the emotions in the world to finally be a dad, something that I would always be from that moment on. That will never ever change. Emerson Lee is forever my firstborn child and daughter.