Letter to Sonja

August 9, 2006

Dear Sonja,

I am writing this letter to you while you are still too small to read, too small to walk, too small to talk. I know, however, that all of this will change, and before I know it you will be up and walking and talking and going out with friends and driving places and looking for colleges and trying to assert your independence. I know some of these things are a long ways off, but I can’t help worry about them already.

I hope that when the time comes for you to start college or leave home that Mom and I have raised you well. I hope that we have provided you with a solid foundation upon which you can realize your full potential. You will make mistakes. Mom and I will make mistakes. It’s unavoidable. I want to tell you all the things I have learned growing up. I want to teach you what to do and what to avoid. I want to provide you with short-cuts to valuable life lessons, but I know that this is impossible. I have to let you learn some things on your own. I can (and will) tell you not to talk to strangers; I will lecture you on the pitfalls of drugs and alcohol; I will urge you to practice abstinence and common sense when it comes to dating, but I know that eventually you will be faced with decisions and situations I have not prepared you for. It is my hope that Mom and I will have provided you with a framework of love and understanding from which you can build your own decisions.

It is a very big world Mom and I have brought you into, and it is not always pretty. I just hope that you will always know and carry with you the deep and undying love your mom and I have for you. We will always be there for you.

My Endless Love,

Dad