Dear Trevor,
I recall the day of your birth, May 4, 1990, as first one of the happiest, then one of the saddest, and in retrospect one of the greatest days of my life, all in one...
When I first saw you being born and the doctor said, "He's a boy!" that was the happiest moment of my life. But when that same doctor, five minutes later, asked me, "Do you know what Down syndrome is?" that was one of the saddest moments of my life. I was so angry with God, "I don't deserve a son like this!" While I know I've apologized to you many times over the years, I'll always be so sorry for thinking & saying something like that :(
But you know that all the trials & triumphs, setbacks & successes we've experienced in our lives together over the last 27 years have actually proved that I was right all along...I really did not deserve a son like you Trevor, but for the completely opposite reason...
In elementary school, you were teased relentlessly until you finally had enough and yelled at your offender, "My daddy loves me! F*** you!" and flipped him off. The school was going to suspend you for screaming profanity and making an obscene gesture until I intervened and told them there would be severe consequences for you later. I hope you remember we both got three scoops of ice cream on the way home, and that was that.
In middle school, we found out that your para-educator was videotaping you singing Christian songs on the school bus. She wanted to humiliate you into stopping by showing everyone how "ridiculous" you looked & sounded, but you kept on singing anyway. Since then you've added clapping and dancing to your worship routine, and you continue to inspire parishioners to tears at our church on Sunday mornings.
At the start of high school, you were bullied, called the 'r' word, and told you were worthless. And yet by your senior year you'd turned the whole school around to the point where the faculty drafted you onto the homecoming court, and then your classmates elected you homecoming king in the greatest landslide in school history--you received more votes than the other four candidates combined.
After graduating, you were told that the best job you could ever hope for would be folding towels in the basement of a hotel laundromat. Nevertheless, you were hired as Team Store Greeter by MLB's LA Angels in 2012, by the NHL's Anaheim Ducks in 2013, and by the NFL’s LA Rams and USC Trojans in 2018. Over the years, you've become known, admired, and often loved by tens of thousands of sports fans, fellow employees, professional athletes and team executives.
Trevor, you and I both know how often over the last 30 years I've fallen painfully short while trying to be the father YOU deserved. I'll be forever grateful that, despite all the mistakes I've made, you still find reasons, as undeserved as they may be, to tearfully tell me, "You my hero daddy." If nothing else on your birthday, I just want you to know how much I love you with all of my heart, and that with the whole earth as my witness, I would not have traded you, or the impact you've had on my life (and on the lives of your mom, brothers, friends and countless others) for anything or with anyone in the world. That is why I can also finally say that while I still would not consider myself to have been the best choice to be your father, no way, and yet but by the grace of God, the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, I do consider myself, as Trevor's Dad, most richly blessed!
Happy Birthday Trevor!
Love,
Dad
