Happy Birthday, KYLE!

So many of the photos I've sifted through over the last couple days on this memory journey have been pictures of you and Sam, together.  For several years the tub walls were covered with Charlie Brown and Snoopy stick on characters, which you used to create an ever changing story....kind of like Isaac's "sunflower valley".
 Ah, yes....nothing like helping Dad work on the truck.
Brothers....and great friends...what an awesome gift.
You discovered quite early the joy you could bring to Dad's eyes and the fun you would have when you picked up the bat and ball.
 I could post soccer, basketball and cross country pictures, but baseball has always had your heart.   What fun it has been to watch you enjoy baseball and the Rays' success this season with your father and your son.
Sporting the broken wrist/arm? you got tagging out a runner at second.  Also sporting the uniform with the logo you designed.   All those hours spent designing baseball uniforms :-)...
Asbury College baseball with Sam....a bittersweet culmination of your college career.
Last college game together.
Teammates and good friends.
I expect that Michelle now has some pics of you falling asleep after work with your little guys. David has struggled so much to fully express in words to you the intensity of his love for you and his immense joy in the boy you were and admiration and respect for the man you have become.  So part of my joy in you and Michelle having sons is that you will feel his fierce devotion for you and Sam coursing through your own veins.
When Thompson was new in our lives...posing with Dylan and Mickey.  You've sported quite a few hairstyles over the years...
What a wonderful addition learning to play guitar has been in your life.  It has been our joy to see your pleasure as you've led worship singing with your wmf friends, performed impromptu duets with Michelle at home and sung "silly songs" with Isaac.  Kyle playing guitar is always a healing, life giving picture to me. 
I said good-bye to you at the airport this day in January 2002, then went home and cried my eyes and heart out to God, pleading with Him to bring your future wife to you, because the pain and frustration of Calcutta was too great for you to bear alone.
Then in July, I opened your e-mail that read, "There's a cool girl here now ...."
And beautiful Michelle came into your life and ours, challenging and enriching all of us with her passions, skills and drive.
Your wedding day was a deep fountain of long-awaited joy .
How much living you and Michelle have packed into your five plus years together!
Michelle and Isaac's first Florida Thanksgiving.
Watching you learning to live love as father, husband, son and man during this incredibly busy, challenging, joyous, painful and exhausting season of your life has been amazing and bittersweet.  More than once in recent days we have found ourselves discovering anew your intelligence and wisdom, your compassion and your willingness to demonstrate love on a daily basis, sacrificing yourself to provide, care for, build up and love your wife and your children.

We know you're not getting enough sleep these days, but we also know that it helps to stand and gaze at the sleeping child who contributes so much to your exhaustion, feeling all that fierce love rise to the surface, break out into thanksgiving for the privilege of loving and caring for such a precious boy and dream about the wonderful man he will become.
Happy 30th birthday!  We love you.