Eric

I don't take enough time to express in words my gratitude and feelings about Eric. Sometimes I get so caught up in the daily tasks of maintaining my home, feeding my children, and keeping them safe that I take for granted the fact that Eric knows how I feel about him as a provider.

When Eric and I started dating, a long time ago, I knew he wanted to be a doctor. And there was never a time since I've know him that I didn't whole-heartily believe that he would accomplish that goal. Although I can remember times when he wasn't so sure. He soared through undergrad, medical school, and residency. He was never completely satisfied with his perceived amount of effort, but no one that knows Eric feels the same way. I've always been in awe of him. His brain is amazing!! The amount of knowledge someone has to hold on to in order to become a doctor. And the fact that he almost always has some knowledge about any medical question asked even the ones that he doesn't and/or hasn't ever dealt with. But that isn't the most amazing part...

I was talking to him the other day about a case. A young woman had shattered her pelvis in a crash and he was having to stay late to do the rebuilding case. My thoughts suddenly went to the woman and then immediately to the people in the waiting room wondering how and when the case would end. Wow!

Eric does several cases a day. I remember stories he has told about cases on babies as little as 1 week old and gentleman as old as 89. He literally holds these people's lives in his hands. But he also holds the lives of their parents, children, friends, and significant others in his hands. What amazes me most is that he chose this responsibility. I chose him because I knew this about him. I chose him because I wanted my sons to want to grow up to share these characteristics, and my daughters, if I had any, to chose men of this caliber to father their babies.

It is easy to get caught up in the # of weeks of vacation time and salary, but those aren't the things that define a man.