Sorry I have been AWOL the last few weeks. I am going to update all my fics soon and have plans for a summer story.

Weird weather systems knocked out power and wifi for most of Ottawa ON Canada in mid May for a week! Massive damage. I was lucky. I was in a pocket where nothing was damaged and power stayed on but wifi was down the full week.

Then life got insane as we all needed to catch up from a week of total disconnect. Throw in a weekend at a cottage in the rain and assorted family members needing help and here we are 3 to 4 weeks later.

Hope you like it. There will be a couple of short updates the next week or so with other Dad's as it's the week of Father's Day. They will be shorter but that's OK.

Reviews mean the world to me.

Bren

...

Henry

I do a lot of jobs in my life. I read the Bible and other religious texts. I teach students about ethics, theology and religion. I do some intelligence work,and I was a fighter pilot who took part in the Gulf War. I have been an ethics advisor to two Presidents and I was the handler of the most effective spy we ever had in Russia. My resume is a very interesting one and it started when I was a teenager who bussed tables at a local diner and who mowed lawns and did some handyman repairs. An auspicious start I suppose

I am married - going on 36 years now. My wife is in her second term as the Commander in Chief for this country. She's the first woman ever elected to this role and I am really proud of all she's achieved and what she has planned for the next few years and beyond this job. Its been a ride and I hope we have many many more adventures before this old body of mine gives out.

There is my role as a brother and as a son - being part of a family is messy and complicated because when you are growing up you gain experience but you don't have any yet and you can be a snot nosed kid who does some lousy things to hurt people.

I get it, because I am a father of three and that is the job that matters the most.

I remember when Elizabeth and I discovered we were having a baby. It was late 1993 and we had no idea what to do with the idea of a baby. We thought we would have more time and more money. Apparently that's almost everyone so while I may have the weirdest jobs - I share this common feeling of utter overwhelm with millions of others. We had a new little person coming to change our circle of two and we were both terrified and excited.

My wife and I read all the parenting books. We observed people. We made lists of what we thought was important. Manners and cloth diapers and good education. Free spirited kids who could debate and do challenging things. We wanted to stress the outdoors and family time and loyalty and love. And mostly we hoped the baby would be healthy and happy. We learned that lists were great but not the most important thing. Love and health and growth. Making a family- making a loyal loving healthy modern American family.

I watched my wife overcome utter terror at being a mom. She worried she wouldn't be enough. She worried she would be killed in a car accident because that's what happened to her parents. She worried that I would be killed in a car accident and leave her alone to raise this baby. She worried because it was a totally New experience that she couldn't think her way out of. That baby was coming and she was getting huge and she was terrified about all the change that was coming. But she read, she took walks and she talked to me. My mother was comforting to her and truthfully I was feeling all the same things she was except that my body wasn't growing a baby.

My dad clapped me on the back and laughed at me. Told me I was screwed and I would be broke and exhausted for the rest of my days. Patrick McCord was that guy. The curmudgeon, the misanthrope, the tough guy. He wasn't who I wanted to be as a father. I remember feeling so conflicted as we waited for our baby. Would I become a jerk? How would I balance marriage and work and child raising? My dad made me question my choices - he was too happy to tell me that writing about Saint Francis and getting my PhD wasn't going to feed the family I had to provide for. I admit it got to me, but Father Laurent assured me I would provide and be a good father. Elizabeth said that while very little made sense to her - my love was nothing but kindness and light. She wasn't worried about me making big bucks. Said she wouldn't have fallen in love with me if I were anyone else but me. She gave me the courage to continue along my chosen path. Apparently our child was going to be better off seeing their dad as a man who followed his heart and that non traditional careers were cool.

I listened to Elizabeth because who doesn't listen to that woman when she speaks? When Stevie was born she was more beautiful than anything I had ever seen since I first laid eyes on Elizabeth. This gorgeous little girl had my heart the moment she came out of her mothers body. Those big blue eyes and that reddish hair and some inexplicable connection that was love - but beyond love. I became a father and quickly learned that this new job was the most important one I would ever have.

It was the most fun, the most challenging and the biggest sense of pride I would ever feel.

Then we had our second and my love grew and it changed shape, then we had our son and I felt a shift. It's miraculous and different and I wonder how some men don't feel this complete and total fulfillment. How some men want to harm the woman they once professed to love. How they can leave their children. I guess I am blessed because while I had days where I was exhausted and angry - I never wanted to see, or cause harm to them. The more they grew and the bigger our family became - the more I felt I needed to do to teach them to find a passion and follow it with all their heart.

We had plenty of stress. Don't kid yourself. There were illnesses, accidents and a lot of bodily fluids. So much frustration and exhaustion. When I had the kids to care for and papers to grade and worry about where my wife had been sent to and if she was all right... I had nights where I tumbled into bed with tears streaming down my face and peanut butter in my hair. Men cry too. Men aren't the doofuses we see on tv sitcoms, not all of us anyway.

Now I have experienced something completely new. Elizabeth and I are grandparents. Stevie is a mom. My baby is a mother and I can't find the words to express my joy and emotional reactions in watching my baby and her husband go through pregnancy and childbirth and to meet my grandson. He's so much a mix of Petrov and McCord. He's a beautiful passionate soul and Stevie says that he reminds her of me. Elizabeth says the same thing. He's a few years old now and I absolutely adore when Adam Henry Petrov comes to visit. We go for walks. We build Lego, we watch Disney movies and we chat about so many things. He's a loving, compassionate and funny little person and he loves me. Our family grows.

It's a whole different level of love and I am continually surprised by what life throws at me. I now get to help my daughter and Dimitri raise their children! Baby Suzanne Elizabeth arrived yesterday and she's managed to find a way into my heart in a new way. Allison is newly married and Jason is engaged and all three of my kids have become these adults I am in awe of.

Stevie is a human rights lawyer who has helped so many immigrants and refugees get the justice and care they deserve. Allison is designing clothing for women and girls all around the world. She's partnered with cultural visionaries in 6 continents. They designs are respectful, colourful, comfortable and made with sustainable fabrics and dyes. She's Ben profiled as one to watch and she's paid us back for her schooling ( totally unnecessary but she wanted to ) and she's bought a condo in New York and one in Milan. She's got some amazing investors and I think she's the one who's making the most money. She's assured us that she's

I see Allison's clothing often as she designs most of what Elizabeth wears. My daughter is always on the go - but her husband Zach Barnow is around. They Yes, Mike Barnow is almost officially part of the family and Elizabeth isn't sure how she's going to survive having Mike B and Will picking on her all the time, but she says it makes sense because they have been driving her crazy for a long time. I see it. We are excited about their upcoming wedding in a few months.

Jason is a teacher at a public middle school. Says he figured it out and wants to help young kids with such a chip on their shoulders figure out their own lives and not make some of the same boneheaded choices he did. He might want to be a professor someday but for now he's happy to teach English and History to young teens and enjoy time with his family and friends on the weekends. He's new to the job- it's his second year, but he's grown so handsome and mature it's unreal to us.

Elizabeth and I are so blessed. These kids of ours who we were sure we had messed up - well they have grown to be even better people than we could have imagined.

That's the holy grail. That's the golden ring. Happy secure kids who want to help others, and they don't fight much at all. Apparently it's way more fun to gang up on Mom and Dad and surprise us with their joy.

It's amazing to think that only a few years ago we thought they were going to live at home forever, that Noodle would be sewing in her room for years and serial dating , and that Stevie was headed for a life as a college dropout who was flaming out. . We also worried that Jason would be living with us until he was forty because we had to ground him for life.

They all figured it out and they have all come to their mother and me and thanked us for our parenting.

Being a husband, a dad, a father in law and now a grandpa.

Best jobs I will ever have. The ones that count.

TBC