It was the night before everything changed.
We were sitting on the front porch—
the way you do when the evening is just right
and the world feels like it’s holding still for a moment.
I had four days of IBM Project Management certification coming up.
The kind of thing you plan for.
Schedule around.
Look forward to.
And somewhere in the easy conversation
of that quiet evening,
I looked at my very pregnant wife
and said what any reasonable person would say:
“Just don’t go into labor, okay?”
We laughed.
She went into labor the next morning.
The Interruption That Changed Everything
28 weeks.
Two babies who decided the world was worth arriving early for—
whether the world was ready or not.
Two months in the hospital.
Two tiny fighters in isolettes
doing the hard, quiet work of becoming.
The certification never happened.
The plan went out the window.
And life—our life—
went in a direction I never could have mapped, scheduled,
or managed my way into.
Tomorrow, those two “too early” babies turn 21.
And I’ve been sitting with that this morning—
the way you sit with something
that’s too big for one feeling.
Because here’s what I know now
that I didn’t know on that porch:
The interruption was the invitation.
The moment my plan fell apart
was the moment something far better
and far more important
took its place.
When Plans Fall Apart
I didn’t lose a certification.
I gained a front-row seat
to one of the greatest miracles
I will ever witness.
That’s what this is about.
Not the plan.
Not the certification.
Not the life you thought you were building
on a quiet evening on the porch.
It’s about what happens
when life arrives early—
uninvited, unscheduled, and completely, utterly on time.
It’s about the exhaustion of trying to keep up
with a script that was never yours to write.
It’s about the grace that steps in
when the plan steps out.
It’s about two people—who showed up before anyone expected them
and changed everything.
The Love That Holds It All Together
Romans 8:38-39 says that nothing—
nothing—
can separate us from the love of God.
Not the plans that fall apart.
Not the certifications that never happen.
Not the labor that starts too soon.
Not even the nights you spend
in a hospital hallway
wondering if everything is going to be okay.
It was going to be okay.
Better than okay.
A Friday Reminder
Go hug your interruptions.
They might be the best thing
that ever happened to you.
Happy Friday. Autism Awareness month is April but year round at our home.
— The Editor
P.S. Happy 21st birthday to my two favorite reasons
I never finished that certification.
Best trade I ever made.