8 Months!

8 months!

7 months

6 months

5 months old

4 months old

3 months old

2 months old

1 month old

2 weeks old

Dear Victor Albert,

You are 8 months old today. Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Victor Watter's death, whom you were named after. And that makes me think about the most important things in life.

One year ago today, this is what Victor's dad wrote on his Caringbridge site:

Written Sep 6, 2011 7:54am

Brian and I sat with Victor until 2:30 a.m. before finally giving in to our own need for some sleep. Victor awoke briefly to move around a little bit and to mumble "Dad" a couple of times under his mask, but he couldn't get anything more out ... words to treasure.

His breathing continues this morning, albeit 15 or more seconds between breaths. The whirr of the oxygen machine continues ...


You are getting to be such a big boy. So vibrant and strong and curious. You are exploring and expressing new things every day, it seems. And we are getting glimpses of the stubborn self-will you have inherited from your parents.

That's the problem, Victor. And without help, there would be no reason for you or anybody else to be named "Victor," because we would all be enslaved and defeated by sin.

But God sent a Hero. Stronger than Superman and more clever than Sherlock Holmes. And He did not just claim His kingdom ... He lived perfectly and died to ransom a captive people and make them sons and heirs.

That's the reason we call you Victor. Because Christ won the victory over sin and death. And how we pray, daily we pray, that His victory will be yours through faith.

This week, our church is memorizing probably the most beloved and well-known verse in the Bible:

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.--John 3:16

The Father gave the Son. And through the Holy Spirit, we may believe and cry, "Abba, Father!" Oh, may those words ring in your heart throughout your life and in your very last day, whenever it is.

You are so precious to us, Victor Albert,

Momma and Daddy