This message has nothing to do with Specialty Box & Packaging and it has everything to do with Specialty Box & Packaging.
On May 30, my birthday, (the very day I sent my last blog) my mobile phone yelled at me while I was watching my 16 year old son Luke play baseball.I answered only because it was my wife Jennie. Good thing I did.
"Eric," she said with concern her voice."
Baby, what's wrong?"
"Eric, I think my water just broke."
It was six weeks before Sammy was due so I sprinted (ok, I'm 48 and not in the best shape of my life so sprinting may be an overstatement) to my car and hurried home. The doctor advised that we hustle to the hospital. That night we learned that Jennie would have a C-section to deliver our son prematurely.
Two days later on June 1, Samuel George joined both the Fialkoff and Specialty Box families.
Despite being six weeks early (as of this writing we are still 9 days from his due date) Sam, thank God, was a very healthy and very tiny (5 lb. 6 oz) baby. While he never required breathing assistance (his lung development was of great concern to our doctors), he did need to spend his first portion of life in the NICU of Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan (we are so grateful for the personal, compassionate and skilled care we received). Thank you for all of you who became aware of our story and offered kind words and prayers. The outpouring of kindness was overwhelming.
Inspired by my oldest son Nathan (who, one day after his brother's birth, with family in town from Florida and New York, delivered a funny, poignant and non-cliche valedictorian speech), I decided to grow a Sammy beard!
My itchy face fuzz which (as you can see) added decades to my appearance, would not be removed until Sammy came home.
I shaved the evening of Saturday June 17 and Sammy spent his first full day at home on Father's Day. Boy does this kid have a flare for the dramatic!
Like all of you (I hope), I don't live to work. I don't earn money so that I have more. I live, earn and yearn for times like these; for time where people connect with people. Isn't that what makes work worth the effort?
Oh, and Sammy told me to tell you that he says hello.