Becoming a brand new father always comes with a bit of worry about your baby, but having a newborn during a pandemic came with some extra stress for Calvin Monley. The new father said the experience with COVID-19 was a little more terrifying as he tried to protect his baby girl.
“I made this bold pronouncement to my wife that I would no longer be going to work,” Monley said. “It was either that or I was going to have to move into the garage to protect them.”
Monley began working at home, like many others, and his little family unit remained locked in the house for days.
The new father admits he began to fall in love with his baby from the moment he and his wife, Jennifer, saw the two pink stripes on the pregnancy test. Monley knew intellectually his wife was pregnant, but then the emotions caught up as reality sank in. His love for that baby grew with each ultrasound, well before Edith, named after the Catholic St. Edith Stein, was born in late January.
As a Catholic, Monley said he was taught to live his life with the Agape love — the Greek word for the highest love — that gives unconditionally like God loves us. He understood that ideal love as he attended Bible study at Our Lady of Lourdes and he understood it as he felt the love he has for his wife. But that sense of meaning intensified once Edith was born. Monley saw, for himself, a new level of Agape.
This new perspective came with a new respect for his own father and the sacrifices he made for his family.
“Life raising kids comes with so much worry and responsibility year after year,” Monley said.
The new dad isn’t sure how he’s going to spend his first Father’s Day, but he said it will certainly include big thank yous to his own father.
Check with your own parish website to identify resources available to you for enriching your Catholic family:
All resources available to you as a Catholic are supported by the Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal. Please consider donating to support programs for families and young dads like Monley.
