At the beginning of April, our family welcomed our son, Grant Nile McLaughlin, into the world. Thanks to the incredible team at Harvest Point®, I was fortunate enough to take two weeks of paternity leave to help with the adjustment. Those two weeks were many things: sweet, challenging, memorable, eye-opening, humbling, and—as you might imagine—exhausting. With three daughters and now a newborn son in the house, I never knew it was possible to have so much fun yet simultaneously be so exhausted!
As I sit back and reflect, I’m filled with gratitude. I’m grateful to God for blessing us with another child and the privilege of getting to watch our daughters interact with him. I’m grateful to my loving wife, Laura, for being the strongest person I know. Her resilience and nurturing nature never cease to amaze me, and she is constantly sacrificing for her family. And I am grateful to the Harvest Point® team for rising to the occasion (yet again) to allow me the margin to be at home for a couple weeks.
So, what did those 14 days inside the McLaughlin household look like?
Glorious Chaos
Picture it: It's Day 5, and I'm fairly certain in that particular moment all three daughters were wiping something different on me—snot, yogurt, drool, you get the picture. All I could do was laugh. It was then that I knew I was in the thick of it. I felt a little bit like the guy below, but regardless of how taxing it may have been, I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Or click here to watch.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: my wife, Laura, has the hardest job on the planet! My constituents at the office are not nearly as loud or energetic as my 3 daughters, who are all under the age of 5. In all seriousness, Laura is the anchor of our home and the heart behind every moment of peace and order in our chaos. We’d be in trouble without her!
Having three daughters, as you might imagine, means that the nursery has always been filled with flowers, glitter, dolls, and the color pink. I took the liberty of decorating our son’s nursery one day and, much to Laura’s chagrin, filled it with all of my old sports memorabilia. “Why does Grant need a Michael Jordan plaque?” Totally satisfying. No flowers. No glitter. No pink. It's a “little” man cave, an oasis amidst a pink paradise.
By the Numbers: Fatherhood Edition
Here’s a lighthearted snapshot of how we fared for those 14 days:
I Said What?
Kids say the darnedest things. We all know that. But they also have a funny way of making you say some unusual things. After not too long, I began recording some of the strange things that came out of my mouth thanks to their unusual antics.
- “Don’t put your hair in the toilet.”
- “Stop biting her toe!”
- “Why would you try to bite her tongue?”
- “Stop rubbing Vaseline on the window.”
- “Is that chocolate or poop?”
- “Did you just wipe your nose on the window screen?”
- “Are you licking your ankle?”
- “Don’t put your pen in your yogurt.”
- “Do not put peanut butter in your sister’s hair.”
Startling Silence
Returning to my office, the silence was rather jarring. No squeals, no giggles, no yelling about who took whose imaginary unicorn. The volume shift was real. So much so, that I asked Cameron Jensen, Client Service Specialist, to stop in my office periodically to scream and yell for the first few days after I had returned just so I could ease my way back in. I felt right at home.
A Final Word of Gratitude
To my wife Laura: You are remarkable. Tireless. Grace-filled. A living picture of Proverbs 31. Thank you for your love and for doing the hard work of mothering with joy and endurance.
To our Harvest Point® team: You showed up, as always, and kept our mission moving forward. I’m so thankful for your reliability and excellence as we serve our wonderful clients.
To our clients: Thank you for your grace and for journeying with me—not just in finances, but in life. So many of you reached out with kind words to celebrate with us. Hopefully this short reflection brought you a smile or a laugh. If it weren’t for you, Harvest Point® would cease to exist.
To God be the glory—He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Even the sticky ones.
P.S. Single Parents are Superheroes
One final reflection from paternity leave: it would be so difficult to be a single parent, especially of multiple children. Some of you are single parents. Some of you came from homes with single parents. As you think about your 2025 gifting, you might consider supporting organizations that support single parents. They carry a load that most of us can’t imagine. And if nothing else, offer a kind word, a prayer, or even a warm meal.
With joy and grateful exhaustion,
Tim