Dads in the Limelight – Adam Morris

Hey! My name is Adam Morris.

I am a pastor in Louisiana where I primarily work with kids and their parents. I am also a blogger. I mostly write about Down syndrome awareness from the perspective of a young father with a son who happens to have an extra chromosome.

I’m originally from northern Colorado, so I am a big fan of the Denver Broncos, the outdoors, and cold weather. I love Louisiana, but, it’s pretty short on at least a couple of those things. It’s ok, though. There is no comparing when it comes to Cajun cuisine.

My wife and I have been married for 4 years. We welcomed our son in January of 2016. He has Down syndrome, and we love that about him.

Your child needs to see you model your life well. Your relationships and how you live in them will impact your child’s relationships and how they are lived. Prioritize things to show your child what is truly important. If you make life all about work and neglect your marriage and kids, you may be able to buy them nice things, but you will be trading what is truly important for some stuff that won’t last.

It’s something that I am still working on (and probably won’t ever truly master). I will say that I have come to see that a lot of things I used to think were important really don’t matter as much as I thought. My family is more important. So it’s ok (and even necessary) to cut out some things for the good of your family. You can’t do it all. Do the important stuff right.

That my wife is the most important human relationship that I have in life. She is even more important than my son. If I want to love him well, I better love him second. Cultivating a lasting relationship with my wife will make me a better person, which will actually make me a better dad.

One of the most memorable experiences since my son’s birth is one that I didn’t actually take a picture of. I was tempted to, but I decided to just let it happen rather than it be interrupted for what would have been an awesome picture. We were at church early one week when one of the older men in our congregation went to my wife and asked if he could hold our son. He took him back to the pew where he was sitting with some of his friends (all of them over 70 years old), where the group spent time playing with my son like he belonged to their family. As a pastor, that meant a lot, but as a member of this faith community, it meant even more. This is not just the church family of me and my wife. This is also my son’s family. His faith community, where he was been welcomed since before he was born. Raising my son in the context of a faith family, united in our belief in Christ, has certainly made this such a rich experience. I may not actually know much about being a dad, but I do know some 70-80 year old men and women who have all the wisdom that I could ever need. They are there to cheer my wife and me on, and to help us along the way.