Chapter 28: Josiah

On March 22, 2002 Nancy and I had our first child. We named him Josiah Luke Piva, however, for two days his name was Josiah James Piva. We had Josiah on a Friday, shortly after midnight, and registered his name as Josiah James Piva. On Sunday I went to church and announced the news to our congregation. Immediately after the service I was flooded with members referring to our new baby as “J.J.” Nancy was horrified. She was adamant that her child was not going to go through life with the nickname J.J. She sent me back to the hospital to find his birth registration and change his name. Fortunately it was the weekend and none of the paperwork had been sent off. After finding it, I crossed off the name “James” and replace it with “Luke.” (James would eventually be given to his younger brother). Nancy and I specifically picked an Old and New Testament name for our boys to reflect our faith and our desire for them to become followers of Jesus. We do not expect them to walk with Jesus exactly as we do, or to share all our views, but that they become close to Jesus is important to us.    

               At about fourteen months Josiah began walking and the first clear word out of his mouth was “ball.” His new ability to pull himself up also resulted in his first accident. It happened while I was sitting on the toilet. He and I were at home alone and I thought I could leave him out of my sight for a couple of minutes while I took care of a pressing matter. No sooner had I got into a comfortable position than I heard a crash come from his room. It scared the proverbial crap out of me, although this time it wasn’t proverbial! Quickly pulling up my pants I ran into his room to discover that he’d pulled down his dresser upon himself. The ornaments that had been on top had shattered on the ground and from underneath the dresser I could hear his muffled crying. Horrified as to how I might find him, I lifted the dresser off of him as carefully as possible. There he was, covered in the blankets that had fallen out of the drawers that had opened up as the dresser came down. He happened to end up in an open section and didn’t even receive a scratch. I quickly thanked God and then thought of how I would explain this to Nancy. I spent the rest of the afternoon screwing down everything in the house, after I’d finished what I set out to do in the bathroom with Josiah sitting right in front of me! (Sorry Josiah, I know that wasn’t the most pleasant place for you, but I had to keep my eyes on you – consider it payback for all your stinky diapers!)  

               It’s been important for me to develop a relationship with each of my kids. When Josiah turned eight I started something with him that I have begun with each of my kids at that age. We call it “Day out with Dad.” Once a month I take each one out for some one-on-one time. We may go to Starbucks or McDonald’s. We may take in a Vancouver Whitecaps soccer game. We may watch a movie together. I’ve gone through all the Star Wars movies with my boys this way.

Being the oldest myself I can relate to some of the burdens and privileges that come from being a firstborn. Our move to Vancouver was probably most difficult for Josiah as he had more ties to his Edmonton school friends than his younger brother and sister. The first couple of months in his new school found Josiah a bit out of sorts. On one occasion a teacher called him over on the playground and, even though he wasn’t doing anything wrong, he got scared and ran away. That then did get him in trouble. On another occasion he carved up his desk with a pair of scissors and, after being called down to the principal’s office, ended up having to pay for a new desktop. 

               Josiah enjoys reading, especially Archie Comics, Amulet graphic novels and Harry Potter. He also creates his own books. He’s been working on one for about four years now entitled The Adventures of Eipo and Peipo versus the Big Bad Josiah and Micah. It’s fun to watch his spelling improve as the book goes on and he gets older. Josiah also enjoys creating his own Pokémon cards, playing soccer, jumping on the trampoline, hanging out with his friends and mastering video games.

We are pretty open about things as a family. Around the dinner table we talk about growing up, friends, the news, Africa and sex. After supper we are currently reading a book of theology and a modern English version of Pilgrim’s Progress for preteens. This allows us to get into some great conversations about things like the trinity and God’s eternal nature. Josiah and I have also read and discussed books together on the Apostle’s Creed and the Ten Commandments, which I plan to do with the others when they get older.

As I watch Josiah enter his teenage years I am excited for him and his future. Even though the teen years are not always easy, they can be so fun and full of lasting memories. I am Josiah’s biggest fan. I love him more than my own life.

Josiah, I know you will not always feel like talking to me in the years to come, but let’s keep up our “day out with dad” and know that you can talk to me anytime, anywhere about anything, whether it is, good, bad or ugly, I’ll walk with you and we will get through it together. I love you.

Question: Share a story about your first born or, if you are a first born, share a story about being a first born.