“Day of Arrival” is one of those songs where I had to look backward and try to imagine a moment through someone else's eyes.
The someone was Darice.
The moment was when we learned we were going to become parents.
I can't tell you exactly what was going through her mind that day. Only Darice can do that. But I remember the excitement, the uncertainty, the surprise, and that strange realization that life as we knew it was about to change forever.
There was a baby coming.
Our baby.
And that baby was Louie.
The next, you discover the future has a name.
Before you become a parent, you can wonder what it might be like. You can imagine holding that child, watching them grow, teaching them, protecting them and wondering who they'll someday become.
But imagination and reality are two very different things.
Suddenly there is a little person coming into the world who doesn't know anything about you yet, but somehow already owns a piece of your heart.
That's the feeling I wanted “Day of Arrival” to capture.
The day has come.
Here's our keeper.
I love that word, keeper. Because that's exactly what he was.
The artwork carries an important part of the story too. Darice, Louie and Nana represent more than three people in a picture. They represent generations of a family, with a new little life arriving right in the middle of it.
Of course, when you're standing at the beginning, you have no idea where that little life is going.
You don't know about the birthdays yet. The scraped knees. The laughter. The arguments. The proud moments. The sleepless nights. The phone calls. Or all the years that will somehow disappear much faster than you ever thought possible.
You simply know:
And he's ours.
Years later, that little baby isn't little anymore. But there's something funny about being a parent.
No matter how old your child becomes, some part of you can still see the baby you once held in your arms.
That's why one line in this song means so much to me:
Louie has grown into his own man, built his own life and followed his own path. But somewhere inside the people who loved him from the beginning, that little boy never completely disappears.
“Day of Arrival” isn't only about the day a baby arrives.
It's about the day an entirely new future arrives with him.
Before that moment, you were two people wondering what life might bring.
Then suddenly there were three.
And everything changed.
And from that day forward...