Our oldest son, Jason Paul Salazar, has a birthday today. Jason was our "patriotic" baby, born in the year of our country's 200th birthday. We still have his highchair, with "1776-1976" on the back of it.
Jason got a lot of his great qualities from his grandparents. Creativity and orderliness from the Ferrin side and a hard work ethic and determination from the Salazar side. He has his mom's outgoing personality and his father's common sense. Somewhere along the line he became an athlete and I'm not sure where that came from. From very little, Jason could be found keeping rhythm on anything available. Pillows, pots and pans, toys, etc. He also always had a baseball hat on. I suspect that today, he has on a Giants World Series Champions hat on. Being raised in the Bay Area of California, he and his brother are die hard Giants and 49ers fan. It was a great pre-birthday present to have the 49ers win the NFC Championship yesterday and advance to the Super Bowl.
Jason's determination was demonstrated when he was in 9th grade. That summer we all attended our denomination's national conference in Portland, Oregon. All of the Assemblies of God colleges and universities had booths in the exhibit area. Jason spent a lot of time in those booths and he came away from that conference with the determination to attend Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. Not only did he graduate from Evangel, he is one year away from becoming a tenured professor of music at that same university. His creativity showed very early and in his senior year he won a national PTA award for an original composition that he composed, scored and recorded. When Jason was in high school, I attended Denver University for a semester to learn how to use brand new music software, Finale. I would come home and show Jason what I had learned and he learned along with me. Today he uses Finale with many of his composing clients, teaches it at the university, and helps his dad with technical support when I need it. (His skill level and understanding of the program passed mine years ago) I suspect he gets a lot of tech support calls.
Jason is a husband, (he married a wonderful young lady, Jennie), and a father to three great children, (Josie was adopted from Haiti three years ago). He is the kind of child that parents thank God every day for. His mom and I are amazed at his creativity. (How do you hear a full orchestra in your head, put all the parts down on a computer, print them all and then have a full orchestra play your score?) While we are proud of all the work he has done to this point for so many diverse clients, I know one day he'll call and tell us that he's going to be working on a major film score. And he'll do that while spending time with his with, taking time to coach his son's teams, going to their concerts and plays, and taking care of all the things that need to be done around his home. (Did I mention he'll be starting a PhD sometime soon?)
So Jason, enjoy your day, enjoy this year, and many more years to come. Your mom and I are amazed at the wonderful gift that God entrusted to us 37 years ago. We can't wait to see what He does in you, and through you in the years to come.
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