
From his wife, Emma: Sterling is an amazing father! From the moment he met his daughter, 3 hours after birth, he has been the most loving, kind, and supportive husband an AP mom could ask for. You see, he missed the birth because he and I decided that we wanted to have our baby in the only free standing birth center in the state of New Mexico instead of a hospital. The center happens to be around 200 miles from our home, and that can be a tough drive while in labor. So while he stayed home and worked, I lived with my parents who live much closer to the birth center.
My labor was amazingly short for a first time mom and I ended up with an unassisted home birth and a post-partum hemorrhage. I was transferred to the local hospital after the birth and that is where Sterling met his daughter for the first time. I was so weak from the blood loss that I was not allowed to get out of my hospital bed. Sterling stepped up from the moment he arrived. He changed diapers, he helped me learn to nurse, and he stayed with us and watched over our baby when I was too exhausted to keep my eyes open.
Sterling currently works 300 miles away from home. He sacrifices spending time with his family to make a good life for us. The distance that his job requires is hard on all three of us, but it does not make him any less supportive of the parenting choices that we have made. When he comes home on weekends he cannot be separated from our daughter. He often speaks about the kind of father that he wants to become and the goals that he has set for himself as the head of our household.