In celebration of Father’s Day, Lynne is joined by Consumers Multimedia Production Specialist and new twin dad, Jake Esselink to talk about his experience as a new father and the values he hopes to instill in his children.

 

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0:00:08.1 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness to fatherhood, we have it all. And today we are talking to a brand-new father. If they’re under a year, and I did say the word they, if they’re under a year, it counts as a brand-new father. Jake Esselink is joining us today. He is our videographer. You know what? He’s our producer here on Money I’m Home. Jake, thanks for being with us today.

0:00:36.7 Jake Esselink: No problem. Thanks for having me on. It’s a little weird being on the other side.

0:00:40.0 LJJ: I was just going to ask you that [laughter], you’re a fabulous editor and videographer for us, and you know what, I have known you for years now, and I just want to share with our audience, you don’t really know what goes on behind the scenes here at Consumers Credit Union, and we always talk about our family. Well, Jake, he surprised us all. You surprised us in a marketing meeting and it was absolutely spectacular. Tell us about what happened when you told us you were going to be a dad.

0:01:10.8 JE: Yeah, I believe it was actually a marketing meeting, marketing Christmas party. We took care of business first.

[laughter]

0:01:17.1 JE: Then we started our Christmas party and I had told everybody, everybody knew that we were having a kid, and I said, I’m going to put a little gender reveal. We had just found out the night before our party what the gender was. And I said, whoever opens up my gift, I’ll hide it in there. We did the little white elephant gift exchange. And so, I got the opportunity to put a card in there that said, “It’s a boy.” But not only did I put one card in there, I was able to put two cards in there and they both said, “It’s a boy.” Me and my wife were just about as surprised as the team was to find out that not only was it one boy, it was two. So, it was quite the day for us, quite the 24 hours. And our team was actually some of the first to know besides our family.

0:02:02.7 LJJ: Well, we are family Jake, and you and Sara are just the best parents. The boys are now 10 months already, which is crazy. But really, when you look at it, here you are a new father, a new mom, and it’s Father’s Day weekend. Tell me a little bit about what you felt when you found out you were having twins because you had already been to one session, right?

0:02:31.1 JE: Yeah, we had actually already had a couple ultrasounds and there was definitely only one. I’m no medical expert, but I’ve learned a lot about twins in the last 10 months with them and the nine or so months before then. And we actually did the 4D ultrasound. So, it’s a little bit of a extra thing you can do. You get to find out what the gender is a little bit early and you can take a couple extra people with you. So, we decided to take both of our moms. We thought that might be a little special. It was the first grandkid on each side. And she put the ultrasound thing on my wife’s belly and she said, “you know you’re having twins, right?” And we looked at her, I kid you not, we looked at her and we laughed. We said, “you’re so funny. That’s what you tell everybody, isn’t it?” And she goes “No,” she goes “you see that round thing that’s a head and you see that other round thing right next to it? That’s another.” So, we were pretty shocked. The plan was always to have two kids. We just got it done on the first try, I guess. It would’ve been maybe a little bit of a different story if we had already had one and then we had another two, we would’ve ended up with a Lynne size family maybe.

[laughter]

0:03:37.8 LJJ: Close, halfway there, Jake.

[laughter]

0:03:40.3 JE: Halfway there. But yeah, so we were pretty shocked, but it was cool. We kind of at the time underestimated all the work that goes into not only one, but two, but hey, we’re figuring it out as we go.

0:03:53.4 LJJ: Well, your moms were there, as you just said, and I can’t even imagine how incredible they must have experienced this with you, and now 10 months later looking back how important family is.

0:04:09.8 JE: Oh yeah, we definitely shared the joy with them. There were some tears of happiness for sure and maybe some tears of fear from the parents that night. But ultimately, I think it was a really, really good thing that they were there for us that night. We had thought that me and my wife were going to go out to dinner after we had found out what the gender was. Just me and my wife, we thought it’d maybe be a special thing, but once the surprise went away, the freaking out started a little bit and we’re like, you know what? You guys better come to dinner with us because I don’t know what we’ll talk about. We might have just sat there in silence [laughter] if we didn’t have them with us trying to figure out what we had gotten ourselves into. [laughter]

0:04:49.2 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you, they’re beautiful boys. So, tell us a little bit about the whole experience. I mean, here we are coming off of COVID and Sara is a nurse, A, she’s very, very smart about her own body and about what’s going on. But seriously, the unknown of everything that happened, Jake. I give you guys such great kudos for always having that positive energy about the boys.

0:05:14.3 JE: Yeah. With Sara being a nurse, and not only a nurse, but specializing in babies, she was kind of in one of those situations where she almost knew too much. [laughter] She knew all the risks and everything that were associated not only with pregnancy, but especially with twins. And without going into too much medical detail, our pregnancy was considered a high-risk pregnancy the whole time. Our babies had, they were what they called mono di twins, where they each had their own sac around them, but they shared a placenta. And so, we had a little bit of a long journey, that’s for sure. We were had a lot of doctor’s appointments in the 9 months leading up. But my wife did a great job with her pregnancy and taking care of herself and made it, got induced at 37 weeks, which is pretty remarkable with any twins, let alone the circumstance that we were in. We figured it out and it was definitely a blessing with the flexibility that we have here at Consumers and being able to be there for her through all those doctor’s appointments and being able to be part of all those. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, not only for my own sanity, but just being there for my wife and my family, too. That really meant a lot. And having that opportunity to do that was great.

0:06:28.2 LJJ: I just saw a picture of them and we’re going to actually, hopefully, have a picture in our podcast cover, if you don’t mind there, Jake.

0:06:36.4 JE: Sure.

0:06:37.0 LJJ: But Luke and James, tell me a little bit about, close your eyes a second, Jake, and go back to like your own growing up and now that you’re a dad. And here it is, Father’s Day weekend. Tell me a little bit about how you’re feeling. It’s got to be just something almost surreal with the two.

0:06:56.0 JE: My wife got to do it obviously a few weeks ago with Mother’s Day and I tried to make that as special as I could for her with the boys being little and it was great. And knowing Father’s Day was coming up, I was like, “This’ll be fun, when it’s Father’s Day I’ll get to do the same thing with the boys.” But it really doesn’t set in until it’s here, pretty much here. And we start making plans of what we’re going to do that day. And I love boating and I love fishing as you know so we’re going to take the boys out on the boat with our family, the grandparents, my dad, and I think that’s kind of one of the things that I’m really looking forward to because growing up as a kid, like you said, we used to go camping every year up north. My dad’s dad lived up in Roscommon so we used to go camping up there every year. And we got to spend… I got to spend Father’s Day, not only with my dad, but with my dad’s dad and my grandpa. And he’s not around anymore. But I think it’s super special and I hope we get to start that same tradition where my boys growing up will not only get to spend Father’s Day with their dad, but my dad too. And so, I’m really excited to keep that tradition going. It looks a little bit different. We’re not up north and we’re not camping, but maybe the boat will be our every Father’s Day weekend thing.

0:08:11.0 LJJ: Obviously traditions are very important to you, are there other traditions that you want to start with your boys, or what do you think you want to instill in them as they grow older?

0:08:23.1 JE: When you say traditions, the first thing that comes to my mind that we actually already got to do with our boys, this will make you laugh. I remember going back when I first got out of school and me and my wife, or girlfriend at the time, my wife now Sara, we had our first apartment and we put up our first Christmas tree. And for whatever reason, we had said for the last few weeks before we had put up our Christmas tree, we want to make corn dogs. And so we happened to make those homemade corn dogs, busted out the deep fryer as we were putting up the Christmas tree. And we laughed about it because corn dogs and Christmas, I don’t know, it was just funny. [laughter] But we said, this is going to be our new tradition and one day we’re going to do this with our kids. And that was probably about five, six years ago and me and my wife have done that every year. And this year was the first year we got to do that with our kids. We did corn dogs and Christmas trees. I’m sure that’ll be something that’ll last a lifetime.

0:09:22.4 LJJ: Okay. I have to ask a question because it’s really important, especially with Consumers. Have you started their savings accounts?

0:09:30.3 JE: Yeah, we started their savings accounts, man, I want to say when they were only a few weeks old. I will admit they did not come in to open them with me. Yeah, as soon as we got those social security cards in the mail we did, we opened those savings accounts.

0:09:46.2 LJJ: That is amazing. What are the things that… The values that you want to instill in Luke and James?

0:09:52.8 JE: I grew up very close to my parents and my father and I think that’s probably one of the most important things that I want to make sure I pass on to my kids that was passed on to me. My dad, I call him pretty much every day. He is probably sick of me by now, actually. That’s one of the biggest things I want to make sure that my kids know growing up, is that they have someone who is a phone call away no matter how far away they might be to… Not just me but Sara, too, two parents that that will always be there for them no matter what. That’s one of the most important things that my parents made sure I knew and one of the most important things I want to make sure my kids know as they grow up.

0:10:35.3 LJJ: Well, you’re going to have a such a great ride. Let me tell you. [laughter] Well Jake, congratulations to you on this Father’s Day, to you and Sara for being amazing parents every single day. Your families too, and the Consumers family. We’re just so excited to have talked to you today. Give those babes a hug for us, would you?

0:10:55.6 JE: Will do, will do. Definitely.

0:10:57.7 LJJ: Thanks so much for joining us. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. Hey, Jake Esselink, who you just heard from, thank you so much for your editing skills. I hope everybody has the most fabulous Father’s Day. If you can pick the phone up, give your father a call, your father-in-law, or maybe your son or just somebody that you just want to share a little love with because I’ll tell you what, they are the backbone of what all of us bring to the table every single day. And it’s families like Jake and Sara that grind it out every day with twins and your family too. Happy Father’s Day from Consumers Credit Union.

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