Bucs pitcher on the 'pure joy' in his life

This story was excerpted from Justice delos Santos’ Pirates Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MLB.com: How would you describe the feeling of being a dad?
Chris Stratton: Personally, I think it’s the best thing in the world. You always hear your parents say stuff like, "I love you more than you know." You don’t really understand it until you have your own.

When my son was born, it was a life-changing kind of deal. I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew I’d love him, but I didn’t know I’d love him that much. You almost feel like you don’t have any more love for anybody else besides your wife and your son -- and then you have two more kids.

When me and my wife first tried to have kids, it took us a little bit to have one. We considered adoption. We’ve always wanted to be parents, and it’s truly one of the best things.

MLB.com: Can you elaborate if you’re comfortable doing so?
Stratton: Me and my wife married pretty young. We met in high school. It's one of those things like when you know, you know. Fortunately, and unfortunately, we were in high school, so we had to wait a while for marriage. We finally decided that we want to have kids. The first year, it was an "if it happens, it happens" kind of deal. The second year, we tried to plan it out and have kids. Just a lot of disappointing moments, especially for my wife. The only thing she’s ever wanted is to be a mom. She wasn’t working at the time. She was just going place to place with me, so just trying to find that purpose. It was a really, really challenging time for us. I know that there’s a lot of people out there who go through the same thing.

We went to the FedEx store in Sacramento when I was in Triple-A [with the Giants] and printed out all the adoption papers. We’ve had some family friends who have adopted before and had really good experiences with it. We were like, "All right, let’s fill out the paperwork tomorrow." We slept on it. The next day, my wife found out she was pregnant. It was kind of crazy that it happened like that. It was actually the day before my birthday.

I’m a Christian, and I believe God does things for certain reasons. Certain situations happen in life, and you see how you respond to them. I think that we were faithful in pursuing the adoption process. I think that if it’s adoption later on in life, I think that’s something that me and my wife can really see ourselves doing.

MLB.com: You mentioned that it took a couple years for your wife to become pregnant. What was your reaction?
Stratton: Disbelief, excitement, all the things that you would imagine you hear. I think she found out in the morning. She was acting a little weird before I went to the field. That night, we actually went into extra innings. She’s like, "Hurry up and get home. I'm ready to see you." My wife hates surprises and doesn’t want to keep anything from me. She ended up telling me that night. It was pure joy, equally the same with the other two that I’ve had. I think our second one, my wife just blurted it out after it happened.