I have always been a self-proclaimed Daddy's girl. For those of you who know me well, this has never come as a surprise. My dad never called me his princess. He never coddled me and gave me everything I wanted (although he was really close sometimes). I always felt like he wanted my sister and I do be able to do it ourselves, to know the thrill of accomplishment that you can only know after working hard and relishing the rewards. He instilled in me a confidence and determination that no crown, color of pink, or title could ever give me. He made me self-
reliant and repeatedly reminded me that the only men I ever truly needed was my Heavenly Father and him. He was not naive enough to believe that I would never fall in love and marry, in fact, I knew that he and my mother prayed for my future husband often. But being young, I held tightly to my dad and I knew that while most girls were looking for a man who was just like their dad, I didn't have too, I was just like mine. I would need a spouse with a warrior heart capable of loving me, someone just like my mother. As a child and even until I graduated high school, early Saturday mornings were spent with my father and I sneaking out of our house and driving twenty minutes to the nearest McDonald's for juice and an egg
mcmuffin. No matter how late I stayed out with my friends on Friday nights, Saturday mornings were reserved for dad. During those car rides we would talk about everything: school, boys, life, college, and amazing stories about when my dad was kid. I have never forgot those mornings. They are amazing jewels of childhood that I remember fondly.
When Le and I started this adoption journey, there were four people that I knew would be supportive to the end and our biggest cheerleaders and while Le and I were striving to have two additional titles added to our names, each of those esteemed members of our lives had earned the title of "mom" and "dad" without fail.
This
Saturday morning, as I sat in my office and looked out my window, dreaming of how mother's day suddenly was not just a Hallmark-holiday, a face appeared, my dad's face! He had come to see me, just to hang out and talk (I couldn't hear him knocking on the front door, so he had to knock on my window). As we spent the morning telling stories, jokes and updating each other on the past week's activities, he said something that struck me. He said that when he was in the throes of Vietnam and losing friends every week, he wondered why God had let him live when so many others died and he believed that he could never change the world. And he had never received an answer until a few weeks ago. My dad's purpose was his three children, because of what we were going to accomplish and by bringing us into the world, he had prepared us to complete our own purposes for the Lord. Dad-no one else may ever know, but you have changed MY world and made all the difference in MY life. Because of your strength and guidance, along with mom's soft heart, your grandchildren will know that it is because of YOU that they are here and that means more to me than you will ever know.
Tomorrow may be set aside to mothers, but for me, Saturdays will always be reserved for DAD!
I love you!
