Happy Father's Day

My Dad!  How I love him!  We share so many traits. 

My mom always told me how after having 3 girls, I was born.  She gasped.  Could it be?  She stared at me...I was a perfect miniature of my dad.  Yes!

Then the doctor proclaimed, "It's a girl." 

No...how could it be?  I looked just like him.  She checked just to be sure.  Yep. The doctor was right.  

Then she cried.

Why?  I'm not for sure.  Was she really wanting a boy?  Did I look so much like a boy she was worried?  I don't know.  I'm afraid to ask.

So yes, I share my dad's nose, his grin, his short eyelashes, his determination, his optimism, his ability to dream, his hard work, his ability to teach, his love for his family. 

I didn't just have a father, though. I had a daddy.  We would beg my dad to play "throw us out the window."  He'd scoop us up and in a spinning motion pretend to, you guessed it, throw us out the window.  With each swoop toward the window, he would count...1, 2...on 3 he spun us around in a big circle while saying "whee."

He also spent time with us.  He often came up to the house to ask for volunteers to check oil with him.  My sister, Carla, and I would carry oil cans back and forth between the trucks and refilling them in the garage.  I remember him unlatching the side of the hoods of his R-Model Mack trucks and telling us to see if we could pull it down by ourselves.  Yes, of course, my strong, younger sister, Carla could.  I remember struggling with my hood and watching as my dad pushed just a little so I could, too.

My Dad!

He never once got mad when in my 18th year, I had not one or two, but three car accidents!  But it might explain why the very next year as a freshman in college I got a plane ticket to get me home every holiday.

My Dad!

When I didn't get a teaching job the year after I graduated, it was my dad who said, "It's o.k.  You'll get one next year."  It was my dad who said, after my husband graduated and had no pastoral opportunities, "It's o.k.  Come to Ohio and work for me.  That'll give you time until the right job comes along."  It was my dad who said, when he went to a BMX race with Matt and I and Matt was disrespectful, and I felt like the worst mom ever, "This is a tough age.  He'll be o.k."

My Dad!

My dad's always had a way to ease the tough times.  My dad's always had a way of giving me hope that things would be o.k.  And he's always been right...oh er, except for the teaching job the next year.  :)

I never doubted that my dad believed in me.  I never doubted that my dad saw me as "worth his time."  I never doubted that my dad loved me.

So much of me is him.  That's the best gift ever.

My Dad!