hi daddy!

Hi, Daddy!

It's father's day and you're on my mind alot! Do you remember...

-when you would sit in your gray, black, and brown stitched recliner, and i'd climb up on your lap and cuddle?

- when i'd squish between you and mom because i wanted to be close to both of you at the same time?

-when Ate and I would perform for you and mom in the living room? ya'll were the best audience.

...those were the best times.

[sorry ate, i had to crop you out, cuz that dude was in the picture behind you...and he just didn't belong.]

Do you Remember...

-when you would take us shrimping late at night when the shrimp would fly?

-and when we caught so many crabs on those summer afternoons?

-and when i started playing softball and you and i went out to get my mitt, condition it, and break it in?

-ans when i stubbornly sat at the dining room table refusing to eat and you told me i couldn't leave until i ate my lunch? So i fell asleep at the table after sitting there for hours and then woke up with you sitting there smiling.

...those were some of the best times.

Do you remember...

-when i followed you around the yard when you were working on stuff because

i just wanted to be with you and help you

-when you and i had nerf basketball competitions in most of the hallways of the houses we lived in

-when ilene and i would wear your bathrobe and pretend to be Bible Characters

-when you came out of the lab and told us mom was pregnant with our new baby brother or sister?

- when you and i would go to the gym and play basketball together...and you'd outlast me in running around and i laid down in the middle of the gym?

-when i was running a mile for my Presidential Physical Fitness test and was about to quit and you ran along with me, encouraging me?

...those were some of the best times.

Those were some of the things I remember...

but here are some more...

i remember...

-how every evening, we would gather together in the living room and do family devotions and pray together. I think back to that, and respect you so much for staying consistent with keep our family grounded in the Word of God and keeping that a foundation for our family.

- how even when I made a wrong choice and got disciplined by you, I would come around, climb into your lap, and you'd give me a big hug and hold me and tell me that you loved me.

- how you have a heart for people to know the Lord personally. And how in each place we moved to, in the evenings or in your workplaces, you were always discipling men, young and old, and opening up your life for them.

-how you, daddy, always showed us how much you loved mom, and how you make her laugh and smile. you always made us feel so special when you and mom had an anniversary...and brought us with ya'll every single year, because you and mom said, "It's more fun when the family is complete and together."

-how you were the one and most important example in my and my sisters' lives, of how a man looks like and treats others. You were my standard of what to look for in a man, and when ryan found me, it meant the world to me that you approved of him, and you love my ryan as part of our family. i love hearing you affirm my husband, because, well, you're the wisest man i know.

I always think back to evenings after you came home from work. we would hear the door open and we would stop what we were doing and run to you to say, "hi daddy!" and we would sit there and just watch you take off your shoes, hang up your coat, and see mom...because we just loved you so much.

i still think about dinnertime with the whole family and how you always wanted us to eat dinner together-and that was the best part of the day...we never wanted you to leave the table and get up, because we love talking and laughing as a family and didn't want it to end.

I think about when you would finally get up from the table, after all my excuses and reasons why you shouldn't get up, even if it'd be two hours of talking with the fam, and you would get your maroon Bible with the gold imprinted name on the front, and go to a quiet spot in the house and do your devotions and pray...that image in forever imprinted in my memory.

I think about you every day, and this post doesn't even cover a quarter of all the reasons I love you or all the memories you gave us as an amazing daddy to us girls, and husband to mom.

I love you, daddy.