my daddy

daddy, it's your birthday.

I wish I could be there on your birthday. 

And tell you just how i feel about you in person.

If i was there, this is how'd it go:

Daddy, you amaze me.

         You amaze me with your love for the Lord. The way you served in the Navy, and used your time in there to minister to soldiers all over the world. You amaze me with your love for others, and your passion to see men and women come to know the Lord. You are a man known for your faith in the Lord, and respected greatly for it. In the workforce, in our family, and among our friends, your faith in the Christ in known.

Daddy, you amaze me, and I love you.

           It fills me with so much pride, as a grown woman, realizing the sacrifices you made for our family. The way you were so committed and dedicated to being with us, providing for us, and loving mom, speaks volumes to me. Your service to our country makes me proud to tell others of the privilege of being a military brat and what my daddy has done in my life and the lives of many many others.

Daddy, i love you and am thankful for you.

            I am so thankful for your consistency of spending time with the Lord. For prioritizing your time in God's word and praying and letting that image of you being excused from the dinner table so that you could spend that devotion time. Seeing you go into a room with your Bible is forever engraved in my mind. 

            I am thankful that you have given our family so many times to talk and laugh. thankful for how dinner times was the best part of the day; because you and mom made it that way from the beginning. thankful that you and mom loved spending time with us and never made us feel like a burden. 

Daddy, when you call me "sweetheart," or "my baby," i feel like that little girl that wanted to do everything with daddy. It makes me choke up when you tell me that on the phone or when you say how much you miss me and love me. I tear up (even right now) as I think about the loving word and things you have done to make your Gamboa girls feel like the most important and beautiful ladies in the world.

You are the best daddy in the world. i love you.

Daddy, 

happy birthday.