My Dad

When I was a little girl, I loved rearranging my room.

I would sit at my desk, draw a little square on a piece of paper, and map out where I wanted all of the furniture to go.  In the summers I liked to move my bed against the wall that was facing the outside of the house.  The tall white IKEA bookshelf displaying my extensive Troll collection would go on the opposite wall.  The pink desk would get moved under the mirror and the nightstand at the foot of my bed.

Once I had perfected the design, I would go find my dad to ask him if he could move everything for me because I was just a little girl and obviously too weak to be pushing furniture around.

And you know what?

My dad said yes every time.

Even when the bookshelf almost fell on top of him once.  And that time I somehow managed to convince my mom to let me exchange my twin-sized bed for the queen-sized one in the guest room and my dad had to maneuver the switch.

And then that time I decided that the queen-sized bed was too big and I didn’t have enough room for activities and I wanted my twin bed back and my dad had to do the whole thing all over again.

Bless him.

But that is my dad.

He installed a push up bar in my doorway so that I could practice my gymnastics moves.  And then turned around and walked his forehead right into it.

He kept peanut butter crackers at his work and let me have some whenever I visited.

He shared the small black comb he kept in his back pocket with me when my bangs weren’t behaving.

He rubbed my tummy when it hurt.

He would run out to Dairy Queen whenever my mom and I had a craving.

When he got home from a long day at work and I asked him to be my horse and let me ride on his back, he always said yes.

He made my feel beautiful even when I came home from school insecure and hurting from the words of others.

He took me to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal as many times as it took to collect all the different small Barbie figurines.

When Mr. B. and I got married he took great pride in inviting EVERYONE he came into contact with to the wedding.

He hands out EE tracks to all of the homeless friends at the traffic intersections.

He showed up at my house on Mother’s Day with a gold trophy that said Best Mom Ever and presented it to me with all kinds of pomp and circumstance.

He figured out how to fix the broken grate on our refrigerator.

He has installed almost every light fixture and painted almost every wall in our house.

He took the time to read my book and then printed out the set of antennae included as a printable in the back and wore them just to show me support.

Dad, you’re amazing and today I want to honor you.

I love how you are so easy to please – just give you a good donut and you’re set for at least 24 hours. 🙂

I love the way you are always so willing to help and fix things and encourage.

You have been the most faithful example of generosity and selfless service in my life.

And now I see you pouring that same hospitable kindness out on my boys.

Several months ago when you were visiting and Happy Buddy wanted someone to play basketball with outside, you didn’t miss a beat.  You played an ENTIRE game with him in the sweltering heat and he was so happy and all I could think was – of course my daddy did that.

I read a quote recently that said, “When someone else’s happiness is your happiness.  That is love.”

Well, Dad, you love A LOT of people.

I am so grateful that I get to be one of them!

And I promise I won’t make you rearrange any more of my furniture – I will leave that up to mom. 😉

Happy Father’s Day!

– Julie