Papa's Day

I realized a couple days ago that I never did a Father's Day post. I originally had planned for a guest writer, but the person wasn't able to write, then things got super busy and I completely forgot about it. Until now.

Let me tell you about my Dad. He is six feet five inches tall and he married a woman who's under 5 feet. He has grey hair and is bald, but he ALWAYS tells the story from the Bible about how the bears attacked the teenagers who made fun of Elisha's bald head. So, forget I said he's bald. He gave me the eyes I have (blue with orange circles around the middle) and taught me about Jesus. As us kids grew up, he modeled a God honoring marriage and always provided for us. 

My dad is brave. I remember this one time when we found this HUGE yellow snake curled up in the rafters of our house.
Dad found a stick, pushed the snake out of its warm sleeping place so it dropped onto the ground. But BEFORE it could slither away, he chopped the snake up into three pieces with a machete and then NAILED each piece to the outside wall of our house to show all the other snakes that THIS FAMILY DID NOT TOLERATE SNAKES! I always remembered that.

Dad is funny - at least he thinks so. No really, he is funny, he just has that refined dad funny component, if you follow me. He always makes jokes about silly things, saying whatever he can to make me laugh just so he can see me smile. I don't think he cares about looking silly or feeling silly, he just likes making me laugh, giggle, and smile.

My Dad encouraged me to figure out who I was (and am) and helped me figure it out. When I was growing up, I was always coming up with new things I wanted to be. I think, at one time, I had a list of about 15 professions I wanted to be. An artist, a gardener, a painter, a horse trainer, a teacher, an author, a CIA agent, a dog trainer blah blah blah. I remember my Dad encouraging me in all my professional endeavors - even when I wanted to look into the CIA or FBI. He helped me find the website and we looked through the requirements. Even when it seemed like an impossible thing for me to do, he still encouraged me to continue looking into it if I really wanted to do that.
One of the most memorable things that my Dad has ever done for me was spending TONS of his free time supervising me as I hung out with my beautiful horse my senior year. Normally, the horse club on the missionary base was open three times a week - Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and Saturday morning. That was great, and I was there every chance I could get, but somehow, I still wasn't getting enough horse. So, I would shyly ask my Dad if he would go to the Horse Paddocks with me, and he always did.
 Sometimes, he would ask my brothers to go with me if he was super busy, but he never made me feel like I was asking something that I shouldn't be asking. He was happy to help. There were other times when no one had the time to sit down at the horse paddocks with me while I rode, so my dad would send one of my brothers with me to get my horse, its food, and other necessities, then I'd traipse her back up to our yard, where she'd make marks in all our grass, and I'd take care of here there. My Dad never got angry about his yard getting messed up, or how much our yard probably smelled like horse poop, or anything else.

My Dad also has always listened to me and my fears and concerns. We had to fly the helicopter in and out of our village growing up. One time, I was put in the front seat. While I was sitting there and being my fidgety self, I hit the take off button, and the helicopter began to take off. Thank goodness the pilot was there to land it again (but not before telling me I almost took off by myself.) Let me tell you, I was PETRIFIED to sit in the front seat again. I'm not sure if I ever told my Dad why I NEVER wanted to sit in the front seat again, but whenever he would ask me to sit in the front seat and I begged him to let someone else, he would never push me to sit there. 


My Dad was also SUPER organized and so good at not looking stressed. We would travel ALL the time between the missionary base and Yemli village. Every three or four years, we would travel across the world from Papua New Guinea to the United States. Let me tell you, that is NOT a stress free trip, especially with a wife and four kids. I did it by myself, and it was stressful enough. I can't imagine doing it with a bunch of little kids - but my dad always did it. There's times I remember running from one end of the airport to the other, trying to keep up with my Dad's long strides, but that's about the most stressed I ever felt. I always knew my Dad would take care of us no matter what.

My fabulous Dad along with my new Dad! Both are amazing and fantastic Dads.



On one of the happiest days of my life, my Dad also walked me down to join another family, and to become a wife and to one day start my own little family. I am so thankful to God for giving me such a wonderful Dad. While he was back in Papua New Guinea this past year, I was able to email with him back and forth quite a bit.

I love having a Daddy who loves me and who writes me and cares about me. The relationship between a Daddy and his daughter is super special, and I am so blessed to have a Daddy who loves me and thinks our relationship is special too. I am SO excited to have him back in the States, only living a half hour away. Seeing him makes me smile, and hugging him makes me feel safe.

Every now and then, when I got scared, I would ask my Mom, "Are we going to be ok? Are we going to be able to get food and clothes when we need to?" My mom's answer every time was, "Has your Dad ever not provided for you?" And the answer to that is NO. My Dad has ALWAYS without a doubt provided for me and the family. That's the kind of Dad I have.

Thank you for taking care of me and all the rest of us.

I will love you forever, Daddy. No matter what comes our way, I'll always love my Dad.