Today I want to honor my husband and my Dad.


My Dad
We'll start with childhood. My Dad was a family man. He was always there (and there with a video camera!) for everything we ever did. How he managed that with 5 kids I'll never know, but I know he was there for everything. He made an EFFORT (yes it takes effort!) to be the father in our home. And a darn good one! I remember riding horsie on his back, being flipped in the air, and squealing with delight playing octopus (my siblings will remember that one). He taught us about life every opportunity he saw. There was always something he was teaching us. I have very fond memories of my childhood and many of them are with my Dad in them. As a child I never felt alone or unloved or abandoned. Never.

He is all about "moments". These moments in our life that we wish we could capture and keep in our memories forever. My dad actually does capture them, he will "recreate" them for a picture just so he can capture that moment. He takes a lot of heat for that from all us kids, it is the family joke, we have to recreate moments so he can get a picture of them. As much as we tease him, many a moments will be captured because of that goofy quality.

As an adult, my Dad has been such an important part of my life. He will drop everything to help. I will never forget when he rushed up when Brinley was diagnosed and played Mr. Mom for us. What man does that? My Dad! That's who! He has been a grandpa that my kids can look up to and I appreciate everything he does for me today just as much as I appreciate the yesterdays. I consider myself blessed to have a dad who had a desire to teach me about Christ. It has shaped who I am today, I can't imagine having it any other way. So thanks Dad, for teaching me how to laugh, live, love and endure. I love you!

My husband
Deep breath. Oh boy, where do I begin. When I married David I married him for his patience, committment and loyalty (okay, so he's pretty dang hot too!). I had no idea what this would turn into. I have found a best friend, someone who I can confide in, trust, love, laugh with, cry with, argue with (yep, we do that too!), forgive with (after the arguing...), learn with, the list goes on. I have had the opportunity through this experience with Brinley to see what my husband is made of. I always knew he had it in him, but now I get to experience it firsthand. He is an amazing example to me of sacrifice, selflessness, patience, strength and forgiveness. These things have been something we have needed a lot of lately and he has proven true to those qualities.

I remember an experience when I knew without a doubt that he was the best thing that had ever happened to me. (I guess I should say it confirmed it, because I already knew it). It was a time when we were doing something hard. We had to hold Brinley down for a dressing change. I've talked about them before, but it is very difficult to really describe how hard they are. My point in saying that is this: at one point in doing a PICC line dressing change, I was ready to break down. I wanted to get up and run into my room and throw myself on my bed and cry. I cannot describe the pain that was in my heart. Everything we had ever seen her go through flooded into my mind and it was overwhelming. I didn't say a word, but in my mind I was screaming "I hate this! I hate it! I hate it!" I looked up at David and our eyes met. Something amazing happened. I saw the pain that was in my heart in my husband's eyes. HE felt it too. We were one at that moment. We had the same pain, a pain that no one else in this world would ever experience over Brinley. Only us. I have never felt so connected to someone in my life. It gave me the strength to finish the dressing change and hold myself together.

I am so so grateful for the father he is to all of our children. He has taken in Taylor and treated her as his own daughter. She is grateful to have a step-dad who loves her so much. He plays with our kids and they love to be with him. Many times our girls only want their Daddy, and believe it or not, that makes me so happy. Sometimes I think he's a better mother than I am! He is the one who wakes up first when someone cries out in the night and goes to comfort them. There have been mornings that he has said "I was up with Jade 3 times last night", and I had just peacefully slept through it all! He has always put us first in life. I have never felt second to anything, ever. The sacrifices he makes for us are many, and they are so appreciated, even if they seem to go unnoticed. So David, my very best friend, I love you! Thanks for being such a great Daddy to our girls and husband to me!

2 comments:

John Hanks said...

I can barely see through the tears to write this. You (and four others just like you) have made my dreams come true. My dream has always been to the the kind of father you just described. It has has all be so worth whatever sacrifice was involved. Now you and David are experiencing what those sacrifices are. My dream for you is that you hear from your children what I just heard from you. It's a great feeling.

Sole said...

You made me cry too! Thanks for sharing what's in your heart. I'm so proud of you guys and how you have endured these long months of trials, how you have loved eachother and strenghthened eachother trough it all. I know the things you shared about David are true, I've seen him in action since we were little, and trust me he's always been like this. I know you are equally a good mother as he is a good father. I love you guys!