Father's Day

I know that I am a day late on this one, but I had a million things to do and wanted to think about this while I did my stuff yesterday.

I am very, very lucky. I have the most wonderful father in the world. Now- my mother is also wonderful- but I want to focus on Dad at the moment. For the majority of my life, my dad served our country. He was an enlisted military man from before I was until I was 2 when he came back during the Vietnam era (1969). Then he supported us girls by working at the Whirlpool plant while going to college and fulfilling the ROTC requirements in 1975. At that time, he went back to active duty as an officer. We followed him across the country and overseas until each and every one of us graduated from high school (and Heather from college) and all got married. He did days, he did nights, he did remote tours and at some points frequent TDY's. Mom was definately a force during this time as she was the glue that held us together- but never once in our lives did we doubt that Dad loved us. In addition to fulfilling the frequent demands placed on him by Uncle Sam- dad coached our little league teams, helped Mom with Girl Scouts and attended as many of our games, performances and recitals as he possibly could. In addition to being completely involved with us- he also lead his troops with the kind of hands on leadership that showed us service to others. After retiring from the military in 2001- he did a complete 180 degree turn and served his community in a new way. He became a pastor at not one but two churches. Overall Dad has a great heart and taught us family first.

I also lucked out and found Jim. Though we have definately had our problems in our marriage- one thing has always been consistant. Jim was a good father to Josh.

It is my hope that one day Josh will take what he has seen from the two of them and one day be a good father himself.

I am so grateful for the men that I have in my life.