Happy Father's Day!

I haven't had my father here for Father's Day for over 15 years.  He was the greatest father in the world.  He gave me love, attention, support, and adoration in abundance.  He made me feel so special and capable of big things.

I could not ask for a better father.  I lost him when I was 19.

Growing up, I pictured having two to three girls, but after I lost my dad, I also wanted a boy - a boy in whom I could see a bit of my father again.  How amazing would that be?  And then I met my husband and so badly wanted a little boy in whom I could see him.  Thinking I would only have one boy, I tried to picture a little boy with the best qualities of the two most important men in my life.

Then I found out we were expecting TWO boys!  Lo and behold, I can see my father and my husband in Will and Jack.  Since birth, Will has made the exact facial expressions of my husband.  And he has my husband's dark skin and hair.  Jack has my father's build - big broad shoulders - and his fair complexion and eyes.  More amazingly, and perhaps better than anything I could have imagined, Jack has my father's hands.  Maybe they are just chubby because he's a baby but he has stout fingers like my father and when I hold his hand, I feel my father's hand, as if my hand is in his...  It's simply amazing.

A father can dictate so much in your life.  For daughters, fathers can make or break self-esteem and set the standard by which they will expect to be treated by their husbands.   For sons, fathers establish the type of man they will want to be, and will eventually become.

I thank my father for all he did for me.  I thank for my husband's father and step-father for helping mold my husband into the man he is.  And I thank my husband for all that he will do for our boys and raising them to be the amazing man he is - brilliant, loyal, generous to a fault, funny, and kind.

Happy Father's Day to all.