My Dad

I am so proud to call my dad, DAD. My earliest memories of my dad are going along with him on his milk truck runs. I remember him giving me the little milk sample bags to play with. I remember feeling so special that he would take me along. As the years went by, his job changed to driving a gravel truck but what didn't change was my love for him and how I wanted to spend time with him. I would go with him as often as I could. I only remember him being patient with me and I never felt like he didn't want me around. When he started working for a farmer I didn't see him as much and didn't go along. But I made up for it when he came home by sitting beside him and watching football (which I  had no clue what was going on). It didn't matter what we were doing, I just wanted to be beside him. While we were watching football or other sports I would even comb his hair (did I say patient?) I wasn't much of a girly girl growing up, so you would often find me beside dad changing oil or talking about our dream vehicles. I would learn about vehicles just so we could have these talks. Sometimes I got frustrated with him and his rules, that I thought were a little too strict. But I tried my best to honor him, I wanted to because I loved him. And as I grew older, and started to understand how valuable his protection of me was, I started to welcome those "boundaries" because I knew that it meant he loved me. Just after I was 18 he gave my hand in marriage to Mark. I remember his look of admiration that day. Even though he never said much, I knew he was proud of me. Proud of the woman I had become. And I wanted to make him proud. Our relationship changed over the years as we saw each other often, just not as often. But every time he was there with a hug, a look of approval and  word of encouragement. Even though I know we made plenty of mistakes in our first years of marriage, I never felt disapproval from him. He truly understood the "leave and cleave" part of giving a daughter in marriage. I know he was thrilled for us when we first started farming our own land a few years after we were married. And I felt his pride for me when I started driving machinery. He would look at me with a smile and say, "it looks like you've been driving this all your life". He showed his love in action when he would come to the farm to switch me off so I could go home and get some much needed rest (I was 8 months pregnant through 4 harvests). We spent quite a bit of time in the fields riding together and chatting. I treasure those times. Today our relationship remains much the same. I respect the man he is. I know he is proud of me and the wife and mother I have become. He doesn't often say it, he doesn't have to, I just know he is. He still has a heart of gold and is always interested about what is going on at the farm. I also know he has prayed lots of prayers for our family over the years. I can never thank him enough for those. So this Fathers Day I want to give a shout out to one of the best Fathers out there... MY DAD. Dad, I love you more than words can say. Thank you for all your love and support over the years. You have helped me be the woman I am today and for that I will forever be grateful. I will never be able to repay you and I know you don't want me to... Because you are cool like that. Happy Fathers Day!!!

This is my dad. One thing about him is he is kind of camera shy. I know I have a picture of him without a ketchup bottle somewhere! He's not even that crazy about ketchup :)