A Father's Perspective

Growing up Father's Day had always been hard for me .I lost my dad when I was 5.I knew what I had missed but never knew how to make up for what I had missed.I did promise myself that if I ever had kids I would make up for what I didn't have.After I met Jolene I knew pretty quickly that she was the one -even though she did turn me down the first time I asked her out. After we were married about 15 months she told me Jessica would arrive in August ,at first I was in shock,not ready ,scared and yes worried that I wasn't up to the task. Jolene was so sick. I figured this would be our first and last child-who in their right mind would go through this again!Our friend Karen did a ultrasound about 5 months into the big event. The doc reading the ultrasound said "the most obvious male I had ever seen"-boy was he wrong .A beautiful red headed 9lbs plus arrived on 8/12/1978.I was in shock for the first 15 seconds because he was a she but then proceeded to fall madly in love with her as I would Josh and Justin.We took about a million pictures of her . A few thousand of Josh . And hardly any of Justin.All 3 would sleep in our room for years -guess we should of read more how to books back then.Who had time to play golf ,I had kids to play with.A patient asked me one time why I wasn't open on Saturdays.The kids had ballgames then and I didn't want to miss one.After getting home from work around 630 I longed to sit and read the newspaper uninterrupted for 20-30 minutes but football and baseball was more important than that.We make seeming little choices along life's way that can turn out to have a great impact upon our children. Being  a dad was pure joy-indescribable. So this year was the first one without any kids at home.All are grown and on their own now. Of course I made mistakes and have a few regrets but all in all it was a great ride! Since the kids are gone I guess I'll have to start acting my age except when the grand kids come over. Then its okay to eat chips in bed ,stay up late, and of course eat all the powdered donuts you want.So kids thanks for all the memories and most of all thank you God for letting me be part of their lives.