My Dad.

Normally, my Sunday posts are about surprises, but today is Father’s Day and, to no one’s surprise, I’m going to tell you about my dad.

Smiling at my dad before walking down the aisle

As my mom would tell you, I have always been a Daddy’s Girl.  And if you had my dad, you would be too!  I have the best dad in the whole world.  By far.  He has loved me, taken care of me, played with me, and basically lived his life to make me happy every day of my life.  I have enough happy childhood memories to fill a blog every day of the year…and that’s something to be truly grateful for.

If you know my dad, you know that he truly is a kid at heart.  Well, not just at heart…he can usually be found playing with the kids and acting like a crazy person!  When I was little, he would literally drag the hose inside and we would have water-fights in the house.  One time he filled our entire living room with bubbles.  He used to let my cousin and I fix his hair, put make-up on him, basically whatever we wanted!  He was always ready to play, and he was always there for me.  He never missed a single school event, and I swear he was the proudest daddy in the room.

SO happy.

As I grew up, he continued to be by my side.  I’ll never forget the night I was laying in my room crying because we had to climb the rope the next day in gym class, and I knew that I couldn’t do it.  I was afraid of being embarrassed in front of my class, and I didn’t want to go to school.  The next thing I know, my dad is up in the attic, tying a rope to the rafters and letting it hang down into our hallway.  He was ready to teach me, right then and right there.  What a lucky girl I am.

I think it was around high school that I started to realize just how lucky I truly was…I started to learn more about the world around me, and I started to see that a lot of my friends were not as lucky in the dad-area.  I know that many of my guy friends came to look up to my dad, to see him as the type of dad that they didn’t have in their lives, but that maybe they could be for their own kids.  When I started dating my future-husband, I saw right away that my dad would love him as his own son.  And even though my husband has a good dad of his own, I know that he and my dad have formed a very strong bond, and that is another thing that I hope I never take for granted.

I don’t know who dreaded my first day of college more—me or my dad.  Even though I was only an hour away, it’s more of a symbolic “leaving home”.  He and my mom came to the over-night orientation with me, and in the morning just the two of us walked downtown Iowa City for my Spanish placement exam.  We got breakfast at Bruegger’s Bagels, and he told me about how that very building was where he lived when he went to school there.  Then we sat on a bench together outside…it wasn’t a momentous occasion, but it is one I will never forget. And throughout my five years at Iowa, when I missed my dad I would just walk over to Bruegger’s and think about him living there, going to college there like I did.



Our fancy dance moves!

I wish I could have been there when my husband asked my dad if he could propose to me.  Of course that would defeat the purpose!  When I came home with that ring on my finger, I ran down the stairs to greet my dad at the front door, just like I always had when I lived at home, and he gave me the biggest hug, along with the biggest smile on his face.  As we prepared for the wedding, he surprised me by getting us dance lessons for the Father-Daughter dance.  I know a lot of people do that, but coming from my dad, who had never danced that I could remember, it meant so much.  We had so much fun at the classes…neither of us is a good dancer, so we were difficult students!  In the end, it turned out wonderful, just as I had expected.  And I don’t think there is a girl in this world who was happier to walk down the aisle with her dad than I was that day.  As you can tell from the pictures, I just couldn’t stop smiling!

When I found out I was pregnant with my first son, I was most excited to tell my dad. (sorry Mom!) He just loves babies so much, and obviously when it was my baby he would love it even more!  For my first doctor’s appointment to hear the heartbeat, my husband had to work, so my dad went with me.  My doctor said “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grandpa so excited before!”  Boy, was she right.  We decided to name our son after my dad, but we kept it a secret.  After he was born, when all of the grandparents came in to meet him, the nurse said “Samuel Roark is such a beautiful name”…she didn’t know we hadn’t told him yet!  For a split second I wanted to be mad at her, but then I turned and saw my dad’s face, with a tear in his eye and the biggest smile ever on his face.  And then nothing else mattered.  From that day, my son, and now my other son too, have been the light of my dad’s eyes, just like I was when I was a little girl.  To see him with them is like seeing my own childhood all over again, but even better. 

A good laugh.

My mom says when this little girl arrives in August, we are all doomed—and I’m afraid she’s right.  Judging from how my dad has loved me, and now loves my boys, once he lays eyes on my little girl no one else will ever have a chance in her heart.  And to be honest, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  My children are lucky enough to have the best grandpa in the whole wide world.

So here’s to you, Dad.  Thank you for always taking care of me, still to this day, and for loving me in a way that many people are never lucky enough to be loved.  You will never know how much you truly mean to me, but I hope that these words are a start.  And I will always be Daddy’s Girl, no matter what.  I love you.