Dear Dr. Laura,
The following is a letter my daughter wrote me for Father's Day. It was folded up in the card she gave me.
F = Friend
A = Adventurous
T = Tough when need be
H = Hard worker
E = Encourager
R = Resourceful
Growing up my birth father was around but not the way a father should be. Rather than being there for me, he chose to drink and be violent. Never having a tender hand or arms to crawl up in and feel safe. I constantly lived in fear of my birth father. Now he is sick and dying and life is giving him back what he gave me.
The man I now call my father is an amazing father. He has been here for me as a father should be. Tough when he needs to be but also has tender hands and arms to crawl into and feel safe. He supports me in decisions I make. Some of them are not the best, but when I fall from making that choice he is right there to pick me up and help me get going again.
Through many of my health problems he has helped me out and helped take care of me even at times when keeping me down was called for.
The Lord has blessed me with an amazing father. One who is here and I don't have to fear everyday. I love you, Dad.
Happy Father's Day.
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My wife and I had been talking about adoption when our older two children had moved out and our youngest now a teenager was still at home. That plan was put on hold due to a financial crisis created by being unemployed through downsizing and corporate cost cutting. We prayed somehow our dream would be made real even though the money was not there at the time. A young lady close to our older daughter's age who had been talking on a regular basis with my wife shared she was soon to be homeless. We offered her a room with her own bed in our house. Over time she shared with us her past, the good and the bad. She recently chose to change her last name to our last time and even wants to amend her birth certificate to completely break away the emotional ties of the past. She is such a blessing to have her here with us and I am so very proud to have her as a daughter.
Sperm and an egg together form the building blocks of a human being just as nails, wood, brick and mortar together build a house but only unconditional love, forgiveness and compassion can make a family and home.
R.
