Happy Fathers Day

This one goes out to the man I love:

I knew when I met you I loved you. I knew when I got to know you and discovered all your inner workings you were going to be a wonderful husband and a GREAT father. I was wrong. You have surpassed being a wonderful husband and completely and totally zoomed past the great father exit. You are more. SO much more. So much more that I cant even put it all into words. But Ill try. And come short. But bear with me anyways. The day we found out we were pregnant, I will NEVER forget how absolutely, utterly and phenomenally excited you were. Not the jumping up and down clapping your hands type but the eyes said it all. Tears and happiness welled in your eyes and although I was freaking out, you were a calm, peaceful, content man. Confident. The day we HAD Jackson, I looked at you and saw you as a father for the first time. Love, passion, and emotions welled up in me (a little help from all the drugs and hormones) and I felt I could burst at any minute with it all. THEN. He grew. We grew. You grew. Its funny because last year, we felt like parents. Duh. But he was only a couple months old so it was so "new". Now, we have been through some fun and scary and exciting and amazing and wonderful things. You as a dad to a 14 1/2 month old is something better and more special than it was last year. At least to me it is. Right now, there is a little person in our house who says your name. "Dadda". He runs to you when you get home from work, he lights up when he sees you, or even looks your way. Copies your crazy laughs, follows you around and wants to be you. Today in church, the sermon was about legacy. Leading your children down a path to be better than you. I think you will do that with our children. On one hand I don't want Jackson to grow up, but on the other hand, he cant get there fast enough, because I cannot wait to see your relationship with him and his relationship with a spouse and children of his own BECAUSE of you.

You are everything and more I could have ever imagined I wanted in a baby's daddy. LOL. If Jackson could speak more words and full sentences, Im pretty sure he would say this:

Dadda,

I love you. You are the best dad EVER. You make me laugh when I cry, You make me the best sandwiches, you hug me whenever I run to you. You read me books, and teach me shapes, and how to put my legos together. I really love that you swing me around like a monkey. I want to learn how to make all the crazy voices and laughs you do. I also want to be JUST like you. You are the best.

And mom likes you alot too. But I like you more. (Do I get points on that last line?)

Love,

Jack Jack, Your BFF and EVER

Happy Fathers Day babe. You as a dad is the best thing I see and get to experience daily. I love you.

And to our fathers: Rick, Johnny, James, and grandfathers: Vernon and Buddy. You guys aren't chopped liver! You are amazingly special and we are blessed and lucky to have you all as role models for ourselves and for Jackson. Thank you for being strong christian men we can look up too.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father.

~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836