This post is dedicated to the fathers in my life.

To my husband, Joe-  God has truly blessed me!  Joe and I have been married for 10 years now.  When he asked me to marry him, he knew that we would have an instant family.  He became “Joedaddy” to my two oldest daughters.  At the time, I didn’t grasp the magnitude of his choice.  I had been Mom to these two girls who were then 7 1/2 and 5.  But he instantly became a father. 

We wanted a baby of our own.  My tubes were tied.  But we knew that did not limit God.  We prayed.  We believed.  We waited.  Got sent encouragement.  Most of that encouragement came by way of one of my very best friends, Diana.  Diana has an awesome testimony of believing God for a baby while her tubes were tied.  She was also full of tumors.  But she prayed.  She believed God spoke.  She waited.  And God was faithful.  While our circumstances are not all the same, He is.  Our testimonies are not exactly the same, but He is the same God today as He was yesterday. 

In December of 2005, a door opened for us to travel to Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Clinic in North Carolina.  Dr. Berger specializes in tubal-reversals.  Women come from all over the world to him.  And this was my time.  I have to say that God clearly opened the door.  It was His timing.  I had surgery December 21, 2005.  I was pregnant in 10 days.  I KNOW!  TEN days!  Again, God’s timing. 

On September 19, 2006 Sophie Jeanne Gunther was born.  Yes, another girl.  We had made up our minds that we would likely stop with the birth of this child.  I was sick with all of three of my girls.  I was hospitalized for three days while pregnant with Cammie.  With Sophie, I was on home health care.  I had an I.V. hooked up to me on and off for a couple of weeks.  In fact, we were so “attached”, I dubbed her “Ivy”.  Corny, I know. 😉

When we found out we were having a girl, I knew we might have to rethink this child being the last.  But before she was born, it was clear that Joe and I had both realized that he was great with girls.  And then she was born and we were smitten.  It wasn’t until then that I realized the amount of sacrifice and commitment that went into Joe’s decision to become an instant father.  I took for granted that he was new at this- both when he married me and took on two new daughters and when Sophie was born.  Things that had had been second nature to me as well as what I had already learned with my first two daughters… well, Joe had no clue.  Watching him with Sophie opened my eyes.

He jumped in with both feet when he chose me.  He didn’t hesitate.  He didn’t pretend to know the answers.  He was simply willing.  He chose all three of us.  His faithfulness and devotion to us and to God, his hard work and his dry sense of humor, giving of himself to us every day, holding my hand through the good and the bad…that’s why I love him so much!  Happy Father’s Day, Joe!  I’m honored to be your wife.  I love you!  Your Angel  (P.S.  I spelled it right… but in truth, I’ve always been “his little angle“.  Cut some slack…he’s dyslexic!)

 

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Joe with Sophie…chillin’

To my Dad- I am still amazed at the infinite wisdom of God to allow him to be my Daddy!  He is a tender, loving picture of Daddy God.  Dad recently turned 70.  He still works hard.  For years my sister and I have prayed that God would make him to be like Joshua and Caleb…stronger in his old age than he was in his youth.  We have watched in awe as Dad has continued to work so hard.  Yes, earning a living would be the primary reason that he works.  We were never wealthy by worldly standards.  Dad is a painter.  No, not a starving artist, a painter.  A painter, as in residential house painter.  And he’s still at it.

Dad is diabetic.  I struggle not to worry about him.  But even if he did not have to work, I know he still would.  He will remain active as long as God allows. 

He is not a complicated man.  He is a man of simple means with a reliance on God.  Yet he speaks with such profound wisdom.  But what I think I love best is his smile, his laugh and his sense of humor.  I will forever recall waking up to folklore song, off-the-wall sayings and cliches that I believed until adulthood that he made up.  Many of them, he did make up. 

One of my favorites:  “Don’t worry about nothing, ’cause ain’t nothing gonna’ be alright!”

Oh, I know, I know… where’s the faith?  Oh, it’s there, alright!  But laughter…  now that’s medicine!

Happy Father’s Day!  I love you, Dad!  Your little girl

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Dad with Sophie

To Daddy God-  Of the many facets of Almighty God, “Daddy God” is to a little girl (even an almost 39 year old “little girl”) security and comfort.  I have been so blessed to have an earthly father with so many characteristis of Father God.  But so many have not been.  And many others who may have once had the assurance and presence of an earthly father, have since suffered loss.  Two of my very close friends have lost their fathers over the past few years.  My heart breaks.  My best friend and a close childhood friend have lost their mothers.  I cannot comprehend it.  Some who have fathers still long for tender love from them that they see other fathers give.  Again, I cannot comprehend this.  But Daddy God knows.

He is everything we need.  He is “The Great I Am”.  I pray that those who are longing for the arms of a father, the love of a Daddy for his little girl, the assurance and comfort of One who will defend and protect- will turn their eyes to Daddy God and let Him be. 

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.  Zephaniah 3:17

…dance and sing with Him and let Him fill your “little girl” hearts.

Happy Father’s Day, Daddy God!  I love you!  Your little girl