Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday.  He is an incredible man with much to show for his years...a loving and beautiful wife, five children, twelve grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren and several more on the way right now.  He and Mom have established a home for themselves and their continually growing family in their small rural Kansas town.  They have tons of extended family and they continue the heritage begun by Dad's parents...they actually live in the home my grandparents lived in and where most of Dad's upbringing happened.

Yesterday, a friend of mine posted a beautiful note on facebook entitled, "My Dad's Face."  While it made me cry, it also made me count my blessings.  The love expressed by her father echoed deep in my soul as I am grateful for those same expressions by my dad.  

Some years ago, I gave Dad a gift of monthly letters for Father's Day; and of course, there is a special one to be written each June on Father's Day and each September for his birthday.

As I wrote his letter this morning, tears trickled down my face and placed a wet pattern of dots on my pink tee shirt.  I was glad I was alone and could write (and cry) with abandon.

I have loved having a monthly opportunity to tell my Dad how much he means to me and I want to share part of what I wrote to him with the readers of the Four Sisters Farm blog...

I am so grateful to have you…so grateful to be able to send you a letter today to say, “Happy Birthday!”…so grateful to have watched your face all these years to see the love and concern you have expressed to your family…so grateful for each smile and wink…so grateful for the contentment in just being alive…so grateful for the times I have seen you surprised and pleased…so grateful for the delight I’ve seen expressed over each pregnancy that has been announced, every baby that has arrived, and all the ornery antics of all the little ones in our family.


I am also grateful that I have seen love and acceptance in your face.  I don’t recall ever seeing rejection…I know I have disappointed you over the years but the main thing I’ve seen expressed has not been disappointment even in my worst moments…it has been concern and love that I’ve seen.  What a blessing!  Because of your expressions, I view God in much the same way that I view you.  I am more secure in God’s love because of your love.  Thank you!


So today, I say "Happy Birthday to you!"  I love you and I love your face!!  I love everything about you and I thank our Heavenly Father for the gift he gave me (and all of us) when He gave you life.

My hope is that today, as a result of reading this blog you will have warm thoughts of your fathers...if they aren't/weren't as gracious as my dad, I pray that you will remember all the good things and let go of the things that are painful as you rest in the love of the Father who loves us all the best. 

The Old Homestead

I am incredibly blessed to have both my mom and my dad still with us...pictured here with Pretty Princess and Romeo. They are in good health and I'm thankful they shared their hardy genetic makeup with their children, grandchildren, great grandkids, etc.

Earlier this month I was blessed to go to my childhood home for a reunion of sorts...only one brother and his wife were missing. Some of the next generation were there as well which added to the blessing. Pretty Princess, Romeo, The Unconventional Doctor's Wife, and The Unconventional Kids were all there!

There are many families who fuss and fight and refuse to be together and I count my blessings regularly! An extra treat was to have a special first cousin and her hubby there as well. Since her dad (my dad's brother) died some years ago, I hope we were able to give her a sense of connection to her Dad’s family while she was with us.

I am so thankful that Dad and Mom partnered to provide their family (and many others) with a stable and loving home. I know that doing so meant sacrifices on their part; but it has blessed so many. As Pop and I work on our “dream” here at Four Sisters Farm, our parents are the model we base many things on. We see the value of a homestead for our family and know that God gave us a home base with our parents in our old home town; and because of that, we had the luxury of moving our family to accomplish many goals and still have a model for our daughters of the value of putting down roots.

Ultimately, our roots are in our relationship with God…without Him there would be no good reason to place a high priority on family. Once again, I count my blessings.

It’s good stuff to have my children and grandchildren play in the same places I played as a child. It is awesome to watch them climb the same old cottonwood tree that their Great Uncle caught on fire with his "tree house fireplace" and their Great Aunt breaking her arm in that very creek bed and about my part in that. It is fun to retell the stories once again.

I loved being able to watch my niece pull out the yard games and play with the kids like we used to do with her and her cousins when we all gathered there.

I thank God for my Dad and Mom and for so many blessings that I lose count. It seems like we all say that we don’t often enough say “I love you.” Or “Thank you.” And I suppose that is true; but I try to make certain that they hear it from me often enough to have it echo in their minds and hearts when they think about me and about my family. I thank them on behalf of my family and our extended family who long for what they have created there with God as their foundation and love as their motivation.