Last evening our family all met at a restaurant to celebrate Father’s Day. Including a couple of guests, there were a total of twenty of us. What a blessing when all of us can be together, one more time.
Our eldest son will be forty-two this coming fall. He, his wife, and three daughters, now all teenagers, are a blessing to us. Their first child who is our eldest granddaughter is working this summer as an admi
nistrative assistant filling in for a lady on maternity leave. She and her boyfriend sat next to me and it made be remember back when she was maybe four or five years old, back when everyone called her Poppy’s girl. She would go into our bedroom and put on her MiMi’s high heel shoes and robe and then she called on me to sing the Bert Park’s version of the Miss America theme. I would sing out with as much bravado as possible, “Here she comes, Miss America….”, and here she came prancing down the make believe runway of our family room. As soon as she finished her walk and wave and we announced her as the new Miss America, she wanted to do it all over again.
Our middle son recently turned the Jack Benny perpetual age of thirty-nine. He and his wife were never supposed to have children. Some seven years after getting married, and after having spent much time working with a really wonderful doctor, they presented us with our fourth grandchild but it was not what we had come to expect, “IT WAS A BOY”. What a blessing he has been and still is.
In fact, as a ten year old, he accompanied his MiMi and I on a trip to Louisiana this past Saturday just to give a Father’s Day surprise for his great granddad. And, he did just that. He brought him great joy just like he does to his Poppy. The photo is of our ten year old jewel. This couple that supposedly could never have children then produced a set of twins just fifteen months after their son was born. Wow! These girls will soon be nine and they love to have sleepovers at MiMi and Poppy’s house. Now here’s the kicker. We could call any and all of these children miracle babies because in many ways they are, however, just twenty months ago lightning struck again, (literally, since he was born the week of Hurricane Katrina), and to their great surprise, the doctor’s great surprise, and to our delight, they brought Little Alex to us. He’s the one I took care of everyday for his first 13 months. Can we all say, “BONDING”?
Our youngest, (our baby boy), at thirty-six tells me often about how blessed he is beyond his wildest dreams. He has a wonderful wife, a beautiful, soon to be teenaged stepdaughter, a seven-year-old daughter who has to be one of the brightest and funniest girls anyone has ever seen, and a 100% ‘bull in the china shop’ toddler boy who clings to his daddy like he really loves him because he really does. Some days our youngest calls me on my cell phone as he is traveling between appointments and gushes out with all the things God has blessed him with and how unworthy he feels to have the family he has, but also to have the sense of loyalty and d
evotion he feels towards them. I know exactly how he feels because this overwhelming sense of gratitude was what I was feeling as I looked around all those sitting at the four or five tables that had been pushed together. My wife, our home, these children and our grandchildren are blessings that have come to us from God. The photo is of our twins and the "funniest girl in the world".
We were there to honor our boys as dads. They came to honor me as their dad. Our sixteen-year-old granddaughter had sewn a Jeff Gordon throw pillow for me. I also received some Jeff Gordon pajamas. Hey, it’s a joke; they are still tr
ying to convince me that I am a real NASCAR Jeff Gordon fan. I also received some beautiful cards and money and a special mug from our funny girl. She had drawn a picture with different hearts all brightly colored. Her mom took the picture and had it scanned in and put on a coffee mug. I have the mug with me this morning and will be drinking coffee and remembering with pride all these blessings.
Some might say all of this is just sentimentalism. That’s okay with me because after all is said and done, it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want to write. God has been very good to me and yesterday is another undeserved layer of icing on the cake of life He’s provided. There have been plenty of ups and downs but even more memories and special times to cherish. A big thank you to my wife and my boys and their families for making this gathering so very special. Amen! …more later.
Our eldest son will be forty-two this coming fall. He, his wife, and three daughters, now all teenagers, are a blessing to us. Their first child who is our eldest granddaughter is working this summer as an admi
nistrative assistant filling in for a lady on maternity leave. She and her boyfriend sat next to me and it made be remember back when she was maybe four or five years old, back when everyone called her Poppy’s girl. She would go into our bedroom and put on her MiMi’s high heel shoes and robe and then she called on me to sing the Bert Park’s version of the Miss America theme. I would sing out with as much bravado as possible, “Here she comes, Miss America….”, and here she came prancing down the make believe runway of our family room. As soon as she finished her walk and wave and we announced her as the new Miss America, she wanted to do it all over again.Our middle son recently turned the Jack Benny perpetual age of thirty-nine. He and his wife were never supposed to have children. Some seven years after getting married, and after having spent much time working with a really wonderful doctor, they presented us with our fourth grandchild but it was not what we had come to expect, “IT WAS A BOY”. What a blessing he has been and still is.
In fact, as a ten year old, he accompanied his MiMi and I on a trip to Louisiana this past Saturday just to give a Father’s Day surprise for his great granddad. And, he did just that. He brought him great joy just like he does to his Poppy. The photo is of our ten year old jewel. This couple that supposedly could never have children then produced a set of twins just fifteen months after their son was born. Wow! These girls will soon be nine and they love to have sleepovers at MiMi and Poppy’s house. Now here’s the kicker. We could call any and all of these children miracle babies because in many ways they are, however, just twenty months ago lightning struck again, (literally, since he was born the week of Hurricane Katrina), and to their great surprise, the doctor’s great surprise, and to our delight, they brought Little Alex to us. He’s the one I took care of everyday for his first 13 months. Can we all say, “BONDING”?Our youngest, (our baby boy), at thirty-six tells me often about how blessed he is beyond his wildest dreams. He has a wonderful wife, a beautiful, soon to be teenaged stepdaughter, a seven-year-old daughter who has to be one of the brightest and funniest girls anyone has ever seen, and a 100% ‘bull in the china shop’ toddler boy who clings to his daddy like he really loves him because he really does. Some days our youngest calls me on my cell phone as he is traveling between appointments and gushes out with all the things God has blessed him with and how unworthy he feels to have the family he has, but also to have the sense of loyalty and d
evotion he feels towards them. I know exactly how he feels because this overwhelming sense of gratitude was what I was feeling as I looked around all those sitting at the four or five tables that had been pushed together. My wife, our home, these children and our grandchildren are blessings that have come to us from God. The photo is of our twins and the "funniest girl in the world".We were there to honor our boys as dads. They came to honor me as their dad. Our sixteen-year-old granddaughter had sewn a Jeff Gordon throw pillow for me. I also received some Jeff Gordon pajamas. Hey, it’s a joke; they are still tr
ying to convince me that I am a real NASCAR Jeff Gordon fan. I also received some beautiful cards and money and a special mug from our funny girl. She had drawn a picture with different hearts all brightly colored. Her mom took the picture and had it scanned in and put on a coffee mug. I have the mug with me this morning and will be drinking coffee and remembering with pride all these blessings.Some might say all of this is just sentimentalism. That’s okay with me because after all is said and done, it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want to write. God has been very good to me and yesterday is another undeserved layer of icing on the cake of life He’s provided. There have been plenty of ups and downs but even more memories and special times to cherish. A big thank you to my wife and my boys and their families for making this gathering so very special. Amen! …more later.
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