Tributes

Happy Father's Day!

I wanted to use my blog this morning to honor two amazing men and fathers, my husband, Pat, and my dad, Roy Abshire.

Pat:
When I was a little girl, I started praying for my future husband. I have been so blessed over the past 8 years to see how God has answered those prayers exceedingly more than I could have asked for in Pat. One of the ways that God answered my prayers was to give me a man who is a great dad.

Pat has sacrificed a lot in order to allow me to be a homemaker and stay-at-home mom for Karissa and Amy. He works hard as a police officer and puts his life on the line daily. The girls and I take a lot of pride in the job that he does. The girls are always telling people, "Did you know that my daddy is a police officer?" He loves providing for us and taking care of us. He's a rock that we lean on. He takes good care of his girls. : )

All week long, the girls ask me, "Is it tickle day yet?" Tickle day is what they call Pat's days off. They have so much fun wrestling with daddy and playing on tickle day.

One of the things I love to see is not just that the girls have fun with daddy, but they respect him and admire him so much. We all do. He does a great job of lovingly disciplining them and shaping them into future women of God. He makes them feel secure and loved and has taught them to be such good girls. It makes me happy that my girls are going to grow up having a great model of what it means to be a godly and good husband and daddy. It also makes me happy that Benjamin is going to have such an amazing daddy to raise him and help him grow into a great dad and husband himself.

Pat- Sorry if this is too mushy for you. I just woke up so grateful for you and had to tell the world. I love you! Happy Father's Day from Your Girls.

Dad:

I will never take for granted how good it was to be raised by my dad. I had such a happy, memorable childhood and I KNOW that this is a gift. One time in high school, my brother, Ben, and I went to Dairy Queen together for lunch. While we were eating, we started talking about our family. Ben looked at me and said, "How did we get so lucky?" That is an amazing tribute in itself to a dad, that his two high school kids loved each other enough to want to be out to lunch together, and spent the lunch wondering how they got so lucky to have such a great family.

I used to love holding my daddy's big hands. My dad is a big guy and he always made me feel so safe and special. I loved sitting next to him in church, leaning on his big arms or holding his big hands, listening to him sing.

Nobody "gets" me like my dad. I guess it is because we are so much alike. He understands how I think, the things I struggle with, and the things that I dream of. He has always been my biggest fan and cheerleader. I get embarrassed sometimes about how he brags about me. He has always used words to tell me he thinks I'm beautiful, smart, and that he's proud of me. I've never had to guess.

My kids ADORE Grandpa (and his pancakes and sausage). We are all so blessed by him.

I love you, Dad! I wish I could be closer to you so I could tell you in person all of this. You are the Best Dad in the Universe! (You and Pat are tied now for this honor.....I hope you understand, hee hee) Love, Bopps