Happy Birthday Daddy

New Year's Day is my Daddy's birthday.  He would have been 84 years old yesterday, so I guess it is the 84th anniversary of his birth.  I have really missed my Daddy this last year and I haven't been to his grave since Memorial Day.  It isn't that I feel compelled to go or that I feel you have to visit a grave.  It is simply that it is a spot where my whole focus can be on him, the life he lived, the Christian man he was, and what a wonderful Daddy he was.  I like to go alone or have Bob take me.  I usually go on Father's Day - some times I take a card or note, others it is a Bible Class project that my students and I make about our Dads.  Sometimes I just go, I sit and think about the past, the here & now, or even the future.

When we started the trip to Logan on New Year's Day there were kids (and some parents) sledding at the park.  I thought about how Daddy loved to take the grandkids to the park when it snowed.  Of course, a few of us parents (a/k/a kids) loved to go too.  It was so much fun and my girls loved that PaPaw would think of doing something so fun with them.  

The sun was setting as we drove west.  Daddy loved to watch the sun set - to view the picture that God had painted for us.  It is a good time to reflect on God's majesty, His power, and His love for us.  I must admit that Kansas Sunsets are AMAZING!

I think Daddy picked this cemetery plot for it's view.  You can stand there and see his hometown of Logan, KS, there's a field to the south which is home to some horses in warmer seasons.  Off to the west and northwest there are some grasses & country scenery. It was dusk and hard to see, but I know Daddy enjoyed the view.  A person can just pick a spot and slowly turn around and see the land that God created.

Off to the southwest is Logan, Daddy's hometown.  He attended school there, it is the town where my brother Bob was born.  Logan is the town my Grandparents lived in for over 50 years. 

These words just about sum up my Daddy's life.  Now I wish we had put "Christian" under his name.  He wasn't a Christian when he met my Mother.  When they became Christians, God molded them into the spouses, parents and grandparents that God intended them to be.  I thank God for putting me into their  family!

We took Maddie with us - she enjoyed running while I reminisced, took a few pictures, and shed a few tears.  When I started crying, Bob just held me.  

I MISS MY DADDY!