Father's Day 2013

My dad.

I'd never sit here and tell you all that I had the perfect childhood. However, I definitely won't tell you I had a hard one, either. I wasn't a criminal at age 12 or anything like that; like the majority of small town kids, I had limited range to commit too much malarky. Be that as it was, I may've escaped my child and teen years without a juvenile record, but I still managed to put my parents through the ringer a few times before I moved out of the house.

It's one thing for a mom to rustle with her teenage daughter, and all of the angsty head-clashing that comes out of it. I fully expect to grit and grind with Sydni here and there when she's that age, because I know it's normal. It's another thing, though, for a Dad to learn the ways of coping with a hormonal teenage girl. Luckily for Dad, I wasn't one of those girls who had all kinds of teen-boyfriend drama, or genetic acne issues, or even .. I dunno, suppressed sexuality problems. No, nothing like that.

Most of the tension in my adolescent years stemmed from my adoption, and the abandonment issues that it created for me... regardless of what my parents could or would do.


1985. the first time i met my parents.

I'll start there. Any guy can easily become a father to another human being. It takes a man to become a Dad. It takes an even more rare breed of men to commit themselves into that life-long relationship with a child who is not theirs.

I met my parents for the first time in Denver, CO, when I was brought off the plane by the nuns of the orphanage back in the Philippines. Yes, I'm adopted. Yes, my parents were the original Brangelina ;). << I'm joking, but c'mon, as popular as foreign adoptions have become in the last decade, I can't help but giggle a little.
Anyway, I said all of that [and omitted much more] to say that I have been blessed, beyond words, with a DAD who gave everything he had to have a child with my mom. They tried nearly everything, but when they realized it wasn't meant to be for them to have a biological child, they prayed and found themselves choosing me out of a matrix of several other babies.

You don't realize how fortunate you are until you look at a composite of yourself and 15 other kids and know that not all of those children were selected right away by other families for adoption. Then you realize that you had it made - a family who provided for you, guarded you from people who didn't necessarily understand what couthe was when it came to addressing bi-racial families, and never once behaved like you weren't the product of their own fibers.

And while my mother was [and is] one of the strongest women I have ever met, my dad was the head of our household, and I never once had to question his dedication, his loyalty to our family, his availability when we needed him most, or the fact that he would do anything it took to make sure we had what we needed. He was DAD, through and through, the kind of man who makes mistakes and admits them, who loves unconditionally but enforces rules when they're broken.

We've been through a lot. I mean, a lot.
He's never once walked away or led me to think that I couldn't go back, even when I made some huge mistakes of my own. He's the definition of a Dad, and now a grandfather [aka "Pappy"], too.

just some of my family...
heidi. dad. jonathan. me. syd. mom

Sydni doesn't know just yet how lucky she is to have a grandpa like Dad.
She will, though. (:


pappy. syd. mama. | "3 generations"

Happy Father's Day, to my dad, and to all of the other real DADs out there who know what it's like to stick by theirs, without question, who commit without doubt, and who are there -- REALLY there --  when they're needed. It's because of parents like you that this world can still produce decent men and women.

♥ you dad

I love you, Dad.

xo | cmd