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Having eight children it's obvious there is another "Dad" in my life but this posting will be about a very special "Dad", my Keith. Keith came into our lives when we needed him the most..... I met Keith while my husband was dying with lung cancer and my two youngest son's were just little boys. (Nine and eleven) I pray none of you ever go through the pain of watching someone die from cancer. It's a horrible time and made even worse when a stay at home Mom has to go to work and her children have to take over.
I guess it goes without saying that by the time Keith came into our lives our boys were very confused. Not only had they watched their father die but suddenly they had a new "dad" in their lives. That first year was one if I had been Keith I would have walked out and never looked back. The boys resented him and never missed an opportunity to show it! To this day he talks about how mad they would get at him and how they would run to the walnut tree on the back of our property, climb it and stay for hours! If I had been the step mother I'm not sure I would have "liked" these children, much less love them but loved them he did!
Through the years I watched two little boys grow into fine young men and Keith was behind them every step of the way....Teaching them all the things a man needs to know to make a woman happy.... How to tie a tie, how to open doors for women, to buy flowers just "because", to always put the woman first in your life, to work hard and climb to the top of any job you do and to support those you love whether it be with money or moral support.
I watched Keith cheer for my boys at football games, grieve when an injustice came up in their lives and beam when they graduated from college, got married or started climbing the corporate ladder. Their accomplishments were truly his accomplishments. After all, he was their "father" if only from loving their mother. To this day they tell people he's their dad and he calls them his sons.
My older kids are his children too....He loves those grandbabies just as much as I do and loves telling people about them. He worries when their jobs aren't going good and panics when bad weather hits the areas they live in. How could any woman be so lucky?????
Then if this man hadn't deserved the title "Dad" enough, in 1999 he earned the title all over again....This time when we went into foster care to pay back some of the Blessings in our lives, we turned around to be Blessed again when two precious little ones came into our home. For over two years we loved those children like our own and yet knowing in the back of our minds they really weren't "ours" and if the parents did as the courts instructed they would be leaving our lives.
Those times were both bittersweet and happy. How could you not pray these precious children were returned to their birth parents and yet how could you not pray they stayed with you? In the end the parents made that decision for us. They chose to continue their lives of drugs and we chose to take on the responsibility of parents at the age of 52 and 63.
Suddenly for the first time in Keith's life he really WAS a father. A responsibility that he entered in the same way he did with my children....Loving those little ones and wanting only the best for them. So, at a time when most men his age are doing the things they want in life, Keith is off on a contract working so his little ones can get the braces they are both going to need. Does he complain? Only about being away from us. The rest of the time it's how much he's going to be able to do for his children when he gets home.
So this Father's Day I have two Blessings in my life....The Dad that raised me and the man that chose to be a Father to my children. How lucky can a girl get? Blessings, Sher |
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Posted by Anonymous
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