One of my greatest learnings from being a parent is selflessness. What use to be my time and my money is now time and money I want to spend and invest in my girls. The greatest example of this in my life is my Father. I grew up in a nice house in a good neighborhood and we went on vacations every year. We didn’t have cable and never drove new cars. Growing up I never understood why we didn’t have these things and my friends did, but now that I am a parent, I understand completely. My Dad devotes his life to his family. When he wasn’t working, he was spending time with me and my three siblings, going on bike rides, having us help him rake the leaves in the yard, or watching movies. He sacrificed to provide a good life, college education, a wedding (for me so far) for us. I know he would have enjoyed cable TV and a new car. Even now, he selflessly spends his time teaching Olivia how to ride a bike, or driving me and the girls to family events, and is letting us live in a second home he bought for when he retires.
This is my favorite time with my Dad. It’s during the father-daughter dance at my wedding. We are dancing to Moon River, a song he chose, and he is singing it while we are dancing. Tears are running down my face.
Happy Father’s Day Dad! Thank you for being selfless and being an example for me. I love you.
Today is also my 6th wedding anniversary. I have to admit, I forgot, so when my husband showed up with flowers this morning, I wondered why he would buy flowers for Father’s Day and asked the shameful question “Why did you bring flowers home?”…Since I shared a picture of my father-daughter dance with my dad from my wedding, I thought I would share the first-dance with my husband. Even though we took dance lessons and even changed our song to More by Bobby Darin, an easier song to dance to, he still forgot the simple box step and was stepping on the bottom of my dress.
We’ve gone from no kids to two kids, me working to me not working, living with our families to owning two homes. There have been many many good times and many many hard times. We’re still here, together, and finding our relationship again after a six year whirlwind.
Happy Anniversary! I promise I won’t forget next year…
Love, Chrissy