Begin...
Wow... Love is easy? Where have I heard that? I didn't hear it; I
witnessed it. Some people love is far from easy. I learned that from my adopted
father, Red Beard. Can you guess why he was called that? Yep. A long Red Beard.
I met him when I was about 4. I was not
easy to love. I made his life miserable because I did not want him to be with
my mom and me. However, he was never mean or nasty. He was always wonderful.
Eh, let me go back on that.
He intentionally harassed me as a child.
He would make me scream or yell. That sounds terrible right? Nope, it wasn't
out of meanness. He was trying to give a sweet little girl her voice.
My dad knew what I needed. My heavenly dad
also knew what I needed... a dad to teach me to not be so nice and quiet. Boy,
he sure taught me good.
Stop. That was a quick 5 minutes.
I am going to continue this because it
needs more attention.
Little did I know what my life was going
to be like. If he never taught me to be loud I would have been crushed like a
bug with all the things I would endure. Some of it I sure did not want to live
through, much less think about for the rest of my life.
Back to my Daddy Red Beard, he loved me so
much. He loved me as I was his own. We began a close relationship and it will
continue when I get to heaven.
In April 1994, the doctors said he had 3
days to live if that long. He continued to tell them how wrong they were that
he was not dying. I got to him as quickly as I could. I lived in Kentucky Texas
In those days with him I asked him why he
tortured me so as a child of knocking on the bathroom door or making me be so
loud or yell. He laughed and said he saw the little, sweet, quiet girl and he
knew she would never make it in life. So, he said it was up to him and my new uncles, his best friends, to toughen
her up. That he sure did.
I remember being in the Children's hospital with these 3 crazy guys and they knew I loved pushing elevator buttons... they said first in gets to push buttons. I was first in. They jumped in pushed a button and jumped out before the doors closed. I was THE only one in the elevator. I was 7 years old. As the doors opened I went to the information desk and asked for the floor my little sister was on. The lady told me and asked 2 contractors to escort me up to the floor. They did and I found my family again. It was stuff like that they taught me to overcome. They made me think and not just be a weepy girl that couldn't fend for myself.
Today, he would have been 65. He did not
die when the doctors said he would. He made it almost another whole year,
January 1995. This was not the first time the doctors said he was going to die
and he beat the odds. He died at 44 years old. I pretty much just turned 24.
These have been some hard years since he died, but also some of the easiest
years knowing he is with the Father waiting for his loved ones to get
there.
I say love is easy because he showed love
so easy to a little girl that needed a daddy to teach her so much stuff. He
left before he was done teaching her, but some things only our heavenly Father
can teach. Once I let Red Beard in my heart it was not hard to love him either.
I was richly blessed to have him as my earthly daddy.
Thank you Daddy for all you taught me. Happy birthday, I miss you so much!
