It's a Day full of Holidays

Sunday is Father's Day. It is also my dad's birthday. I have already wished him a happy day for both occasions. He called earlier today to tell me that he and Mom were about to board and cruise away. They are on their way to Alaska for a week long fun filled cruise. Once on the ship, the cell phone calls are lots of coin per minute so he didn't want us to call him. The picture above is obviously an old one but it is one of my favorites of my parents with the grandkids. We were in Las Vegas having dinner.
My dad became my dad in not the usual way. While he is not my biological father, he is my father in every way possible. I remember when my sister and I sat down with him to discuss what we were going to call him. He told us we could call him Paul or Dad but just don't call him "late for dinner". I don't think a 10 and 7 year old got his brand of humor all of the time. It took a bit of time for me to call him dad. The man that I was forced to call dad for a few years was not in fact my dad nor did he ever act as if he were my dad. So that moniker did not evoke any soft warm feeling for me for a long time. Once I felt I could break down the wall and think of Paul as "dad", that was it. He has always been Dad. The only time he is Paul is when we are mad at him, much like a parent calling a child by their full name when the parent is angry with the child. So sometimes he is "Paul Dean" and he knows we are not pleased or are being condescending toward him. My mother is not spared this treatment of having us call her by her first name or more often called by her many nicknames. This was a habit we developed in high school. All of my friends began this trend of calling our parents by their first names. Funny, when I have told people this, they think that our parents were or should have been upset by our seeming lack of respect. They never were and never tried to change our habit. We did not ever mean it in a non respectful way. I am veering off of my intended topic...
I am going to let you all know something that has been said by many and it does hold true. You don't have to give birth or be related to someone to consider them your own. My dad not only treated us as if we were his own, so did his entire family. ALL of them have always made us feel like we have belonged. It was important to two little sad, scared and emotionally scarred girls. It is still important to us as two adult grown women with children of our own. My sister and I will never forget that we had a dad that was our biological dad. A dad that loved us and didn't want to leave us but was not given that choice. God needed another good angel. He died when he was to young. He hadn't gotten to live or enjoy a good portion of his life. He didn't get to know his daughters, he didn't get to do a lot of things. Instead he made sure that his daughters had a guardian angel and all sorts of different angels that helped to pull his little girls out of harm's way. They may have suffered at the hand of those who were hardened and cruel but those angels always made sure we got into a safe harbor and kept close watch on us. Our angels on earth have had to be our mom and then our dad, Paul. They were given the task of taking care of us and making sure we were happy, well adjusted, productive, successful people. Not easy under the best of circumstances let alone the ones we were in.
My mom has been blessed with a great husband who loves her with all of his heart, my sister and I have had the blessings of having a dad who loves and respects us, our children have had the best "Papa" any kid could ask for. His grandbabies are the light of his life.
So Dad, it is with huge amounts of heaping love and gratitude that I wish you a happy Father's day and a very happy Birthday. You are the best dad a kid could wish for.