Celebrating Father's

Daddy;
you are a wonderful Father and rarely say a word.
You look at me with kindness and understanding.

You comfort me with your sheepish grins without a sound.

I am grateful for your wisdom for me to start making independent
decisions but living interdependently as family and friends.

Your role model of learning created an open mind in me.

Your ability to teach me that hunger for knowledge is living
lead me to the path of being an educator and writer.

You never complained that your deafness was a problem
but you taught me the environment is the handicap

I admire your wisdom of when to give advice and when to quiet.

I will forever be blessed that you raised my brothers and I
to respect human regard and individual differences.

MY DAD'S
I was so grateful to have foster Fathers that "got it"

Knowing that you were liberated in your thinking
and secure in your ways to teach me to be myself

I appreciate your not answering my every question
but teaching me many ways to find information

Thank you for your patience and support in my growing.

FATHER AND DAUGHTER BY CHOICE:
You taught me that we do not have to have the same blood to be Father and Daughter.

I remember our talk on my 16th birthday when you said,"Love is in the heart and soul
not in the conception nor adoption papers." Love does not hurt anyone

You gave me a sense of self, an appreciation for getting rid of "gender roles" that do not fit.

Together we discovered each other's world's without conditions but with family values
Thanks for allowing me to think and feel and be a liberal and not a die hard party voter

Thanks for teaching me to drive and learn about self accountability in a parenting way

Thanks for all the rides, talks, and sharing of "world view" concerns and issues
Thanks for being a wonderful loving Father who knows the meaning of daughters.

I CELEBRATE ALL OF YOU AS FATHERS AND MEN WHO NEVER ASKED ME TO
THINK AS YOU THINK, FEEL AS YOU FEEL, NOR DEMANDED THAT I FOLLOW
RIDCULOUS RULES; BUT FOLLOWED HUMAN RESPECT AND DIGNITY