grateful

This Father's Day, we are profoundly grateful for fathers who take their call to heart.  Dads who love with gentle hands, kind words, integrity and servants hearts.  Fathers who shepherd their children with diligence and conviction.

I'm so thankful for my Dad, Al.  He was and is an amazing man.  A man of generosity and integrity.  He speaks and lives with conviction.  He lives to make a difference and has such a heart for service.  He instilled in our family the belief that we are meant to do good works.  It isn't a choice, it is our duty and dsetiny; a call.  He loved {and loves} his girls so well.  I might add that he endured our growing up foolishness with an aplomb I admire now that I am in the thick of the growing years with our older boys.  We will pretend said boys did not hear a singular story my father regaled them with at dinner tonight.  My exploits were veiled and vague.  Right?  Suffice it to say, there are some in Rochester who still recall my exemplary driving skills and fire-starting abilities.  Or not.

But I digress.  This isn't about me...and I could go on and on about my beloved father.  I wish every daughter could receive the letters my Dad wrote.  He is a tender heart; a wry, dry wit and a man with a bit of gruff and a gentle sparkle in his hazel eyes to soften it.  The gruff is pretend mostly, anyway.  Sorry, Dad.  I gave you away.   :)  He is the best of being Dutch and the better of Sweden.  Incredibly athletic and so competent with a ball of any kind that it boggles the mind.  Strong as an ox, he once tore a tree stump out with his bare hands.  I'm not even kidding!  Jim can tell the story and my Dad sounds like Paul Bunyon.  He just might be!  In our eyes, he is a legend.  And a hero.

And I mean that.

We are so thankful for Jim's Dad, Dave.  He has lived an incredible life.  He is a man who knows what perseverance is.  He doesn't just show his love, he tells it, too.  He is kind and gentle.  He is also off-color in his Colorado mountain man way.  It's sort of cowboy meets miner?  Except in Dave, he is simply sweet.  Truly, a heart turned to goodness.  Jim recalls his Dad being such a comforter in Jim's childhood.  He was always there.  And he walks well the fine line of being a parent and also being a friend of grown children.  Dave is deep and thinks a lot about life.  He has lived so much life in his years.  His story really is worthy of a novel.  It is inspiring, and he is inspiring.  In fact, Emma Kate and our Anna in many ways are gifts of his story; part of his legacy.  Jim so strongly thought of his father as we listened to God's call to adopt.

Today we feel so blessed for our fathers.

I feel so blessed for the man my children call father.  Jim embodies biblical manhood.  It is an honor to parent alongside him.  And I do truly call myself blessed among women to be his bride.

For this, your fifteenth Father's Day, I salute you, Jim Silburn!