{ DAY 423 }

Dear Daddy,

I don’t tell you enough all the things that I’m grateful for in you and this letter will hardly do it justice but it’s your birthday today and for that I’m so thankful!  You’re pretty amazing and I can’t believe that I not only get to have you as my father but also my best friend.  It’s so easy to go about the everyday missing how wonderful someone is just because you get to have them around all the time but here are some things that quickly come to mind when I think about you.

You’re so wise!  Maybe it’s because you listen well.  You have some of the best advice to give and I think it’s because you’ve leaned in close to Jesus and been faithful to study his words of life and truth.  Your counsel is priceless and has steered me right many a time.  Thank you for being a good student and teaching me to never stop learning.  You’ve done that by example.  Not only do you learn but you work hard.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever met someone who works harder than you do.  More remarkable is that you don’t complain or lose your joy even when the pressure of life is rolling steady and thick.  Your faithfulness to provide for our family is remarkable.  Thank you.  Lately as I’ve had the privilege of starting this business with you I’m reminded again and again what a diligent worker you are. Watching your rough, large, calloused, yet gentle and precise hands patiently guide my own slender, delicate, inexperienced, and eager hands as we create art is a gift.  You dear daddy are a creative genius.  Most people don’t get to live with a brilliant artist but how thankful I am that I get too! It has colored my world with so much beauty and challenged me to see things in a different light.

When you’re not hard at work or designing you’re serving others and caring about them in a way that leaves me amazed.  I don’t know how you do it but you make everyone you come in contact with know that they are valued.  At a recent wedding I looked over to a near empty table save for one little boy just six years old perched up on his knees animatedly telling you something and you there leaning in to catch every word and asking for more.  You were there genuinely interested in his life and caring.  You’re the first one to say let’s meet this need or that need.

If someday I can be half the person you are daddy then I shall be quite delighted.  Thank you for showing me what real love looks like day in and day out.  Thank you for taking out the nasty compost and walking with mom in the dark of morning and for going to work in the freezing cold.  I admire and respect you so much.  You’re the best!  I’m crazy thankful you’re alive and we get to celebrate your life.  I love you daddy.  Happy Birthday!

Always and forever your little girl
~elaini