He's All In

I am blessed!

We just spent a great week with my dad, and I am overwhelmed with how blessed I am to have him in our lives.

It has been a tough year. When my mom passed away last May 3, I had no idea what our life would look like almost a year later. I knew we wanted to be closer to my dad but had no idea how that was going to happen.

Then God dropped us in California.

After being 2000 miles away from our family for 10 years we were finally going to be in driving distance.

Since we've been here, he has made the yucky 7 hour trek every couple of months, just to spend time with us. It isn't easy for him, but he does it because he knows how important this relationship is. We need him.

And because he pours over the kids, they respond to him in the most amazing way.

While he was here each kid expressed their desire to be near him in a different way, and it was so cool to watch.

Joshi is not a morning person, but my dad is. My dad is actually a too-early-in-the-morning-for-anyone-in-their-right-mind-person. He regularly gets up around 4 in the morning!

Yikes!

Every morning my dad was here, Joshi set his alarm for 6 o'clock, so that he could get up and spend a couple of hours with him alone.

Precious.

And once Seth was up, he was attached to his Papa's side. If my dad went somewhere his little buddy was right by his side.

Faith and Kylee spent time making sure Papa was okay. Watching out for him. Especially at Disney. They were very concerned about how he was, if he needed anything, making sure we didn't lose him :) Also, my dad, who has perfect day time vision, is essentially blind in the dark. So they spent a lot of time making sure I didn't swing him into too many walls in the dark caverns of the rides at Disney!!

These kids yearn for this relationship. We spent a lot of years too far away from grandparents, and now that they have a chance to have it they are hungry for it!

I am so glad that he chooses to be here. That he chooses to spend his time, to make the sacrifice of his comfort and his desires, to be here with us. I know he could be in a lot of places, but he chooses to be with us. I love that when he is here he is all in for whatever they want to do. If they want to play Bananagrams for hours on end, he's in. If they want to go to the park and play football or bags, he's in. No complaining, he just smiles and goes with it.

The time he is spending here is something they will never forget and it blesses me!!

Kristen