My Valentine’s Surprise

It was a typ­i­cal early morn­ing call with my dad. He always likes to ring me early in the morn­ing on his way to work and catch me up on things in the far and dis­tant land of St. Louis, MO. I have really been miss­ing home these last few weeks so I’ve been cher­ish­ing his calls more than usual. As our con­ver­sa­tion was com­ing to a close, he said to me very non­cha­lantly, “Did you get my Valentine’s Day card?” That woke me up imme­di­ately and I answered almost shyly and in dis­be­lief, “You sent me a Valentine’s Day card, Dad?” I wasn’t in dis­be­lief because he’s not the type of dad to do that, but because I’m always wait­ing for the day when I’ve been away from home long enough that peo­ple just for­get these kinds of things. As any daugh­ter would be, I was thrilled to hear the news. He nor­mally gets me those song cards that play a nice lit­tle catchy tune when you open them so I was assured that’s what he sent along this time. And when I asked him, he sim­ply replied, “No, this one is straight from my heart.”

A few days later as I opened up the card and began to read, my emo­tions began to stir and I con­tin­ued read­ing in a shiny blur of tears. This is how it read.

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Do you know how thank­ful I feel to be a part of your life, or how my heart fills with love when I think of that lit­tle girl I used to hold on my lap or tuck into bed with a kiss?

Do you know how lucky I feel to have shared in the joys and the adven­tures of watch­ing you become the per­son you are today?

Do you know how proud I am to have you as my daughter?

You’re the woman I truly admire, a friend I love to spend time with, and the daugh­ter I love so much. Happy Valentine’s Day.

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Inside were two rose petals and his own words, “I had just hung up the phone with you when all these thoughts came and then I found this card. Unbe­liev­able. Love ya, Dad.”

I needed to hear these words from him. He’ll never under­stand what this card means to me. And because I never want to for­get, I’m writ­ing it hear in this online jour­nal. I will one day get to look back over all of the mem­o­ries we’ve doc­u­mented on our blog and this is one I want to always remem­ber. I love you so much, Dad.

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This is my dad, always want­ing to show us a good time. Yes, that’s me in midair.

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Here’s the lit­tle girl he was talk­ing about. And…my big bro!