I’ve learned that sometimes you get caught in a blessing and don’t realize it. That is exactly what happened during your 2016 Halloween. It was perfect. I got you girls home around 4:45 and started feeding you. Mom got home around 5:00 and started getting all of her things done. Soon thereafter, she started dressing you while I got the truck cleaned out and your baskets ready to go. First, Avaleigh got dressed. Once you were dressed, it was your turn, Lindley. Avaleigh and I played outside while you got ready. Once you got ready, out come little Lindley.
Lindley, you looked so stinking cute. You had a tail on the back of your outfit that would just wiggle when you walked. IT. WAS. SO. FUNNY. I just can’t begin to describe it. I wish I would have captured it on video.
But the night was just so busy! We had to hurry to Nana’s house, then to the trunk or treat, and finally Gigi’s. Everyone wanted y’all to come and we never really got caught up in the moment. We were so busy doing that we didn’t understand that we needed to be busy in being in the moment. I think it finally hit us and we started slowing down and enjoying.
However, it really hit me when I looked at our picture together.
For the one day, I just stared at this picture. It was almost cathartic for me. As I looked at the picture, I thought back on all of the things that I worried about at one time.
I didn’t marry until I was 30. I didn’t have kids until I was 37. All of my friends did that in their early 20’s. At one point, I really thought that having kids wasn’t in the cards for me. For the longest, I prayed about being a husband and a father. So desperately, I wanted to be a husband…but more that, I wanted to be a Dad. Don’t get me wrong, my prayers involved having a good job and being a good person. Mainly, though, I prayed about being a husband and a father. If it would have happened when I prayed, it wouldn’t involved your mother….which means it wouldn’t have involved the you we have now. It had to happen in his time….
At that moment, I realized that everything I had prayed for was in this picture…this is what God’s plan was for me…this is what God planned for my life to look like….
and it was beautiful. Perfect, even.
God has a plan for you. It will show up in his time, not your’s.
I will loved yesterday, tomorrow, and forever,
Daddy
Dad of Girls 