Dad's birthday and many many more

Today is Dad's first birthday, as Adam said, with the King of Kings! Now, that's a party!

We've been preparing for today. Sam and I knew we'd be apart, so we might have overcompensated. A little nervous but so ecstatic over this certainty: 

Isaiah 46:4 

I will be your God throughout your lifetime -- until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you.

God carried Dad along 76 years, 5 months, and 29 days and then saved his soul. Then he carried him another 53 days here on earth and saved so many holy and precious moments that I know we'll remember in Heaven. Then he carried him home. 

So today we celebrate!

Sam and I sported Dartmouth shirts 

Adam so thoughtfully got strawberry shortcake items to celebrate. 

My boys and I had a 50s dance party in the den and ate strawberry yogurt- our closest shortcake version. Dad was a DJ at Dartmouth and could name any artist, track, album and year for pretty much anything from the 50s and 60s. We played those songs while he was in the ICU. 

This birthday is one that I know is so perfect in every way. In hope, I imagine his grandbaby helped him blow out an infinite number of candles. 

This birthday stands in stark contrast to the one prior. Dad's last earthly birthday was so dark, so lonely, so tragic and heartbreaking. 

Sam and I had called him for hours. He always called us on his birthday to wish us happy birthday. A no-nonsense sentiment. (FYI- not our birthday, that was just his humor). He wore his phone around his neck. That day, he never answered. With panic and fear, we called the police and people we knew would help us. When his friend's number showed up on my phone, I was scared to answer. When I did, I heard, "well happy birthday", and my heart just released the clinch of fear and I sobbed. He said he had fallen the day before and had landed in just the wrong way and couldn't move. He had been on the ground - cold, hungry, alone - for 24 hours. On his birthday. It just broke my heart and tore me to pieces. Of course, he refused to go to the hospital. A few days later, he said he felt fine with some food and rest. 

And 5 months and 26 days later, Sam and I were panicking again. Instead of us calling him, his landlord called Adam. It wasn't good. He had been on the floor, sweltering heat, no food, alone, for a length of time that we'll never know. But in retrospect, hindsight, I see that what Satan meant for terror, God made so good. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Satan meant to kill Dad before his heart was safe. And the fierce angel army of God fought to save his life. And three days later (sound familiar?), Dad claimed the sweetest name, Jesus, as his certain security. I never heard a prayer (although a nurse who had known him did that whole night), he never walked an aisle, he was never baptized. But I saw a life buried with Christ and raised to new life. I saw true, pure love, and we had a great relationship before that. This was just so holy. So eternal. Unforgettable. 

This weekend, I watched the IF: Gathering. There was a time of prayer for those unsaved. I, by 18-year-default, thought of Dad. I can't begin to describe the ugly-cry that occurred the micro-split second after that when I fell on my face in praise and gut-wrenching thankfulness to Jesus Christ for saving his soul, for saving my soul, for listening to my one-after-another default prayers of salvation for my dad. And then right after that, a song of worship started: Healing is in your hands. A song that carried me through intense grief over the loss of our baby three years ago. Let me tell you, I could not stop crying because I knew in that time-warping moment that God was showing me the eternal. That He is so close. That He keeps me by His love. That He for 76 years, 7 months, and 20 days carried Dad on this earth. He's carrying me now. And He's carrying you... Whether you know Him or not. He is fiercely in love with you.

And 77 years ago, after my grandmother Helen birthed her first baby, God called Dad His own. Isaiah 49:1 "...Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name."

I am thankful for today. A day to sweetly and sorrowfully remember this smile.

And this one

And my favorite:

I miss this man so much. So, so insanely much. I laugh and cry today. I praise my God today! I have been able to really take the time and let myself process and soak in so many wonderful, sweet, good memories of my dad today. 

Wishing my Dad the very happiest of birthdays and many, many, forever and ever more!