Five Years Ago...

Well, tonight is not adoption related, but a tribute to my dad, who passed away five years ago today after a three year battle with lung cancer (he was only 60 when he died). I was a big, and I mean big, Daddy's Girl. He was an all-around awesome guy who we lost way, way too soon. He was just the greatest guy ever! Yes, I'm biased, but honestly just about anyone who knew him would agree with me. He was patient, smart, laid-back, talented... I learned so many things from him but sure wish I'd had the extra years to learn so much more.

We were two peas in a pod in a lot of ways, though he was far more patient and laid-back than I am (I've always joked that for all the weird stuff I inherited from him, why didn't he pass along those qualities?). But we loved talking politics, policy, tv, books, anything and everything. I remember my brother discovering the author Harlan Coben for us (my absolute favorite, if you like mystery type novels - especially his earlier books) and one of us would be reading in the living room and start laughing - so we'd have to read the passage to the other one so neither of us was missing out.

Our birthdays were fun - we started a tradition, since our birthdays were 10 days apart. It was nothing fancy, we'd just pick out a restaurant for dinner and maybe go to a movie. But he'd spend the whole week researching options for restaurants, we loved to try something different that we maybe wouldn't do with a bigger group. And one of the first years, we went to see The Crying Game - clearly not knowing what the big surprise was, as if we did we probably wouldn't have picked it for a dad/daughter outing!

I really can't believe it's been five years already. I still miss him every day of course - especially, say, a week ago at midnight when I discovered a section of my basement kind-of flooding, and I didn't know what to do about it! He was just always there for me when I needed him - even when he was sick, like when he talked me through a toilet repair over the phone. In his last couple of months, when he was so very tired, he would still email me every day because I'd moved out of state for a new job and then got laid-off 8 weeks later and was overwhelmed by it. He knew that just hearing from him made it all better, though I felt badly because I knew it had become such an effort. He did anything and everything he could for me and I was a lucky, lucky girl. I know I was lucky to have had him in my life for 33 years, and that we were able to prepare for the inevitable ending, but I still wish I'd had more.

So thanks for indulging me for spending some time letting the world know about this great guy.

And not to get on a soapbox or hijack the message of the post, sincerely, but for all you parents out there... if you smoke, please consider quitting. I know that had it not been for the smoking, I'd likely have a very excited soon-to-be Grandpa here sharing all of this with me. I know 33 years is more than a lot of people get, but it still wasn't enough when he had so much more to offer...

Thanks for bearing with me today! And no, not a dang thing new in adoption world. Sent an email to our dossier person on Monday with a load of questions, and I'm still waiting for a response. So still feeling impatient on that front! Hopefully my next post will be filled with happy, uplifting news!!!