Dear Dad,

Since you are not on social media I am not sure when you will see this. I am fairly confident Mom will fill you in about this post as soon as she reads it. And my guess would be that this will happen sometime in the next 24 hours.

The purpose of this tribute is to give you the honor you deserve and to display my appreciation to God for the Dad that he gave me. With Father’s Day coming up this weekend I wanted to share and express these thoughts publicly.

Is it crazy that you have a 33 year old daughter? Caden just turned 5 and it is crazy to me that I have a 5 year old now. So I am assuming that this is how you feel about Evan and I.

Time sure goes fast.

This is why I wanted to be sure to take a moment and let you know how much I love you. Thank you for being there for me and for supplying so many fun and meaningful memories that I cherish to this day.

Do you remember playing street hockey with Evan and I along with all the neighborhood kids on rollerblades? You were the only Dad out there playing with us and we loved it! Or what about the time you dressed up in high waisted shorts with socks and sandals as a joke to go to my high school orientation? It was funny but I am glad that you changed your outfit before leaving the house. I debated sharing that photo but decided that some memories are better kept in the family photo album instead of being displayed on the internet.

Over the summer after my fifth grade year you took me out to lunch. This was unusual because we didn’t really go out to eat unless it was as a family. We went to Wendy’s – which isn’t even a Wendy’s anymore, it is a Starbucks, and is totally fitting seeing as how much you love Starbucks – and you had a talk with me about entering middle school and how I was growing up. It was the first of many casual conversations about boys and valuing myself and knowing that you thought I was beautiful. I am not sure if that is what you were meaning to get across in that moment but that is what I took away from it.

Due to moments like this I have never doubted that you loved me and I know that is a huge reason that I didn’t pursue or seek out relationships with the opposite sex that would have caused me heartbreak later.

My love for being active and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation came from you. You gave such an active example of taking care of yourself and your love for the great outdoors is something that I really appreciated and adopted into my own life.

I have loved our father daughter trips over the years hiking and backpacking throughout California and Arizona. Half Dome and Humphrey’s Peak were pretty epic. As was the gas station at Ebbets Pass ;).

Also let me take a moment to say that cameras have come a long way since 1995.

Thank you for these memories, for the adventures, for your time, for making yourself available, for loving me enough to set limits, and for supporting my interests.

I am not sure if Josh will take Maisie to Wendy’s or to Half Dome but I know that he is planning on daddy daughter dates. He knows how much these moments with you have meant to me and he wants to establish those same types of memories with her.

I love you and I appreciate all you have done and continue to do for me and now also my own family.

Your daughter, Tam

PS…I think it might be time to #bringbackthestache.

I am linking back to Tim Challies for the great idea! Check out his series The Commandment We Forgot  that looks at the fifth commandment (“honor your father and mother”) and explores the idea of how to obey this command once we are adults.