On Sleeping and Sacrifice

Today is Tyler's birthday and his day off work, so I had great plans all mapped out in my head on how I would create a nice, relaxing day for him. You see, Tyler doesn't need much in the way of things, but he sure enjoys sleeping in on a rare occasion, for example. Well, to make a long story short, Tess needed her Daddy to hold her while I got the boys ready for school early this morning, and Chase needed his Daddy to take him to the doctor for an ear infection later in the morning. Mommy also needed Daddy to pick up some groceries - and - oh, could he please pick up his own ice cream birthday cake from Dairy Queen while he was already out? It seemed more efficient that way. He also made his own coffee today before I could get to it! You get the idea. But, that's what Dads do, it seems, always rising to the occasion. And in my case, always without complaint. Happy Birthday babe. I promise that one day soon I'll pull off some sleeping-in-time for you! You make every day sweeter for us...

No, today isn't Father's Day, but speaking of Dads, I've been thinking about mine all day today. I just got a call that he made it out of surgery successfully. They cleaned his carotid artery out for the third time, this time because of more than an 80% blockage. Praise God that his doctor found another spot that ended up being nothing, but that resulted in a scan that found the blockage. The boys woke up and prayed for GrandDad first thing this morning, and Jack even promised that he would pray for him when he ate lunch at school, because that's when the surgery would start. My kids are crazy about their GrandDad for a thousand reasons. Maybe it's the way he's interested in each different personality. He seems to magically relate to them all in their own specific way. Maybe it's the Skittles. He even listened to me last week when I worried out loud to him about being "enough" of a mom to all of my kids. "Just be there, sweetheart" he said, and somehow the pressure didn't seem quite so overwhelming. If you're reading this today, would you pray a quick prayer for my dad? He'll spend tonight in the ICU with hopes of going home tomorrow (isn't that amazing with a scar going all the way down his neck?).