((fathers be good to your daughters))

So Father's Day. We got to celebrate my husband being a father for the first time this year and it was fun. He still has four weeks to meet the little human that will make him "dad" for the first time but he's already been the best father.

My dad is pretty great. One of those people that you don't really appreciate until you're older. I think about how much better he made our childhood than his was and I guess that's really the point. Dad always worked hard and still does. He did and does have an 8-5 Monday-Friday job but it didn't mean he had it easy. I think what I've learned to respect about dad is that he was in at 8 and he left work at 5. In corporate America I think it's almost expected that salary employees just stay longer or come in early or do work on the weekends but not dad because he was coming home to three kids and you could set your watch by him. Since I can remember he would get up early (that I know of he's never been late to work) and make himself lunch - usually sandwiches and a little fold top plastic bag of chips and carry it to work in a brown bag. He sometimes has a fork in his back pocket for transporting back and forth to work. He's like a rock when it comes to doing what he had to do to provide for us. Mom stayed home, which of course was a job in itself, and so money didn't grow on trees. I remember dad sitting down with the check book and crunching numbers and worrying about money but we always had what we needed so, job well done dad.
What's interesting and hard to explain is that dad always came to tuck us into bed and kiss our foreheads and say he loved us. He said it other times too. But for whatever reason the older I got the harder it was for us to connect. I can see that reflected to this day in our relationship, it's never been super easy or natural. I know he loves me and he is proud of me and I know I love him. We just somehow missed that foundation of really being comfortable with each other. At the end of the day though, my dad is a five-star dad. I know that he and mom pray for us every day and pray for their grandbaby and my marriage and anything I tell them we need prayer for. That's a dad.

The second father I celebrated this past Sunday was my husband. My baby daddy. I have said it before and I will keep saying it because it's true and dear to me - the number one thing I look forward to about our baby arriving is seeing this man be a dad. I think even more than I want to see her, I want to see him hold her for the first time. He's nervous about being a dad, especially to a little girl, but if he saw what I see in him he would just know that he's going to be the best at it. It's one of the reasons I love him.
Already he likes to make her things (she will have the coolest crib on the block) and buy her little outfits and he's so helpful during this pregnancy. He has talked to her and read to her and sang to her and I'm excited because she's going to know him. I know she will. I'm a little type A (surprise) and it's hard for me to let other people do things that I want to do myself but I truly look forward to him doing things like baths and diaper changes and feeding her... even if they aren't done the way I would do them they're done with love and I want him to be involved in every part of raising her. 
We have talked a lot about how he prioritizes his relationship with her, and any other children we have but especially our daughter(s). I know that our dads are on this earth to reflect God's love for us and for girls I know this is so important. If we don't find that affirmation and affection somewhere healthy we will find it somewhere that's not. He and I both haven't had a perfect example of what this father-daughter relationship looks like because no dad is perfect so I know there will be some learning for him and for me about how it works. But I know without a doubt he will be her biggest fan and she will be a daddy's girl. And nothing makes me happier.