I miss you dad by Jodi Dunlap

I miss how we got to stay up late on Thursday nights, how right before we knew he was coming home we would be running all over the house trying to make sure everything was clean. I miss how every Thursday night when he would get home around 10:30pm from working 2 1/2 days every week in Tallahassee and Madison, FL, he would open the door and yell “babies” as loud as he could with his arms wide open, and we would all come running from every direction of the house. All of us practically jumping on him. I miss how he would get so excited when the FSU Saturday football game would come on and how I would watch him and some of my siblings start cheering and yelling and even though most the time I had no idea what was going on or why we were yelling and cheering I would join in anyways. I miss those Sunday mornings church services,  watching him preach Gods word and how every fourth or so Sunday he would call all kids from the church to come sit up next to him on the stage, while he preached the “Children’s sermon”. I miss how on Sunday afternoons, us seven younger kids would wait for him to wake up from his(as he used to call it) “Sunday afternoon nap”, so he could take us somewhere. Either it be the movies, the park to play football or Frisbee, or even to the most boring of places that he thought were so interesting and though we rarely said so, we wouldn’t agree. But some how he could always make it fun. I miss walking by the front room during the day and seeing him work so hard and well on all the different websites he used to make or trying to figure out how to work the new gadget he just had bought. I miss him asking one of us kids to go get him a glass of grape juice in the that ugly special glass he liked so much, or how when I hugged him, he always smelled like “Chaps” cologne.

 I miss the times when I would get into trouble and mom would send me to him to get a “lick”(spanking) and he would tell me to pretend to cry and lick me on the cheek, so I wouldn’t have to strait up lie to mom about him giving me a “lick”. I miss how he would rock me in that rocking chair late at night singing
“Daddy Loves His Little Girl”.

 I miss how no matter how old one of us kids were turning (9 or 19) he would wake up early, wake the birthday kid up and let him/her pick two sibling to take with them then he would take us to Cracker Barrel, buy us breakfast, then let the birthday kid pick out a birthday present from the gift shop, and let the other other two of kids go pick the 11 different flavors of the candy-canes.(one for each kid and mom)

 I miss how no matter how busy things got he would always found time and ways to spend time with us and no matter how hard times got he always kept God first and reminded us to do the same. I also miss how he was so compassionate to everyone he knew and met and how everyone called him Shrek and how he always wanted the best for us and no matter how impossible it looked or how expensive it got he always believed and helped us go for our dreams. I could write a book of all the little and big things I miss about you.
But most of all, I miss you, my Dad.

 On Thursday Sept. 15, 2005 I woke up, did some chores, brushed my teeth, put away all the new clothes that I had bought the day before with my older sister Anna. I put some football shaped ice cubes I bought for him in the freezer, thinking to myself that my Dad and I were going to watch the FSU football game in two days and how he would love those football things in a glass of grape juice during the game.

 If someone was to tell me that my father was to go to his everlasting home that day I would have laughed and told them that he was perfectly healthy,  seeing 48 hours earlier and talking to him the day before I would never would have thought that anything could’ve  happened that day.
 
Around 1:00pm that Thursday my sister and I were on both of the computers in the front room of our house and the phone rang, it was a number from Madison, FL. Ellie picked up one of the two cordless phones in our house not knowing my mom already picked up on the other line. About a minute later Ellie hung up the phone and looked at me in a way I will never forget. Then said “Dad had a heart attack and they said it doesn’t look good”. I ran upstairs, passing my ten and eight year old brother and sister and headed for my parents room. The door was locked and I could hear how shaky my moms voice was though the door.

  My dad was in a hospital 3 hours away and all of our cars were gone with the older kids. My mom was trying to get a hold of them, but since they were all in class they had there cells off. After 30 minutes of waiting, calling schools and kids that lived out of town,  I saw my brother-in-law coming up the stairs and 15 minutes after that my other siblings got home from school with the cars and we all left for Madison. We were turning out of our neighborhood when found our Father hadn’t made it. The heart-attack took him within seconds.
 

 I remember hoping and praying that this was a big mistake and in the back of my mind I was waiting for him to walk in late that Thursday as he usually did yelling “babies”, but I knew that I would never hear him say that or anything else again.

 For weeks I asked God why he would take my dad. The man who in the past had preached several churches, who was a Christian counselor, who still had ten kids and seven of them under the age of 18, who still had three sons to give blessings to and five daughters to walk down the isle, who had 2 young grandsons who would never know how great their Lolo was, I ask him why he would take a man you loved and served him so faithfully. I asked God those questions over and over again.
 
 I knew what God what telling me from the beginning but it took me a while to believe it. He was saying,.  Jodi, I know what I am doing. I knew that you would be asking these questions before I took your earthy father and it’s okay to wonder. I would never give you more then you handle. I have a plan for you and your life. All things work together for good to those who love me and who are according to my purpose.
 
I still have moments where I wish more than anything I could talk to or see my dad. But, I also know how blessed I was to have such wonderful Father for almost 15 years and how happy we will be when you meet in heaven. -Jodi