I have no idea what I expect father\u2019s day to be like; but I\u2019m pretty sure it shouldn\u2019t be like this years\u2026 <\/p>\n
Our kids woke us up fighting and arguing with each other around 5:30 in the morning. Stupid things, dumb things, the most ridiculous things that they argue about, so I started my day with a little less than 5 hours of sleep (in truth i kind of dozed in and out from 5:30-7:30, so I may have gotten about 6 hours of sleep). I don\u2019t function really well on less than 7.5 hours of sleep. So I\u2019ve been kind of dragging all day, ready to fall asleep, can\u2019t barely keep my eyes open.<\/p>\n
I also have such a hard time when being amazed at how American my children are in their safe and comfortable homes, all the food they can eat (and snub their noses at), all the things they have and take for granted. <\/p>\n
I can\u2019t fault my children for having such cushy and safe lives; I\u2019m glad they have them, but I wish, I sure wish that when they sat down to pray for their food, they truly knew how thankful they should be that they had so much to choose from. I wish they knew how lucky they are to be able to go to the doctors every time their \u2018tummy hurts\u2019; and know that they can get the best medicine that civilization has to offer them\u2026<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m glad to be in a part of the world where I can give my children these things, but, I wish there was someway that they could see how really blessed they are, without them having to go without\u2026 it\u2019s funny (ironic) how you really can\u2019t learn appreciation for things you have except to experience their lack\u2026 Perhaps that\u2019s why suffering is so important\u2026<\/p>\n
So, I don\u2019t fault my children for all the things they have and take for granted, but as I sat there today, eating my 15 fried clams, watching my wife eat her 13 dollar steak, watching my kids throw out their 8 dollar chicken meals, that they just decided they didn\u2019t want after we ordered them; I was thinking about my son and daughter in Haiti much more than usual.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s odd, that while during the day today I was wishing that my children were somehow better behaved, and somehow more wizened in the ways of the suffering people experience in the world, so that they could be more appreciative, I probably should have spent a little bit more time, as a father, enjoying the fact that I am a father, and I do have children to annoy me, wake me up at 5:30 A.M., and fight and argue with each other.<\/p>\n
Because all the while, as my tiredness was attributing to my frustration in how my children were acting, I was also missing Christella and Jediah something terrible. <\/p>\n
How can you really have a happy father\u2019s day if all of your children aren\u2019t around to wake you up at 5:30 in the morning, to fight and argue with each other, and to have all the healthy food they could want to eat. <\/p>\n
At the end of the day, I have realized, that I should have been myself more thankful today for the time that i did have with my children that are already living at home, and thank God that by the experience of the lack of having some of my children at home, he helped me realize that I need to appreciate what I do have through the sadness of the experience of what I don\u2019t have.<\/p>\n
Hrm\u2026 I guess being so tired makes me ramble too\u2026 but, Donovan, Braeden, Bella: Thank you for being my children \u2013 even with all of your humanity and child-like naivety, and Christella and Jediah, I miss you guys so much, and look forward to the time when we will all be together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have no idea what I expect father\u2019s day to be like; but I\u2019m pretty sure it shouldn\u2019t be like this years\u2026 Our kids woke us up fighting and arguing with each other around 5:30 in the morning. Stupid things, dumb things, the most ridiculous things that they argue about, so I started my day … Continue reading “A day to be sad\u2026 and grateful”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adoption","category-diary","category-family"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/darthjedi.logiodice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}