Happy Birthday, Papa.

Today is Adam's dad's birthday. He would have been 71. It's kind of been an emotional morning. It's only been nearly 2 months since his passing. We miss him so much. We miss his random phone calls to just check up on us and to ask if the kids can come out to play. We think about him everyday. Multiple time a day. The kids especially. It always makes me so happy when I hear them talking to each other or to Jacob about their Papa. They sure do love their Papa. They have so many memories of him. And I'm sure the memories will stay with them forever. They are pretty young, but surprisingly they understand so much. The other day we were in the car and had picked up some pictures...some were of Papa. Jacob recognized Papa right away, and started pointing and saying, "Papa. Nana. Papa." Macie instantly went into teacher mode. She started "teaching" Jacob. She said, "That's right, that's Papa. He died. But his Spirit is still alive. His body is in the box, but he is happy. He's not sick anymore. He loves us. He's watching us and wriggling his eye brows at you, and smiling at you." Of course, I was bawling. But, she was so right. She had been listening, and she did understand. She wasn't just repeating something that we had told her, it was like she really understood it. She knew what she was talking about.



So, today is a bittersweet day. But, we will be celebrating with Polish sausages at Costco, circus peanuts, and a little lemon meringue pie. I don't think Bryan would have had it any other way! I have many memories of lemon meringue pies and Bryan. He said it was my favorite and always brought one home for me. But I think he liked it a lot, too. ;-) When I eat my hot dog, I'll say, "Well, what did ya think? Pretty good huh? And it's only $1.50." He was such a wonderful man.

Happy Birthday!