Dear Dad,

Today marks two years that we have been without you. While I will never be able to erase the haunting memories from the morning we found out you were gone, my attention in recent months has turned to the things about you that I miss and think about the most. To commemorate this day I have decided to share some of those at the forefront of my mind with you;
1. I miss when you would hug me and I'd feel your scratchy face so in need of a shave.
2. I miss walking into a room and seeing your face light up. I see that still in my life, from my husband and my children, but I think there is a special light that appears when a father sees his daughter. It is humbling to me, when I realize how loved I have been. I miss being your baby girl.
3. I miss how Lauren would stand in front of you after church on Sunday and wait for you to tell her how beautiful she looked. I love it that she remembers how you always noticed her shoes.
4. I miss the laugh and squeal I would hear from Avery as she would steal your pens, papers and stickie notes and how we would all laugh as you called her a 'little beggar' and chase after her.
5. I am sorry that you have not seen Sullivan as he grows. I am so sad that he has missed a relationship with you. I know that you two would be an inseparable pair. He is all boy and would truly have loved 'fixing' stuff and fishing with his Papa Richard.
6. I miss the relationship you had with Jordan. Through this home renovation we have been doing I have heard Jordan say so many times, "I just wish your dad were here to help us, he'd be so excited right now." I miss how you would call each other to share cracks about the Cyclones and Hawks. I miss when he would call you with spiritual questions. I miss that the two of you were friends.
7. I miss Sunday night bible studies with you.
8. I miss all the teasing you did to mom. Sunday lunches are not the same with out hearing you tell mom she needed to 'run into the house and get lunch on the table'. I miss how you would criticize most of her meals, and then go back for seconds and thirds. Dont worry, Jordan has taken over some of this responsibility. You taught him well and he enjoys giving her a very hard time.
9. I miss all your funny sayings that made you, you. I miss laughing at you when you'd say something that no one understood but you.
10. I miss how you wore black socks with shorts and tennis shoes, or worse, slippers.
11. I miss your gaudy ties.
12. I miss how much you loved being surrounded by your kids.
13. I even miss your temper, which unfortunetly as my husband likes to remind me - I inherited!
14. I miss how you gave everyone who was close to you a nickname.
15. I miss having you as my biggest fan at sporting events in jr. high and high school - 'Draw blood Becky!'
16. I miss watching you play tennis. We all have a good time at your expense now - discussing how you liked to play the net in doubles because that meant you wouldn't have to move much!
17. I miss the random gifts you would buy for us. Some of which I dont think we ever truly understood but we always knew they were picked out with more care and thought than we would ever know.
18. I think what has been bothering me most in recent weeks is that very soon I will be bringing another member of our family into the world. It breaks my heart that I will never see you hold this baby. That it will never reach up and pull on your mustache and never get to hear your laugh. I miss that it will never get to know how you could make someone feel like the most special person in the world by picking out special little things about them and highlighting them. I pray that Lord willing this baby will come to know Jesus as its Savior and that one day in heaven it will get to meet Papa Richard.

With all that, I am grateful for some things that have happened since and due to your death. The salvation of family members and my own desire and hope for heaven. In my christian walk before your death heaven was a place that I wanted to go to 'someday', but in all honesty, it wasn't a place that I felt I wanted to go to now. Losing you has made me long for heaven, long for a place of peace and where I will spend every moment of every day praising my heavenly Father who prepared the place just for me.

We miss you every single day. I wish for one more day here on earth with you but I know that one more day would not be enough, for I'd be left wishing for, one more day.

All my love,

Boomer...