God Is In This Story

As I sat here this afternoon thinking about Father’s Day I decided to be vulnerable and share. When I was 14 my parents decided to get a divorce. It was unfortunately a very ugly divorce and like a lot of children I was put in the middle. In those days the mother usually got full custody and my dad had visitation from 1-6 pm on Sundays.

When I was with Dad he had 101 questions about what my Mom was doing and when I got home she had the other 101 questions. It was a nightmare! It all came to a head one Saturday morning at 5 am. A friend had slept over the night before and we woke up to the police pounding on the door. They had a search warrant as my dad suspected (rightly so) that my mother’s boyfriend was living with us.

I was mortified. I was attending a Catholic high school and had not told my friends that my parents had divorced. I called my Dad and lashed out in anger. I told him I never wanted to see him again and I didn’t for 16 years. It was the biggest mistake of my life.

In the course of those years I married and had 3 children, but I had no contact with him. Stubborn pride on both our parts. I missed him, but didn’t know how to fix it. I prayed for him and prayed we could somehow restore what the enemy had stolen.

My Dad had been my nurturer. He was the one who took care of me when I was sick. He was the one I spent the most time with. He was my hero…but, in my “pea brain” I thought if he really loved me he would reach out.

Fast forward to the summer of 1982 and I felt God nudging me to reach out to my dad. I knew where he was living so on a Saturday afternoon my husband and I went to see him. I knocked on the door not knowing what to expect. On the other side he said, “who is it?” I said, it’s Cindie. His response, “my Cindie?”

He opened the door and with tears streaming down our faces the past and the pain melted away. As we sat and talked he opened his wallet to show me he had pictures of me from infancy to age 16. Later that evening we brought our children to meet their Grandpa and it was instant love.

About a year later due to health issues he came to live with us. He told my husband and I that this was the best time of his life. I am thankful that we had healing and restoration before it was too late. Thankful for the pain that was erased as we healed from an estrangement that had robbed us of so much.

Only God…it wasn’t until I surrendered it all to Him that He could change my heart and my dad’s too. I wish we had been blessed with more years, but I am thankful we were blessed with the time we had.

My Dad was a loving, kind, humble man. He was my hero. Happy Heavenly Father’s Day Daddy…one day I will see you again.