Thoughts about Dad

This year I turned 17. I'm one of the lucky ones who got to do this twice. When I turned 17 the first time, I was not even 24 hours in a foster-care shelter. My future was uncertain, but somehow I knew I would land on my feet.

That was exactly half my life ago.

This year as I turned 17 again, my foster father- no, I can't even call him my foster father, my Dad- sits in a hospital room awaiting a second round of chemotherapy for Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia. They had hoped it was only going to be one round, a month in the hospital, done deal. No such luck there. Second round, as well as a stem cell transplant. Instead of one month, now it will be three months more. He will be hospitalized for all of the holidays.

His future is uncertain, and I try to be as positive as possible that he will land on his feet.

I try not to be stressed, to play it off stoically, but inside I keep thinking, this is a man who made me believe that all fathers weren't assholes. He gave me away at my wedding, not three years after becoming my father. He introduced me to broccoli ice cream... ;-)

Really, he is the man who saved my life.

How can I save his?

Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad. ~Author Unknown

I love my father as the stars - he's a a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart. ~Adabella Radici

Old as she was, she still missed her daddy sometimes. ~Gloria Naylor

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. ~George Eliot