What I’m Thankful For

I have a lot to be thankful for.  I have good health, generally.  I have a good job.  I have a home.  I have friends.  And, I have my family.  However, the thing I am MOST thankful for, the thing that means the most in my life is my daughter, Stephanie.  I have posted about her before.  But, it can’t be overstated how much this young lady means to me.

She has a heart of pure gold and a soul that desires to make a mark in this world.  She does not seek or need fame to thrive.  She thrives on giving to others and on doing things that bring joy, happiness, and comfort to others.  Her compassion is boundless.  She has a “can do” spirit that lets her see the possible instead of the impossible.

Here’s what I mean.

When she was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, she was supposed to go trick-or-treating with a few friends.  However, one of her friends was sick and missed school that day.  Stephanie announced after we’d been out trick-or-treating, that she wanted to give her friend 1/3 of her candy because she couldn’t get her own.

During the last Presidential election cycle she was only 15 and unable to vote.  But, she still wanted to be “heard” and to help her friends be “heard” by the candidates on what she felt was an important issue.  She decided, on her own and not as part of a school assignment or anything school related, to create a web campaign to get the candidates to pledge to get the US troops out of Iraq before the end of their first term once they were elected.  She set up a MySpace account and linked to all the major candidates. She wrote a pledge letter and asked any of the kids “friending” her to copy/paste the pledge letter into an email and then email it to each candidate.  The idea being that if enough kids said, “Will you pledge this?  If you do, and are elected, and don’t hold to your pledge, we’ll be old enough to vote and remember this next time.”  She did all of this on her own.  She even managed to get noticed by the Myspace coordinator for Ron Paul and her support ballooned from 40 or so friends to almost 700 in about a weeks time.  Pretty good, for a HS sophomore with no marketing skills!!!
Lastly, she is now a senior in HS and looking to the future.  She has become passionate about protecting the environment.  She wants to pursue a career dealing with public policy as it pertains to the environment and environmental issues.  She believes that what we do has a direct impact on the health of the planet.  Her goal is to help society understand the importance of keeping the environment clean and healthy.

All of this sums up who Stephanie is and what she means to me.  She recently told me that she feels like she’s unaffected by the bombardment of messages in the media about fashion and appearance and material things.  To say that I’m proud of her would be simplifying my feelings about her.  She’s a beautiful, hard working, intelligent and humble young lady.

I am thankful for all of that.  Most of all, I am thankful that God saw fit to make me her dad.  That he felt I was the right guy to guide her through her childhood and help her be the adult she was destined to become.  I am also extremely thankful that her mom was chosen to be the other half of the team to coach her from childhood to adulthood.  I’m grateful for this opportunity.  I know that what Michelle and I have done as parents is the foundation on which Stephanie’s success will be built.   She is my legacy and my shining Angel.  And, most importantly, she is my daughter.