This is my Daddy!

This is my Dad - Terry Staley, and he's a huge part of who I am. When I was thinking about what I should post next about love, I was thinking about my parents and how things they did for me when I was kid taught me about love.

When I was a kid money was not abundant. My Dad worked his butt off and made sure we had everything we needed, but we didn't have money for extras. It was important to my Dad that my Mom stay home and take care of us, so he did what he needed to do to make sure that could happen.

It was my sophomore year of high school and it was time to make the big class ring purchase - I was so excited! It was so much fun to pick out the ring and know that it was going to be custom made just for me. I was shocked when I found out how much it was going to be. I was working at the time and had some money saved, but not enough - so I figured I would just have to save a little more and wait awhile until I could order it. I was kind of disappointed, but it wasn't the end of the world.

Well, a few days later my Mom told me to go ahead and order it, that they were going to buy it for me. I was really surprised because I knew we didn't have that kind of money just laying around, but of course being a 16 yeard old I ordered it right away, said thank you and didn't think much more about it.

A few years later, after I was grown and out of the house, my Mom and I were talking one day. Come to find out my Dad really wanted to buy my class ring as a gift for me and didn't want me to have to pay for it myself. Since all of our money went to food and bills, he didn't know exactly how to do that, so he went to the pawn shop, took HIS class ring and sold it so that he could buy my class ring! WOW!

After finding that out, I felt so valuable, special and loved by my Daddy that he would sacrifice something that he loved and was special to him just for me. I still get teared up when I think about how much my Dad loved me to do that for me. Even to this day, when he gets me a gift that he's picked out himself, it means the world to me (because I know he hates to shop and that he must really love me if he went to the store just for me).

My Dad has taught me a lot about unconditional and sacrificial love because he has modeled that for me my entire life. From him I have learned about faith, honesty, integrity, kindness and character - to always work hard and do the job right no matter what. Thanks Dad - you are a huge example to me and I love you!