We say that we lost our dad on January 21, 2007. That really isn't true though. He isn't lost; we know exactly where he is – in Heaven with his parents and his three sisters. And Jesus.

Instead of “lost”, maybe we should say that he is “missing” – missing from our lives. From our Christmases, our Thanksgiving dinners, our Easters, our birthdays, our Father's days. Our every day.

Daddy at his Retirement Party in 1997

Before he went to be with the Lord and went missing from our lives, our Dad had been struggling with the effects of 2 strokes, compounded and complicated by the straight-from-Hell disease that runs so rampant in our family – Alzheimers.

There are many painful and heartbreaking details of those illnesses that we could talk about; things that we're upset about and things that we question. And there is. But I'm not ready to think about them yet. There are many of you who would say that these are, without doubt, the worst medical ailments that a person could ever go through, and whilst I don't want to admit it, I find myself agreeing with this. When he was diagnosed, we urged him to seek out legal advice on wills and inheritance just so he could organize himself what he wanted to do with the remainder of his possessions and so on. And whilst it was heartbreaking to think about at the time, it has really made things a lot easier to deal with. I just wish that it didn't happen as soon as it did. So, surely no one would fault us if we ranted about what happened and what we've lost. What we want to talk about instead is gratitude.

We are eternally grateful that we had a great dad who loved us, and worked hard to support us when we were growing up and ‘pickins were slim'. We're thankful that our parents were not a divorce statistic in spite of eloping when he was 21 and she was 16. They were married almost 50 years. We're grateful that all 4 of us kids were raised to be honest, hard-working, caring people.

We're grateful to all of the dear people with Providence Hospice in Waco, Texas, who cared for our dad in his last days here on this earth. They were so very kind to us, and prayed with us during those days, and still check in with our mom.

We're thankful for our Aunt C and Uncle B who sat with us for days on end in the hospital intensive care waiting room. We're also thankful to G and E, and G's mom who has since gone to be with the Lord too. They sat with us and were just “with” us throughout the longest 3 weeks in our lives, and we appreciate it.

Our life-long friend K sang at our dad's service, and her husband K did a scripture reading for us, and we're thankful to both of them for contributing important parts of the service.

It goes without saying that we're sad and we'll never get over being sad. But we're thankful at the same time. And because we're thankful, we're determined to live each day without regrets about yesterday or worries about tomorrow. Today is what we have, and we celebrate it. We celebrate our lives and we celebrate the life of our dad. We'll see you again, Daddy, when we get to Heaven. We love you.

~BigSis

I feel the same as my big sister. Even though we miss D, it is comforting to us to know that he is in Heaven. BigSis and I have a lot of differences yet we still have a lot in common. The most important thing that we have in common now is that we both completely understand how each other feels about losing D. We've discovered that it's really hard to discuss the loss of a father with anyone who hasn't experienced it, so we're very thankful that we have each other when we need to talk.

The first few months of 2007 are a fog to me. This much I know is true…it has forever changed the way I feel about everything. I thank God every morning for our blessings, for my family and for our health. I've become more conscious of how I spend my time and I choose not to spend time with anyone other than sincere, dear friends and family. Every day, I try to have more patience, to worry less, to be more forgiving and more caring.

BigSis and I had talked about starting a blog for a few years but we never had a concept that we both loved. Due to our everyday busy lives, it was never our top priority. Losing D rocked both our worlds and made us take a long hard look at what's most important to us.

After we both realized that life is too short to sit around and wait for things to happen, we decided to create this blog to talk about things we love and things that most women enjoy discussing like fitness, health, beauty, recipes, and family, just to name a few.

Daddy is in our hearts and our thoughts every single day. I think he would be happy with what we've accomplished.

~LilSis