Hats

Dear Appa,
You wear hats. Many of them.
Brown, black, green, warm, casual and spiffy.
When you wear your clown hat, you make us laugh until our tummies and cheeks hurt.
And when our tummies and cheeks hurt, you quickly change into your doctor dad hat.

Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, you put on your professional hat.
And on the rare weekends you’ll trade that in for your bed head, sleepy dad hat.
Then there are those hats you never seem to take off, no matter the season.
Like your teacher hat, from sitting down with us to do our homework to showing us what it means to be a dad and a husband that makes mistakes but always gives it their 100.
Or like your coach hat, from throwing around a ball to training us to become confident and resilient women no matter what life throws our way.
And we can’t forget your fireman hat since it seems like you’re always putting out fires, especially mommy’s fires.

Whether you’re wearing your chef, construction, handyman, yard work or driver hat, we know everything you do is a choice and a labour of love.

Appa, you wear many hats.
And it can wear on you.
Wear you down.

Some days you throw your hat off from frustration, defeat, hopelessness and from just being tired. You’ve tried everything and anything, but sometimes it’s just not enough.
Then there’s the realization that you are not enough to us and we are not enough to you.
You would do anything for us, but you can’t be everything to us.

So today, on this Father’s Day, take your hat off.
Surrender it to our Father and find rest in Him.
He will rescue you when you simply cannot be “daddy to the rescue” anymore.
Because when you fail, He prevails.
When your love ends, His love extends.
And He has proven through the seasons, He is enough.

Happy Father’s Day, Appa our “Hat Man.”
Better than Batman, you are an extension of our Father’s superhero kind of love that saves us each and every day.
Hats off to you.
Zoey, Emma & Romy