After 10 years of being without my biological father, I thought I’d be without a father forever. I thought that my heart would continue to ache with the pain. The day he came into my life will always be one of my favorite memories.

5 years ago I remember coming home from school. The birds chirping their sweet melody. I walked through the front door and heard the annoying meow of my cat welcoming me home from another long day at school. I slowly trudged up the steep steps and walked to my mom’s room, which was the last door at the end of a short, narrow hall. I was so used to just opening up the door and walking in. I opened the door slowly and heard the squeaking of the rusted hinges. I saw a body in the bed and they were not my mother! It was the man that I NOW call my dad.
That was many years ago. Now, 5 years later he has been there through thick and thin. He was there for me though all the heartache, through all the salty, sorrow tears, through the fake smiles, through all the black and blue bruises. He was there when not many others were. Not many can say they’ve found a cure to their once splintered heart. But me? I have

Many years ago, when I had met this man for the very first time his mussels were the first things I say. They were boulders on a human being. Growing up with him was so much fun. He would rough house with us but it wasn’t anything I knew. He showed me so many beautiful things in just 5 years. He showed me that a family isn’t always by blood. The red blood cells that circulate through our bodies doesn’t make us who we are, it merely keeps us alive. Family is about those who love us for who we are and don’t want to change us, it’s those who want us in their lives. My dad wasn’t like any man that had walked into my life before. He was uniquely different. He saw a part of me that only my family had ever seen and he was okay with it. He didn’t judge me, still to this day doesn’t.

My dad and I, we have our ups and downs, just like any other father, daughter relationship, but ours is different. He didn’t have to love me like he does. He didn’t have to take on the fatherly role for me, yet he did. As time went on my biological father tried to contact me. It started at the age of 13. I was young, but I still remember the pain and heartache that he had caused when he left. Now at 15 he tried again, but I had the only man i would ever truly need right there with me.

When Kenny, my biological father, tried to contact me, it made my heart splinter all over again. He had hurt me to many years ago. When I got the call my eyes started to cloud up, my vision began to blur. I felt my mom squeeze my hand and tell me that I was truly strong, and for once I believed her. For so many years I wanted him to sign over his rights so I didn’t have to call him my father because for the longest time he wasn’t, he was never a father to me. I glanced over at my dad and i knew i had to tell Kenny that i didn’t want him in my life any more. “Sign over your right. I don’t want you in my life any more!” Those words quickly escaped my lips and I knew then and I know not, that I did the right thing. I always wanted a man i now called “dad” to adopt me and make me legally his.

When you sit there and feel like you’re all alone, don’t. Look around you and see the people who care. Your family, your friends, your teachers, everyone that is there. My biological father wasn’t someone who I wanted in my life so I told him to leave, but my dad on the other hand I wanted him to stay and he did. He was there when no one other male was. He was the father I always wanted and will always have!