happy father's day, dad

It's 2 a.m. on Sunday, June 18th.
It occurs to me that it's Father's Day, and it got me thinking about my own father. And how lucky I am, because I have a great dad. He has put up with so much from me. We've seriously been through a lot. And he went into it willingly. He met my mom when I was younger. I was probably 5 or 6. They got married when I was 7. 14 years. Not only has he done a lot for me, but he's done a lot for my sister and brother. Though they haven't put him through nearly as much as I have. There was the incident when I was 13, and the community service after that. There were the fights all through high school. Not your typical parent-child fights. Yelling, hitting, slamming doors. And they just took it. My parents never abused me. Au contrair, I think I abused my parents. Mostly my dad. He took the brunt of the beating. But he never left. He got better as I got older. When I started having sex, he was cool about it. He didn't get angry. When Jared left, it was his idea to talk to him. For me. He always loved me. Even though he didn't have to. When I kept having sex, he was still cool about it. He even went as far as helping me stay safe. He stayed through every fight, every curse word, every time I left the house in anger. And he didn't have to. But he did. And now he's helping me get through school. And he doesn't do it because he has to. He does it because he loves me. I can't begin to describe how tumultuous my relationship is with my parents. It would take days to go through everything that we've been through. I still don't understand why he chose to put up with everything. Maybe I never will. He passed up the chance to have his own biological children. Instead he got stuck with us. I wonder if he's ever regretted it.