HAPPY 43rd BIRTHDAY, TRACY-LYNNE

It was nearly forty-one years ago this overwhelmingly cute kid that resembled Shirley Temple walked -- no ran, into my life.  What a sweetheart. I remember when she asked her mom if she could call me Daddy.  There are very few privileges in life like it.   I look back at raising this impressive lady and think of all the very foolish things I put her through.  For one, I was way too harsh.  She'll recall the room inspections and the "half-way up ask how high" demands. That's not parenting -- that's policing.  Somehow she forgave me.

Forgiveness is one of T-Ls strong suits.  I never ever saw her carry a grudge.  I think the restaurant industry taught her a lot; but I bet she taught the industry a thing or two, also.  Tracy-Lynne can attract friends like a magnet. When she was a teenager I used to say that she was a champagne kid on a beer budget.  How prophetic!

Tracy-Lynne was spotted at a very tender age to have an amazing ear for music.  Vocally and on the piano she became her Daddy's virtuoso.  I remember when she learned to play by ear.  In the door she'd run after school; drop her backpack and jacket at the door and head to the piano.  She play for an hour.  She was also her Daddy's soloist when he started preaching.  I still have the audio, Tracy-Lynne of that recording you did of "Daddy's Hands."  You blessed my heart that day!  (I need to digitize it.)

Not everything came easy to her.  But inside that gorgeous girl is a tenacious, persistent butterfly.  I think of the bike-a-thon in Wainwright.  The kids were 4 city blocks up the road and T-L was peddling for all she's worth.  I kept thinking, "What could be wrong?"   I soon learned that she had been biking with her brakes locked on.  Not one to stop, she kept on keeping on.

Tracy-Lynne is a gift giver.  She tailor's every gift to the person -- to the 'T'.   She is generous to a fault.  She is inclusive and non-judgmental. She has a massively big heart.  I'll never forget the day, sitting at our kitchen table in Irma, she thanked me for choosing her.  She is definitely loved by choice.  (Actually, biological children are too.)  Adopted children always know something others don't.  T-L knows that.

This pretty specimen of femininity wasn't always so fragile.  I remember rabbit hunting in Manitoba with her trying to follow me in snow up to her waste.  I remember her checking out the ducks I brought home and especially asking to see the brains of the whitetail in the back of my old red '73 GM 4X4.

There's been some ups and downs, T-L, over these last 43 years.   But you know for sure that 'Daddies don't love their daughters every now and then.'   Nope!  It's love without end.  Amen!  Of my three daughters (each of whom is my favorite) T-L has had a privilege the other two missed. Tracy-Lynne met my Dad, her Grandpa.   T-L you will never know how much that man loved his granddaughter -- YOU!  T-L, on this your 43rd birthday remember the family that loved you and still love you.  Remember what we dream for and pray for.

Happy Birthday my firstborn!   “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6, ESV).