If someone would have taken me aside in a hospital hallway on this day, twenty two years ago, and said to me…
“Mr. Hembree, in a few short hours, your wife is going to give birth to a baby, and you do not know it yet, but the baby will be a girl. And over the course of her life she will play in the dirt as a child, and as a young woman she will take multiple trips to other countries and will walk on dirt paths to take bags of food to people in need.”
“Mr. Hembree, you can’t see it yet, but she will make you laugh throughout her life, and, Mr. Hembree, she will also cause you to cry, because later in her twenty second year you will take her hand and place it into the hand of a man who loves her dearly…who loves her with his own life.”
“Mr. Hembree, you will worry when she is in her first year of school if her grades will be okay and find out, also in her twenty second year, that she will graduate from college with honors.”
“Mr. Hembree, you can’t see it yet, but you will hold her as a little girl and she will reach up, touch your face and wipe away a tear from your cheek when you are overwhelmed by the thought that God has placed her into your care, and that only a few months later you will give her back to God to keep in his care forever.”
“Mr. Hembree, she will become a teacher of children, just as her sister will be. She will mold young lives and she will touch more people that you could think possible.”
“Mr. Hembree, her heart will be tender toward those who are hurting. Her words will bring encouragement to those without hope.”
“Mr. Hembree, if you could only see that she will walk through life with grace and demonstrate mercy, and will exhibit her middle name, Faith, for all of her days.”
“Mr. Hembree, she will mother your grandchildren and love them as God himself loved her. And He will gift her with children as God gifted her to you.”
“Mr. Hembree, twenty two years from now, on this day, you will look toward heaven and thank God that He has chosen you as her father.”
“Mr. Hembree, if you could only see what’s ahead for her life. It is beyond anything you could ask for, think or imagine.”
“But you will Mr. Hembree, you will see all of this come to pass. You will see it.”
Happy 22nd Birthday Suzanne Faith Hembree…
…your very proud father,
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