HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

It will be Father's Day soon...so, I just wanted to do a big SHOUT OUT to the father's in my life!

Dad, thank you for being such a wonderful example to me. Thank you for always loving me and accepting me and forgiving me, especially when I was a kid and did some really dumb things! Thank you for showing me how to be a responsible parent and adult and to know what is important in life. Thank you for you example of a hard worker. Thank you for supporting our family while I was growing up. Thank you for all the wonderful family trips to all over....Thank you for the motorcycle rides, and buying me my own dirt bike. Thank you for my first car and my first job. Thank you for the piano lessons. Thank you for letting me go to Greece when I was 9! Thank you for not throwing me into the volcano in Hawaii and sacrificing me to the Hawaiian Gods. Thank you for the cruise when I graduated from high school with all of moms family...all those Greeks and we still survived! Thank you for moving to Utah. It really did change my life! Thank you for supporting me while I was on my mission and for the letters and funnies (comics) that you sent to me! Thank you for supporting my decision to marry Giovanni and for letting me go back to Italy to live. Thank you for being such a wonderful grandfather to my sons! They couldn't have a better example then you! Thank you for taking care of my mother when she was ill and slowly leaving us. During that time you showed me what true eternal love really is. I only hope that Gio and I will always love each other as much as you and mom did! Thank you also for being brave enough to follow your heart and soul and marry Lorraine! From your example we have also been able to see that the Lord's hand is in all things! Thank you for your strong testimony of the gospel and for helping me to learn and know for myself the teaching of our father in heaven and his desires for each one of us. Thank you for helping me find my own testimony.

Giovanni, thank you for being the man that you are! Your life was hard growing up having lost your father at such a young age, but you grew into the type of man that he would want you to be and that he would be proud of! Thank you for listening to your family as you grew. Thank you for your desire to want to have a good education. Thank you for listening to the missionaries when they came to your home. Thank you for returning back to church after several years of inactivity. Thank you for following me to the US after my mission so that we would have the opportunity to get to know each other better and to "approfondire la nostra amicizia"! It has been a wonderful 20 years. Thank you for being the father of our children. Thank you for your example to them of hard work, dedication, and doing whatever it takes to take care of your family. Thank you for all the bathrooms that you have cleaned, diapers you have changes, soccer games you have coached, vomit you have cleaned up, dinners you have cooked, laundry you have done, kitchens you have cleaned, doctors appointments that you have gone to. Thank you for being there for our sons when I couldn't be. Thank you for the walks and long talks, the movies, holding hands, diet Pepsi's you have bought. Thank you for being there when my mother passed away and holding me in your arms while I cried. Thank you for you testimony and for your strong desire to want to be better everyday! Thank you for being the father that you are and for raising two amazing sons! I could never have done it without you!

Thank you also to my Father in Heaven. He is the one who has made all of this possible in my life. Without Him I would not be. I would not have my father, my husband or my sons. I am so thankful to know that He is my Father and loves me unconditionally just like the two other men in my life. I feel blessed everyday for my testimony of the gospel. And to know that I will be with my family for eternity.

Happy Father's Day!