Two Little Girls

On October 17, 1989, we had another girl, after the first girl and one boy, born a few years before. We named her Abigail, right out of the Bible. A couple of years later, we had Rachel. (I think they named a movie star after her.) Being a guy, I’m not quite sure what it’s supposed to be like growing up as a girl, but I believe these two got their just share of attention. Abigail was born a few weeks early, (so she wouldn’t miss anything), and had a heart murmur -- she’s okay now. Rachel was born one morning in a birthing suite, and the staff said, “Oh look, she has a tan.” Well, she is about the color of her grandmother, Joyce Ward, so I guess she was born with a tan. Then, she began to cry for the next nine months. That's how parents go bald. (Most people still believe however, that it’s hereditary).

At night, I sometimes read the Bible to them. When I’m reading something good and deep like how God took care of Daniel, while in the lions’ den, they often ask spiritual questions, like “Why do lions have whiskers?” Or, “ Why do adults have nose hairs?”

I became a single father when they were about three and five, and I spent most of my time cooking for the five of us. Abigail and Rachel would sometimes be playing right outside my kitchen window. I would have the window up so I could hear them and see them better. They were so cute I would get my camcorder and tape them.

I bought a new rod and reel and we gathered up all our fishing stuff and went to my dad’s lake place at Toledo Bend. I was unloading at a marina so we could fish off a dock when Abigail asked me if she could cast with my new pole. I reluctantly said yes (I thought she might get snagged. She was six.) She immediately caught a bass! I didn’t catch a bass on that thing for about another year! (I think she broke it.)

Kids in general don’t seem to play outside anymore like they did when we grew up. My girls have everything, and I do mean everything, but they still would rather stay in the house and play a computer game. I’ve noticed though, that they smell like boys when they’ve gone outside to play. I don’t remember smelling like that when I was a boy. My girls have asked me if everything was in black and white when I was growing up. They also tell me that I have gray hair and need to dye it.

Abigail played basketball through the YMCA this year and the violin at school in the fifth grade. She is now twelve, and has a big heart and a sweet spirit about her. I think for now, she plans on becoming a nurse. On family trips she gives new meaning to “are we there yet?”

Rachel is ten and just finished the fourth grade with honors. She was in a conservative cheerleading class this year. It called for modest dress and lots of exercise. I think she’s planning on becoming a medical doctor. She has a very tender heart and is a leader.

Both of the girls have me wrapped around their little finger and are the “apples of my eye” I have often wondered what other people I grew up with have been doing all these years, but I realize it’s probably the same thing I’ve done – raise kids. My kids now have a wonderful new mother to glean from, and they are crazy about her. I thank GOD for blessing my family and me as HE has, for my precious wife, Susan, my two grown kids, Hannah and Nathanial, and I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without my 2 little girls.