Happy Father's Day

My husband is a very special man. Not only is he the absolute best Father Vica and Natasha could ever have hoped or dreamed of, but he's pretty terrific in a bunch of other ways.

In my book, Matt really "gets" what it means to be successful and rich. Sure, we'd like to have more money, who wouldn't, but Matt understands that a rewarding life is made up of the small stuff.

Matt wouldn't ever brag about his accomplishments, he's almost embarrassed about them. Then of course, there are those who sense that about him and will seize that as an opportunity to try to belittle him out of their own jealousy. Fortunately he's also too smart to really let that happen.

He makes each and every child he mentors through teaching and/or coaching feel special. Even when that child is intentionally not giving it his or her best shot, he's always looking for ways to make learning fun and nurture whatever talent that child has.

Matt's home room wins Field Day almost every single year. The team is known as "Sicilian's Slices" and sport shirts with that name on the front and the motto "You want a piece of this?" on the back. Everyone knows about them. What a lot of people don't realize is that Matt takes the kids who have no home room because they can't be mainstreamed into the rest of the school population for a variety of reasons. Some have learning disabilities, some have emotional or physical limitations. But, every year these kids get to compete on the "winning" team and somehow Matt finds a way for each kid to have a moment to shine.

Yeah, kinda gives me a lump in my throat too........

Matt has won Coach of the Year three years in a row even though he's technically the co-coach of the Golf Team, which only really means that he gets to do all of the work for half of the money. He would never dream of leaving this program that he's built from the ground up, or complaining that someone else gets to ride his coat tails because of who they happen to be related to.

I'm just petty enough to complain about it, even if it's only on my blog.....

When Matt coached basketball a few years back he had what I think was a completely Golden Moment. No, it wasn't winning a championship- which is what he would have wanted, but something much, much better.

He had a boy on his team who had many difficulties, and let's just say there wasn't any way he was going to play much during the regular season. If it had been a bigger school where there were tons of kids competing for a few spots on the JV team, this boy wouldn't have come close to even making the team.

Matt made sure this boy got to play before the season was over, he put him in at the end of a game where the score no longer mattered, but I doubt this boy even had the ability to really understand that. He made sure that he got every boy on that team to stand up and support that child while he was on the court. This in turn got the entire crowd cheering for him too. I don't remember what happened while he was playing, but all I know is that for one moment he got to experience the glory of the crowd cheering for just him.

And his Mother and Father got to feel that outpouring of love for their child and maybe, just maybe it brought them some brief happiness in what has to be a tough journey in raising a child who is always going to be singled out as "different" by the truly ignorant.

At home we have our differences but my life would be a train wreck of epic proportions of it weren't for Matt standing by to often pick up the pieces.

Matt will tell everyone I was the one instrumental in bringing about the adoption of our girls. Yes, I did do the majority of the work and it was a full time job managing that dossier.

For those of you reading this who haven't adopted, can you imagine trying to collect tons and tons of documents that have to be worded "just so" to appease not only your own government's demands, but those of a foreign government, and one who changes it's rules on what often seemed like a whim. And there's no one to complain to like there is here. I couldn't call my congressman and tell him I didn't like the way things were being handled. If we complained about anything to the powers that be in Ukraine we would be jeopardizing the entire adoption.

Yes, it really was that bad, and yes I did ALL of that. It was more than a full time job.

But I was only able to do that because I have a husband who was more than willing to listen to me carry on like a madwoman and rant and rave, screaming, yelling, giving up every ten seconds. It would have sent another man running for his life.

But not this man, and for that, I am always grateful. I am even more grateful, thankful and awed by the Father you are to our children, Matt.

How lucky and blessed we all are for your love and devotion.