A Date with Our Dad

Most Fathers of the bride are responsible for one big thing: paying the bills! My poor (literally) Dad has now paid for three gorgeous weddings in five years! He has been the best Dad, letting my Mom dream with each one of us and plan the wedding we wanted. He has graciously allowed us to choose what we loved, never complaining about how much this was costing him or making us feel like we owed him. Because he's so sweet like that, all three of us would do anything for our Dad. ANYTHING. Aside from his love for the Lord, our Mom, and our family, there is one thing that brings my Dad lots of joy: golf. He loves golf and he raised us to love it too. We've all taken lessons since we were little and we spent much time riding in the cart while my Dad golfed with us or with his friends. When I was in junior high, my Dad started a golf program at our school. We were a small Christian school, with no money for golf, but he sacrificed his time and a paycheck to start a program, often buying and giving his own clubs for girls and guys who couldn't afford to buy them. As a little school, we played against all the public schools in our conference, as well as the big, powerhouse, public schools in our city. I'm proud to say that my Dad led multiple teams to conference championships, had several of us make the all-metro and all-conference teams, and even took golfers to the state tournament. But my Dad would say his favorite thing about all of that was that all three of his girls played for him.

We have so many fun memories of hours at the driving range and hours spent playing golf courses all over Iowa with him. We've won and we've lost with my Dad, but the best thing we did was just spend lots of time with him. All of our teammates loved him and many girls still call him "Coach Ferguson" and love to share their favorite golf memories with him every time they see him. He doesn't coach golf anymore, but he sure left a legacy at our school. So, in honor of all his daughters being home again, my Dad's one request for the week, was to play a round of golf with his three girls. We prayed for nice weather, carved out a few hours, and did it! And we had a blast!! We laughed like crazy at how bad we've gotten since high school, then cheered when we each nailed a great shot or a long putt. And because we are all competitive, we kept score too...but I'll spare you the scores!! Let's just say it wasn't pretty! We had a perfect afternoon and it was definately fun to spend that time with our Dad. I know it meant a lot to him but really, it meant a lot to all of us too. Wednesday was a fun memory for all of us!