I have a lot of wonderful “Dad moments” in my head and in my heart…images of Josh at his best as a father (which is saying a lot). Many of them we do also have photographs of, but there are some that we’ve missed for one reason or another.

I didn’t have to think very long or very hard about what moment I would share for Father’s Day week.

I wish I had a photograph of Josh, walking down the road away from me, with Mercy on his back, that late-summer evening just a day or two after Mercy and Des came to stay with us forever. Mercy was nine years old, and was old enough to completely understand that her entire life had just been turned upside down. After nine years with her birth family, she and her sister were starting a new life. They had suffered in many ways…abuse, neglect and loss. On one hand she knew that being adopted was an answer to her silent prayers, and on the other hand she was scared and feeling the terrible pain of missing the only family she had ever known and loved, and the place she used to call home. While she bravely led her sister into our home and family and truly was a happy girl most of the time, sometimes the fears and the pain and the sadness would bubble over.

That night we had gone for a family walk, and the kids were all running and playing and enjoying the perfect weather. She was laughing one minute, and then crying the next…consumed with feelings of homesickness, worry for those left behind, and fears about her future and whether she could really trust this new, fun, safe and secure life. We were just around the corner from our house, and the other kids ran off towards it, while she stood in the road and cried. I had been the one to talk to the girls and comfort them when they were grieving up until that point, so I went over to Mercy and put my arm around her. But Josh scooped her up into his arms, and put her up on his back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder, and he turned the other way and headed down the street.

I watched them walk down the road, and they truly were the image of father and daughter. I went into the house, full of gratitude for the wonderful husband and dad that Josh is, and the amazing new daughters that had blessed our family. A little while later they came back home, with Mercy still on Josh’s back, and Mercy was a different kid. She was smiling and laughing again, and more relaxed than I had seen her. I asked Josh what happened and he smiled and said, “We walked and talked.” Yes, I wish I had a photo of my husband, walking and talking to his daughter, while she rode on his back.