I was born in Dalton to a single-family home. We grew up kind of hard. We never really had money. A lot of churches would help us with clothes and stuff. I never knew my Dad until maybe I was thirteen. I saw him for the first time when I was about thirteen. I opened the door, and he was standing there. I said, “Hang on.” I said, “Momma, there is some man at the door.” She came to the door and said, “Oh, that’s your Daddy.” I said, “Okay.” He talked to us for a little while and then left. I didn’t see him again until I was about fifteen. I saw him one time. The third time I saw him, I was seventeen or eighteen, and he was dying. So, I only got to see him just a few times my whole life.
Then when my Mom was dying, she told me a couple of days before she died that he might have been my father or someone else might be my father. She wasn’t for sure really who he was. That caused a lot of hurts and a lot of pain in my life because I thought he was my Daddy. I thought he might not have wanted me but at least he was my father. Then I got to the point where I didn’t know who my Daddy was. I didn’t know if I had the right last name or if my last name should have been something else. I wasn’t for sure who I was. But God had to teach me that none of that matters, that He was going to be my Father and that He was going to teach me and help me.
I have looked at pictures of him. I have looked at pictures of me and my siblings. I’m different from the rest of them. I talk differently. I act differently. I look different. I’m pretty sure that we don’t have the same father. I will probably never find out who he was. But I know who He is now. And it restores my life to know that He would use someone like me. That He would use someone from a single-family home that was made fun of his whole life that had a thousand dollar a week drug habit. That had tried to commit suicide a couple of times in his life. That didn’t think he was ever going to be anything. But God told me one day that He was going to by my Father and not to worry who my earthly father was, that He was going to be my Father, that He was going to take care of me.
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