This afternoon I got a text from my secretary. I was almost to my destination so I waited about 5 minutes before I checked it.

Her message was to call my daughter's boyfriend and gave me a number. He has never tried to call me before. I met him twice both more than a year ago. Until earlier this week I didn't even think they were still dating. (I use to ask my daughter what was gong on and she would get so upset that their relationship was tenuous at best I decided not to ask anymore.)

So I called him and we had a brief moment of awkward pleasantries before he finally took a deep breath and said "Well I guess you know what this is all about." If my daughter earlier this week hadn't mentioned to my wife that they were back together again I really wouldn't have had any idea at all so I decided not to jump in and cause unwarranted harm to the situation. I told him no not really.

A little silence on his part as he gathered his strength. I helped him out by saying that I have a guess but I was holding my cards close to the vest at that time.

He chuckled a little and finally came out and asked my permission to marry my daughter. Even though I had an inkling this was where our conversation was heading I still had to pause, clear my throat and take a breath before I could respond. I am sure the 3 seconds or so it took seemed like an eternity to him. The reason he has not been around is he is a working fool and racks up a tremendous amount of time at 2 jobs in addition to him being extremely shy. (and for some reason terrified of me.)

When I was telling this story to my wife she said, "I take it you said yes." My reply was "no. 'I said I was honored to have him marry my daughter'."

You could feel the stress just melt away from him. We talked more in that 5 minutes than I could get him to talk in the times we were together. I told hm my experience asking my f-i-l. I said we had been dating 5 years and I was still scared to death to ask. He laughed at that.

Much to my surprise he told me he was going to ask her this evening. I thought he already had. Ever since she was a little thing it has been my wish for the young man to come to me first. It may have taken longer than I thought it would but it was well worth the wait.

I wish I could call me f-i-l and talk to him now. He would have been my second call after telling Rhonda. I wish I could call my dad too. He had a daughter and would have enjoyed the story as much as me.

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That made me chuckle in so much as my parents never have any clue what's going on with my relationships. Anyway, congrats to your daughter.

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Reminds me of a similar call I got last week from a telemarketer selling aluminum siding...now that I think about it they weren't really that similar after all.. Not at all alike actually...oh well.

I didn't know kids did that any more. Asking a fathers blessing. It seems a bit old fashioned but it does have to make you feel good about the kid.

What I find weird is that you have only met him twice and not in over a year. I guess most of my experiences (brothers sisters nieces nephews etc as I have no kids of my own) the boyfriend or girlfriend was always a significant part of the family even before the marriage. I know that not all families live close by each other and all that but for the most part my family has been pretty traditional (besides one niece, I could tell you stories about her relationships)

Its stories like this that instill the real importance of family and I am so lucky to have mine still relatively intact and still on speaking terms. Its not the case for too many people.

He was too afraid to be around us. He told me it was his fault for not getting together more and that it would change. I told him we do have a large family and we will not overwhelm him. That there is always room for new members for us to respect and love.

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I have hopefully a decade prior to a call like this.. but I am no where near ready for any of the dating / boyfriend type situations that lie ahead.. lol.

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Argh!

I was afraid to open this thread, Wayne. I thought it was going to be "I'm dying" or some other tragedy. (I'm such a pessimist.)

But congrats on your future father-in-law-dom.

And the Bowl-of-Cold-Spaghetti-Over-The-Head award for scaring me.

[grin1]

And I now return to my Shade-Tree-in-2014 campaign.

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Sorry Wade. I should have taken that into consideration before posting.

I should have called it "WHOOO HOOO I am going to be a Daddy again!!"

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