Traveling again...

This time I'm not talking about my travels, but my dads. My dad has a unique job where he goes out of the country for 6-8 weeks at a time. He mainly travels to Guam or Japan & stays on military bases. He was a marine, but he's not traveling for them. He has a government contracted job--meaning he works as long as the money continues to fund their project. He took this job around 4? years ago thinking it was temporary, but they keep getting money to continue working.

This job is a blessing overall, but it sometimes feels like a curse. My dad graduated from UT with an aerospace engineering degree. That alone should tell you a lot about my father & how his brain works....if it doesn't I'm more than happy to give some humorous childhood stories of growing up with an engineering father. :) Anyway, what he is currently doing is traveling to military houses/buildings & putting in radon detectors. Radon is a radioactive gas that seeps out of the ground naturally...the problems is when we build houses and buildings we "trap" the gas inside & it can ultimately kill us since it's been found to be carcinogenic. Not every house has radon, but there are certain places that it's more prevalent (MN being one of them). So, dad goes over and puts in testers...reads and analyzes the data to find out how strong the radon is and then develops a plan to get it out...the "mitigation" part, which is some serious labor. He does it all.

The curses of this jobs is that he feels like it's so easy, "a monkey could do it," which we all know isn't true, but he still feels that way b/c he is not challenged. Second, it requires him to be away from my mom & they both hate that---it doesn't help my mom that her only child is 17 hours away. Also, it's technically "unstable." When the funding stops--so does his job. Luckily that hasn't happened yet, but it's in the back of everyone's mind all the time.

All of that was there to say this. I want to brag on my dad for sending my mom flowers at work today. He isn't the most observant man (cough cough), but there is no doubt he loves his family more than anything and he's proven over the years he'll do anything (including travel for a job he doesn't like) to provide for them. When my parents started dating he would very very often put a single red rose on her car windshield for her to find after work. The day he proposed he left a white one. My mom thought that the store was out of red ones, but saw his sneaky foreshadowing later on. He know how hard it is on my mom to be away from her & he took the time and effort to remind her how special she is to him....even if he's 1/2 way across the world. I think that deserves a post! :)

Here's to you dad. Thank you for being an incredible husband and father. Thank you for being so selfless & for being a constant voice of reason throughout my life. Your wisdom, forgiveness, love & support doesn't go unseen. You're an amazing man & I'm beyond proud to call you my dad. I love you!

ps. We're open to prayers for a more stable, US centered job anytime! ;) He gets back from Japan in March.