Thank You Father

My story begins about a year ago. My daughter is now two and this happened to her when she was just about a year old.

I'd like to first off tell you a little about my father.

He recently passed in July of 2004. I was very close to my father and deeply upset as he was taken from us too soon due to a battle with lung/bone cancer. He was diagnosed and 1 1/2 months later, he passed away. The day before he passed I had taken care of him for my mother at their home. He was then in a hospital bed and spending his last days at home with his family. I left that day saying to my mother, "Call me if you need me, even if it's 2:30 in the morning. I'll be here." I went to bed that night knowing that my father felt ashamed and embarrassed to have anyone caring for him and he wanted to just give up.

At 2:25am, my daughter woke up crying and I went to see what was the matter. I held her for a minute or two and she fell right back to sleep. I thought- Wow! That was weird. As I walked back into my bedroom the phone rang. It was my mother. "I need you," is all she said. My father passed that very instant and we were unable to revive him. That was the first instant, my daughter had been relatively connected to my father and his passing.

The most amazing event happened a few months afterwards.

I work second shift and my husband works first, so that we don't have to use daycare. So at night, my husband would put my daughter to bed in her crib. At this time, she was very little and her crib was set up with the mattress in the middle position and the crib wall in the highest position. In other words, she would have to reach about 4- 5 feet to climb out.

My husband thought she was sleeping as he heard nothing on the baby monitor. Then he heard her laughing and giggling. He thought, oh no I must've locked one of the cats in her room. We are very careful about closing her bedroom door, so that the cat's aren't in there with her.

He went upstairs to check on her. He opened the door and there she was, sitting on the floor, playing with her toys. There was no way that she could have climbed out of that crib without a thump, bump or cracking her head open. He checked her whole body - nothing. No bruises, no scratches, no bump. He had heard nothing of her falling out. She was way too little to climb out of that crib. He was talking to her and said, " Hey, how'd you get out of there?"
She said, " Papa".
He then called me at work, and told me what happened. I was freaked out. When I got home, I went and checked on her myself. She was sleeping just fine, but her room was a little chilly, so I covered her up some more. In the morning, I woke up to her laughing. I went into her room, which was still strangely cold. I had this weird feeling I wasn't alone. I shook it off and said," What are you laughing at silly girl"?
She said, "Papa" and pointed directly over my shoulder. I just started to cry and said, " Thank you Dad. Thank you so much! I love you."

Every now and then, I still get a feeling that she is being protected by my father and I feel so grateful to have such a loving father.

Thank you Father!!!!!