For fathers, fatherhood is not the same as motherhood is for a woman who bears the child in her uterus. How could it be? There’s something miraculous about getting pregnant, watching your body grow & grow– knowing that you have the immense responsibility of physically bearing and bringing forth a child into the world. And 9 months is a long time to be pregnant, believe me.

For fathers, you can share in this pregnancy process as well, if you choose to stand by the mother and be supportive/helpful. And then one day, a child is born and you are a father of that new human being.

For my husband, it was “love at first sight’ at our son’s birth in Virginia. Though now I humorously tell people that my husband was shocked in the birthing room that a human baby actually came out of me, and I exhaustedly turned to him and said “what did you expect, an alien?”

And I know in my heart that my biological father Dr. Francis Sueo Sugiyama loved me a great deal too. I saw the love in his eyes — how he spoke lovingly to me and how he treated me, his only surviving daughter. (My parents lost their first child, my stillbirth sister).

Dad was the youngest of 8 children born to impoverished Japanese American immigrants, who was the first in his family to go to college, then dental school. He practiced dentistry & orthodontics in our rural home town in Hawaii for 30 years, but kept his practice open after he retired –to assist needy senior citizens. My father passed away 14 years ago at age 81, but I still miss his fatherly and sage advice.

So, Happy Father’s Day to you guys out there who are so lucky to be the loving father of a biological, adoptive, or foster child. Stepdads count too of course. And cherish and honor your father today (dead or alive).

I heard some actor in a movie (Denzel Washington perhaps?) say: “any fool can be father, but it takes a real man to be a daddy.” It’s supposedly a quote by Philip Whitmore, Sr.

Enjoy your day fathers!