There are a lot of things that you don't get to choose in life, things like picking who stays and leaves.

As a kid, you don't understand that it's something you have no control over. My biological father didn't stick around, and for a long time I held out for an absent father because I wanted so badly to be loved by him. I equated my sense of self-worth with a person who didn't have the capacity to love while overlooking the one person who did, my step-dad, my father who loved me, even when I rejected him.

I remember the night he and my mother got married, I had so many emotions, I think even then I was unsure whether I could let him into my heart. I'll never forget that night when he told how lucky he was to be my father and how much he loved me. He drove me to all my dance, karate, soccer, and theater lessons. He showed up to every performance, game, or match, with flowers, and worked the concession stands. He picked the song we danced to for our father-daughter dance at my sweet sixteen and cried the entire time. He has the most gentle spirit and most loving heart.

Denise Hernandez

I don't think it was until high school when he and my mom were first separated that I was scared I might lose him. I took him for granted; his being there for me, not realizing how much of an impact he had on my life. He saw that I was beginning to feel insecure, and one day sat me down to tell me a story.

He told me how before meeting my mother the woman he was with became pregnant. He was over the moon excited and wishing for a little girl, but ultimately she decided to terminate the pregnancy. Had she decided to go through with it, he would've had a child born in the same month and year as I was.

With tears in his eyes, he told me I was predestined to him, that he chose me before he knew I existed, and that we were always meant for each other. No father is perfect, we have had our moments as all parents do with their children, but I am so unbelievably blessed to have him as my father.

Denise Hernandez

Edward John, the corniest person I know, thank you for loving me and choosing every day to be my dad. You made my life so much better for it. I love you.