Someday some boy will come and ask me for your hand
But I won't say yes to him
Unless I know he's the half that makes you whole
You need to realize she belongs to someone. There was a man that held her in a little pink blanket looking into her eyes. Feeling so humble in that one moment, realizing that he loved her before he even met her. So before you think you are prepared to be a part of a strong woman's life you deserve to know the strong force that is behind her.
Wrapped in pink, so soft and warm
You've had me wrapped around your finger
Since the day you were born
There is a man that is in awe of her. In awe of her strength, in awe of her courage, and in awe that he could be a part of raising such a woman of love, grace, and strength. Looks at her and believes she can conquer all the longings of her heart, looks at her and knows that he would take the last breath out of his lungs if it meant she needed it.
I whisper I love you in the moonlight at your door
As I walk away, I hear you say
Daddy love you more
Her expectations are not realistic. Because she has been given the best since she took her first breath. He has shown her what it means to be a father, he has shown her how deep a man can love a woman through the affection, acts of kindness, and protection he has given to her mother as long as she has known.
When you were in trouble that crooked little smile
Could melt my heart of stone
She believes in hard work. She grew up watching her dad walk up the driveway from a long hot day, with the look of exhaustion. But his tiredness suddenly disappeared when the little girl ran at her dad with hands in the air expecting to be picked up. And when he did she wondered why his hands felt soo funny. Looking down at the hands of a hard working man covered in callouses, dirt, blisters, and deep cuts. He loved her with her hands. The way he worked she will expect every man to work like him. She grew up with a man that came home from work, cut the grass real quick to fit in a couple rounds of catch before the sun went down.
She is going to talk about him a lot. He is not only her dad, he is one of her best friends. No one can make him laugh the way she can, they have made up their little inside jokes that will always get them going. She will talk about with such pride because she is awe of what he is. He has given her a life to be proud of. But remember, all the things you know about him, he probably knows about you too because she respects and wonders for his opinion.
I was enough for her not long ago
I was her number one, she told me so
And she still means the world to me
Regardless of how old and independent she gets, she will yearn for his opinion and acceptance. This does not make her weak or approval oriented, she respects his opinion because he has never turned her in the wrong direction before. This is the one man in her life that has had her best interest before his as soon as she came into the room.
He looks at her and sees all the right things he did. He sees the wife that helped him create such a strong unique woman. He hears her laugh and goes back to the days when she would say the same knock-knock joke over and over again while in a car with her. He looks in her eyes and remembers the single moment when he held her for the first time. When she opened her eyes for the first time when they took their first picture together in the delivery room. He was so scared and in awe of how something that came from him could be so perfect.
I loved her first
I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
He is the one man who has asked for nothing in for return. He has seen her grow into the woman that you think you have fallen in love with. He will be skeptical, he will ask the hard questions, he will shake your hand hard. He will be kind and respectful, but remember, in the eyes of a father, no one will be good enough. He wants to protect from heartbreak and the guys that just want to take his daughter for a test drive. He has been giving her everything she has needed for her whole life, he looks at you thinking will you be able to give her everything she needs and deserves. Till those questions are answered he will continue to be skeptical of your motives with his daughter.
There will be a day the father is preparing to give his daughter away to the man she chose. He will meet her at the beginning of the aisle and look at her in awe of woman she has become. He will flash back to her dancing on his feet at the Daddy Daughter Dances and the times when she would run to him with arms up screaming "Shoulders Shoulders!" and he picked her up. That's the thing to understand, he has always picked her up, and that will never end.
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
When you choose her, understand, he is one of the few she has never had to live her life without. He has never lied to her, has never cheated her, always encouraged her. He is one that she can't imagine her life without.
Their bond knows no age or time, it is forever. She might be yours and she might even love you, but remember she loved him first.
"But I loved her first and I held her first and a place in my heart will always be hers. And I prayed that she'd find you someday but it's still hard to give her away.
I loved her first." -- Heartland
--And I love the man that loved me without a thank you in return.
I love you Daddy, Your #1 girl.
