the adventures of dao, part 1
after spending a few days with my grandparents (from mom's side), we took them back to panama city. it was a very enjoyable trip, but i had an ulterior motive in this 3-hour ride. my true purpose for traveling to the redneck riviera: to reconcile with my granny and papa (from my biological father's side). it is a sad story to tell, but it has a happy ending now, so i can finally tell it.
my biological father was never much for promoting morals and values in my family. never took us to church, never told us about God or Jesus or anything. after my parents divorced, things with him really went downhill. he shacked up with another woman and greatly disrespected my grandparents, not to mention his own body and his dignity as a human being. i've negected to tell some really disturbing things for his sake, but it was bad folks.
anyway, growing up i was ready to follow in his footsteps with the same cycles of behavior, until i had an experience with God that drove me to great repentance, and salvation soon after. as a young Christian, i struggled greatly with things like forgiveness and mercy. it was as if my eyes had been opened to the horrible cycle of sin that was heavy upon my family like a curse, and indeed it was a generational curse that has already managed to wreak havoc in the lives of both my sister and i.
it haunts me so
this gloomy weight
that comes and goes
without a trace
a thousand times my flesh embrace
a thousand more but if for grace
from waging war, by shane barnard
i may have sinned a thousand times, but were it not for God's grace (praise Jesus!!!) i'd have sinned a thousand more, but back to the story...
so, being an unforgiving little sinful saint, i devoted myself to growth in other areas, and sought refuge in both my Heavenly Father and my stepfather. as they began to minister to me, i eventually saw the poison my unforgiving heart was creating, and repented of my sin. i forgave "biodad," as i put it, in my heart. by this time he had moved to half a dozen places in the united states, leaving no phone numbers, no addresses, no way to contact him. i took the hint.
not long after that, i began to really love my stepfather, seeing him finally as the man of God he was, and appreciating the great deal of effort and hard work he had put into raising me to be not just a good person, but a good man. soon after my 21st birthday, i was officially adopted and my name changed to david alexander oleksa. i bet many of you didn't know about that!
well, here's where my poor grandparents come into the picture: in my process of rejecting biodad i rejected his whole family, associating them with him and his many failings. i had loved my grandparents so much, but couldn't bear to be associated in any way with my biodad, so i cut all ties with them for those years that i bore the grudge against him. even after i'd forgiven biodad, i still was uber-embarassed and ashamed and wouldn't talk to them.
i got to visit them for the first time in 5 years on Christmas eve. they welcomed me like a prodigal son back home. i swear there was a fatted calf hidden out in the backyard or something. i ate angel food cake (my fave) with vanilla ice cream, and just spent hours talking to them about everything that had happened in the lost years. i found out lots of stuff about my missed cousins, aunts, and uncles too. apparently one of my uncles is a chemistry professor close by in auburn, and a cousin is a school teacher there as well. another cousin is a genius who's never made less than an a her entire life and is going to the top cancer research school in the world or something, up in canada. my other cousins are doing cool, interesting, and bizarre things with their lives as well, like going to germany, progressing in the air force, and becoming a vegan (how unamerican is that?! j/k... kinda).
after catching up, we ate at applebee's and had a good time. the trip back home was bliss. i am so glad to have my granny and papa back! i'm also glad to have gotten a tasty whitmans sampler from them... what fool doesn't loooooove a whitman's sampler?
stay posted for "the adventures of dao, part 2"!
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can't complain - 11.10.06
turn the page - 11.09.06
who invented the word "me-maw"? - 09.28.06