"You're for real"

There was a time in our world during both the First and second World Wars when men and women who served their country would go off and many times would be gone four or five years before they ever came home. We're told that a good Marine serving his country went off to fight. When he left, his wife was expecting a child. That child was born, and that child was a beautiful little girl.

Because this was a special home, the mother would never let the little girl forget her father. Every day she talked of the girl's father and showed her pictures of her father. She talked about the father's love and care for her, and about how someday her father would come home.

When the little girl was 4 years old, she was playing in the front yard. A man came to the gate. She looked up. She looked into his eyes with love, and he looked into her eyes with love. Then she said, "Daddy, you're for real. Daddy, you are for real!"