My wife went out with a friend. I was busy in my study while my 3-year-old daughter ________ to be having a good time in the other room. No problem, I figured. But then it got too quiet and I shouted, “What are you doing?” I heard her say, “Oh... nothing.” Nothing? I ran out ________ the living room, where I saw her run across the hall and her little behind made a quick ________ into the bathroom. I had her ________ but failed to make her turn around. I pulled out my big Daddy voice, “Young lady,” I said, “turn around!”

________, she turned toward me with my wife’s new lipstick in her hand. And every square inch of her face was ________ with bright red! As she looked up at me with fearful eyes, I heard ________ voice that had been shouted to me as a child. “How could you... You should know... How many times have you been ________... What a bad thing to...” It was just a matter of my picking out which old ________ I was going to use on her so that she would know what a bad girl she had been. But ________ I could let loose, I looked down at the sweater on her. In big ________ it said, “I’M A PERFECT LITTLE ANGEL!” I looked back up into her tearful eyes and, ________ seeing a bad girl who didn’t listen, I saw a little angel full of ________ that I had come dangerously close to ________. “Sweetheart, let’s take a picture so Mommy can see how ________ you look.” I took the picture and thanked God that I didn’t miss the chance to prove what a perfect little angel he had given me.

If your father never says to you “I love you” when you are a child, it _______ to be more and more difficult for him to say the words as he grows _______.

I do not _______ hearing the words from my father when I was growing up. Truthfully, I could not recall (回想起) when I had _______ said those words to him either.

One day, I decided to _______ the ice and make the first move. So in our next phone conversation I gathered all my _______ and let out the words in a low voice, “Dad...I love you!”

There was a _______ at the other end and he awkwardly replied, “Well, same back at you!”

I was unexpectedly _______ and my voice was raised, “Dad, I know you love me, and I know when you are ready, you will say what you want to say.”

Fifteen minutes later my mother called and _______ asked, “Paul, is everything okay?”

A few weeks later, Dad ________ our phone conversation with the words, “Paul, I love you.” I was so moved that tears were rolling down my cheeks as I finally “________” the love.

As I sat there in tears I realized that this ________ moment had taken our father-and-son relationship to a new ________.Shortly afterwards, my father narrowly escaped death following heart surgery (外科手术). Many times ________, I have wondered if I had not taken the first step and Dad not ________ the surgery, I would have never “heard” the love.