“Happy Father’s Day!” Most of us spent our lives fortunate enough to shout that to our father figures the first time we saw them for the day, but fewer of us are lucky enough to have that said to us. Luckily for me, I have that fortune. I’m a little over a week shy of my twenty-fourth birthday, and while I never plan to have any kids of my own, I have already been granted the responsibility of three amazing girls.

All of my grandmother’s three children had kids. My mom is the oldest and I’m her only child. My uncle has four, but his middle-most lives with us. My late-aunt, the baby girl, had two, and because of unfortunate circumstances within our family, all three girls—Shy’Air, age 13, Dy’Nia, age 8, and Derielle, age 3—are in our custody. The passing of my aunt in October 2010 rocked the entire…