Thanksgiving.
I am celebrating this year from Malaysia.
My thanksgiving meal consisted of Fried Rice, Chicken, few veggies, and a Magnum bar for dessert.
My family celebrates Turkey Day by staying at home and having our extended family come over to eat yummy food with us. My mom and dad are both in the kitchen making various things. My mom does the classic mashed potatoes and my dad gets the "groovy gravey". My mom puts the corn in the microwave and my dad carves the turkey into delicious slices. I can practically smell the apple pie baking. My brother eats all the olives and makes the cranberry sauce. I try and stay out of the kitchen… it really isn't big enough for four people. Then our family starts arriving. Aunt Kathy gets to put the marshmallows on the yams. Aunt Karen usually brings a pumpkin pie and some sort of cookie or candy. Grandma comes and gives us the first Christmas present of the year… at least until we are 21 years old. An ornament for the tree. Now my brother is the only one that gets to participate in this. Cousins come. Other family comes. We eat. We laugh. We don't watch football, we play euchre. We look at pictures. We eat leftovers. We go around the table and say what we are thankful for. We laugh at my second cousins as they play. All are welcome, there is always enough food to eat. I love my family so much. Even if I didn't think so sometimes… like that time in high school when I was way too cool for them. I really do love them. Being on the race has really renewed my heart for my family… especially my mom. She is a ridiculously amazing woman.
I am so thankful for my mom.
This blog is really for her. Without her around we would not have the wonderful meals we have every holiday. I wouldn't have done half of the crazy things I have done without her. I wouldn't have had to sit at the kitchen table, hearing over and over the "lessons in life" she told me and all of my friends. She said those things then, knowing we probably didn't get it, but that maybe some day in the future we would. I wouldn't feel supported in everything I do whether it is something small like, "Mom, I'm going to the mall by myself, see you later." or "Hey mom, what would you think about me going on a mission trip… for 11 months… around the world?" without her. She always support and always love. Even if it sounds like a bad idea…
I know that since I was born she has been for me. She never wanted anything but the best for me. She still never wants anything but the best for me. She sacrifices like no one I have ever met before. She sacrifices for me when she really doesn't have the means to do so. She has wisdom just oozing out of her all the time. She handles situations always calm, never alarmed, and never really surprised. Sometimes she just knows things about people without them having to say it, I guess I'm kind of like her in that way. I am realizing more and more how much I am like her. I used to hate that, and I never would have admitted it to anyone. But she is a pretty great example of the kind of mom and woman I want to be in my life. Not just to my own children, but to the other kids and people in my life.
I catch myself saying the things that she says. That used to make me mad, but then I began to see the truth in the words. When I was in Youth Ministry, I would have some of the girls over to my house and I would find myself sitting with them at my kitchen table giving them the same "lessons in life" I heard for so many years. I didn't even have to think about the words I was saying. One of my favorite memories with my mom was this one time when I came home from college for the weekend. My intention was to surprise my whole family for the weekend. My friend Crystal dropped me off at home and I let myself in, no one was home. I was so excited to surprise them. Turns out, my brother and my dad were gone off on a guys weekend and my mom was planning a weekend of cleaning and relaxing all alone. Then she came home, and there I was. She sent her plans out the window and instead we went and got subway, bought ice cream, rented movies, and had a chill girls weekend at home.
I love taking drives with her where we just talk about life and random things. I love going to support my brother at baseball games and basketball games with her. I am so thankful for her coming to almost every game and competition where I cheered or all of my concerts and solo and ensemble recitals in band. I am thankful for her heart and for who she is. I am thankful that every time I call her, if she isn't in the shower she answers, whether I am in Michigan or halfway around the world. I am thankful for her no questions asked policy. Even though I don't think I have ever used it, I know it is there. I am thankful for her patience with me when we are on the phone for long periods of time talking about nothing or things we have talked about a lot.
Mom, I love you so much. I cannot wait to see you and hang out with you when I get home. Thank you for teaching me how to love people no matter what they look like, sound like, smell like, speak like, or how they treat me. Thank you for loving me through all the times I yelled at you and talked back. I am so blessed that you are my mom and I really, really can't wait to take a drive with you, go shopping, go to basketball games, stand at The Burg and talk to you while you're working, and so much more. I love you so much…
Much Love,
Sunshine Girl
Amanda Kay
stay tuned for part two…
