Fifteen Years Ago

I am tired today, and I know I said that my next entry would tell all about Labor Day, but I realized that it was fifteen years ago today -- give or take a day -- that my family and I became United States citizens. We had already been here for ten years when we became naturalized.

I don't look like I was born somewhere else. At least that is the impression I get, because when people find out where I am from originally (Africa) they immediately think that my parents were missionaries. "No," I say, "they were born and raised there."

What I really would like to get across today is the fact that my parents made some incredible sacrifices to bring their children to the States. They left family, friends, everyone behind. I don't thank them enough for that. People think it's "neat" or "cool" when I tell them where I was born. But for my parents, there is pain involved because that is their home. They miss it very much.

I won't have to face that same pain because, praise God, my parents took that pain for me and my siblings. We have incredible opportunities that we would not have had otherwise. And of course, I would not have found Casey.

Thanks, Mom and Dad!