Dear Mom and Dad,

I've been meaning to call you for a while now - I mean, about this one particular thing. We've spoken in the past few days, but the time never feels quite right to bring this up. It'd end up being awkward and some small sense of the immense sincerity I mean this with would be lost.

Thank You. No really, that's it: Thank You. From the very deepest bottom crevice abyss tiny infintesimal microscopic unimaginably deepest part of my heart, Thank You.

Thank You for loving me demonstrably. Thank You for hugging me, pressing me close when I was scared, telling me everything would be alright, making sure everything was alright, protecting me from the things in your adult world I didn't need to know about yet.

Thank You for saying, "no." Thank You for saying, "yes."

Thank You for being honest with me. Thank You for showing me the value of love and family, the importance of work and effort, for your foresight in saving money for me to go to school.

Thank You for trusting me, for letting me learn some lessons on my own, for showing me how much more an open heart and positive attitude can achieve than greed or spite. You instilled in me your values. You made me want to make you so proud. You made me so proud.

And with every passing day, a testament to the blessing that is having you as parents is thrown at me -- some small thing that everyday makes me say a little prayer that I can only provide some measure of what you gave to me to my own progeny one day. It's not fair that I did nothing to deserve you as parents, that amputees in Sierra Leone did to not get you as parents, that the children of homeless people didn't do -- but instead of feeling guilty over my good fortune, I will thank God and you two. It's too bad that it took 23 years for me to realize how amazing you two are, that perspective really does dictate parental perception.

I don't tell you this enough, this thank you. But in every "I Love You," know that woven into each syllable is the unspeakable gratitude I feel from every last ATCG bit in me.

Love,
your daughter