Counting Blessings

I turned 30 years old last weekend and I had a great day (a great week in fact); and you know that all the birthdays finished in zeros are kind of a milestone, a good reason to stop, evaluate and redefine.

The first thing I did was to think of an answer to the question “how does it feel to turn 30?” and it feels great since I age like software, Carolina version 30 is way better than the previous versions, less bugs, more features, smarter, sleeker (you get my point) and this birthday being so close to the US celebration of Thanksgiving made me think of the things/people/experiences that I have had during this 30 years and I’m grateful for, so here is a short version:

• Having had the opportunity to work for my mom since not only I learned a lot from her but we became good friends.

• Having married the sweetest man on the face of earth.

• Having the cutest most loving daughter on the face of earth.

• Having awesome in-laws

• Having great friends whom I can count on no-matter-what.

• Becoming an engineer.

• Being able to travel, meet people and view the world from different perspectives.

• Becoming a citizen of the Land Of The Free And The Home Of The Brave.

• Being healthy enough to run a ½ marathon and raise a toddler.

All of those things you kind of knew I was going to write, those were the easy ones, but the one realization that came to me and made me feel very grateful was to figure out that I’m adopted too!

Wait what???

Well, I don’t mean that my mom and dad are not my biological parents, as far as I know they are sticking by their story, what I mean is that since I moved to the USA, actually, since the first time I visited the USA, I realized that I don’t have a single blood relative within the 50 states and that’s quite odd for a Colombian since, like the lady at the US Embassy said when she approved my visitor VISA, “Every Colombian has an aunt or an uncle in the USA”.

But this weekend I figured out that instead of being sad for not having direct-blood relatives close-by I should be happy because all the people around me, are close to me not because they “have to”, but because they “choose to”, I am not that relative whom they call, visit, hang out, or invite to their house because they “must” but because they “want”, and given the avalanche of calls, messages, gifts and invitations I’ve received at every small and big event in the last five years, I am nothing but deeply humbled and thankful to God for having put these wonderful people in my life and grateful to you, my putative sister, brother, mother, father, aunts, uncles and cousins for being there for me even though you don't have to, thanks for  having adopted me as your own.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Davidsons!