Dear Mom

Baby Mama, 1963

Thank you for doing your best.

Thank you for not giving up.

Thank you for your pains.

Thank you for naming me, in three languages, after beautiful women of the King's court;

You prayed for me to be crowned in gold and clothed in indigo.

The names were prayers that I'd rise above and surpass;

Thank you for speaking 青出於藍 over me.

Thank you for loving God.

Thank you for loving the Bible.

Thank you for teaching me to pray.

Thank you for entrusting me to the care of a local church.

Thank you for urging me to press into things unseen, a spirit world.

Thank you for Guh and for commanding us to be best friends.

Thank you for giving me life, Mom. I very much like being alive.

We sent this one up for you.

Ahma and I missed you a lot these years. Your absence was felt all the time. She prayed for us, we prayed for you. I guess it kind of went something like this: