Don't Start Counting Now.....

As I sat down to write this, I was reminded of an early episode of The Cosby Show when a teenage Theo asked his dad for some money.  After a banter back and forth about what it's for and how he'll pay it back, Theo takes it.  As he heads off to the kitchen, cash in hand, Theo turns back around and says "Thanks, Dad.  I owe you one".   And Bill Cosby, in all his genius, looks straight at him without expression and in a flat, monotone voice replies  "Please son, don't start counting now."

I'm sure that so many parents have been there more times than they care to admit....and as well-meaning children we say "thank you" and go on.  But "Thanks Mom and Dad" just doesn't cut it.  "I owe you one" doesn't have the desired effect.  What do you say to people who have loved and supported you from spit-up and dirty diapers, science projects and math homework, through growing pains and tragic heartaches right up until you move across the country....and are STILL doing it!   "I appreciate it" is boring. "I love you" so cliché. "I owe you one??"  Really?  I wish that I had more to give you....more than "thank you" but I don't.  All I can say is:

THANK YOU FOR MY CHILDHOOD!
Thank you for moving to a smaller place so that I could have a stay-at-home Mom to raise me everyday.  Thank you for being there to clap when I started to walk and for the praise when I first knew green wasn't orange or a "P" wasn't a "H".  Thank you for everything you did day in and day out before I was even old enough to know that you deserved my thanks.  Thank you for teaching me to obey and to be polite - even when I didn't want to.  Thank you for making me take swimming lessons and learn to ride a bike - even though I hated every minute!  Thank you for making both my grandmothers priority - one never more important than the other - so I could know them both.  Thank you for taking the extra time to make the "cute" cakes for my birthdays and for making sure I had a "cool" lunch box and new clothes for school - little things like that that matter when you are in grade school. Thank you for protecting me from the harms of things I was too young to understand....for watching who my friends (and their parents) were and what I was seeing on tv.   Thank you for taking an interest in what I was doing in school and thank you for all the hours of paper mache and glue and boards to make the "perfect" project when I was almost certainly ALWAYS being a pill about it.  Thank you for praying over me day in and day out, taking me to choir and GAs and VBS.  Thank you for the verses you helped me memorize and the long conversations - for really "forming" me at an early age to be who I am.....Thank you for really "raising me"  -  for raising a person not just caring for a child.  There is such a difference and the older I get, the more I can appreciate the difference and all that you did for me at such an early age.  Thank you for the childhood that you gave me - that gave me such a great start in life.  

THANK YOU FOR HANGING IN THERE WITH ME!
Thank you for hanging in there with me through those awful teenage years when I knew everything!  (After all, you'd done such a great job of raising me....I was all grown up by 16!)  I don't know how you did it!  I'm not sure how there wasn't an "accident" where I fell (was pushed) out of the car when you were teaching me to drive! ha.  ;)  No court would have convicted you!  Thank you for hanging in there with me through the drama of growing up....the emotions...the control issues.  Thank you for staying up to make sure I was home in time from my dates (even though I gave you such a hard time about it).  Thank you for putting up with the hair spray and the makeup!  Thank you for giving me freedom when I needed it and for putting your foot down when I needed that too.  Thank you for walking that line of keeping me safe and letting me grow up.  Thank you again for the long conversations and the lessons that you taught me - thank you for the prayers.  Thank you for making sure I always had a car to drive - even when I didn't deserve it.  Thank you for never making me feel too skinny or too fat - for always making me feel pretty no matter what I looked like (or how big my hair got!)  Thank you for the encouragement and support in a time in my life that I was "so grown up" and so fragile at the same time.

THANK YOU FOR BEING PARENTS  EVEN NOW!
Even though I grew up and moved out, I never stopped needing you and you never stopped being there.  Thank you for all your love and support through times of excitement and times of trial.  Thank you for all your help with the moves in and out of little apartments.  Thank you for being the safe place for me to fall when I didn't think I would make it and for slowly building me back up.  I wouldn't have made it through without you.  Thank you for your concern, your prayers, your conversations, your love.   Thank you for the extra $20 that ended up in my purse, the bag of groceries or the new pair shoes when you knew I was struggling.  Thank you for the wisdom, the advice you were ready to give when I asked, but never imposed.

Thank you more recently for everything you did this past week when we came to visit.  Thank you for the time and energy, the money, the attention to details. Thank you for making David and Evan feel welcome.  Thank you for continuing to go above and beyond to support me and the people in my life.  I really do wish that I had something more profound to say....I wish I had the funds to buy you a lavish gift to somehow show you my appreciation.  I come up short on all accounts.  But I hope that in small way you know that I DO love you so much.  I DO appreciate the things you have done for me.  I DO know how fortunate that I am to have you as parents and I am so grateful. 

I Owe You One!