A New Year's tradition

This morning I started writing my yearly letter to K - it's a tradition I started last year and want to continue for a long time to come.  It's a letter about the year that has passed and looking forward to the new one to come and most importantly, how K has been a big part of it, some things that he has done to make the year more special and some of the lessons I've learned from him during that year.  I end by describing the gift I have bought him - a gift that symbolizes something special.  My hope is that I will collect these letters and gifts (or at least pictures of these gifts because who knows how long they will last and if they will be able to travel with us over the years) and share them with K when he is older and can read the letters himself - I want him to have something that he can always remember me by and feel how special he is to me.

So last year, when K was 2.5 years old, the letter was about us being a family and some of the things he use to say that showed me he knew we were a family.  For example, when calling for us to pick him up from his crib in the morning, instead of calling myself (mommy) or M (tat - the Shugni word for father) separately, he would always say "mommytat" and whenever the two of us were going somewhere like music class or the park, I would ask him "where are K and mommy going?" and he would always say "and tat."  I recalled my favourite time of the day when he would come into our bed after waking up in the morning and the 3 of us would spend some time reading a book, talking, singing or just sleeping - it was such a special moment.  I then went on to tell K about the gift and what it means - it's a small toy plane that symbolizes a journey we will take and as long as we take it together as a family, we will be fine.  I ended with a poem with a wish for K

for the upcoming year -

May the road you walk be a smooth one,
May your trouble be few - if any,
May the days and years that lie ahead
Be health, happy and many,
May you have friends in abundance,
May the sun shine bright around you,
May the world be a wonderful place to live

And may God's love always surround you.

I'm in the process of writing this year's letter and as I write it, I can't help but feel lucky and grateful for having my son.  He's brought so much love and meaning in my life.  The letter starts out with recalling the toy plane from the previous year and the journey it symbolized.  Who knew how far the journey would take us and that we would, 9 months later, fly on not one but three planes to move from Canada to Tajikistan for K to learn about part of his culture and get to know his family in Tajikistan.  As I write this, it's been 3.5 months since we've moved here and while we're still getting settled (although K seems to be fitting right in very quickly), I still can't believe we made this big and courageous move...yes, COURAGEOUS - as I reflect on its magnitude during this time.  While there have been some ups and downs during this journey, we have done this as a family and K has and continues to be a big part of that family, no matter how small he is.  His gift this year is a toy of hundreds of sticks with magnets that can be attached in many different ways to build various shapes of different colours and sizes.  This toy symbolizes us building a life here in 2012.