Family, food and gratitude!

Like many cultures where every celebration starts with food, mine is no different.  In fact, it’s not a celebration without it and there is always an abundance.  It’s like you’re expecting at least ten more guests!  And I’ll tell you, growing up there was always the possibility of an unexpected guest for a meal or a stranger looking for a plate to fill their belly and we were taught to ALWAYS oblige.  It was a rule in my home, my friends and even later when I started dating husband the rule was the same in his parents’ home.  Food, family and gratitude in this short piece is about celebrating a milestone occasion with the people near and dear to me.  More importantly, being able to do so is priceless.

Five years ago, we brought home mini and became parents.  With her came a tribe who joined our existing one and we now make up quite the blended family over a couple of  continents.  Pretty amazing!  Over the last 5 years the numbers have increased in the tribe and more love has been added.  See my post #gotchaday2017 for some additional context but in short I believe that family is not always blood.  Family is a feeling.  That feeling of knowing who is there for you, whose got you and in turn, who you got.  It’s those who stick around through the good, the bad and the ugly without ridicule nor judgement (even when I eventually voiced that I had no idea what I was doing) – and sometimes I still don’t.  There is no manual for being a parent and I hope my readers agree!

We’re just us!

So, on our 5-year family day anniversary we decided to have a few folks over to celebrate.  A few meaning that at one point I counted 30 people in my house.  It was so great.  I suck at taking pics at events I host and now I sit here looking for some cool shots – especially pics of the spread I put on.  It was quite a table of deliciousness even if I say so my damn self.  And, except for the authentic, homemade spanakopita’s, I prepared it all!  The feeling I get prepping food, serving it up and seeing it disappear is indescribable.  Seeing how happy it makes people when they savour the flavours and even more so when I hear the pleasure they feel.  You get me, right?

I express gratitude daily through my actions but, I try to verbalize it as much as I can too.  Gratitude comes from deep within and you’re already winning at life if you can focus on the good in your life vs what’s not or what you don’t have.  Gosh, some days I feel unworthy of it all.  Sounds cliché but seriously, for the many mistakes I’ve made in life and the stupid decisions along the way there are days where I’m like “holy shit, how did I get to have a life this good”.  If you make the effort to learn from it all though and move on, genuinely move on you’re on the right track.  Once you do the  “whoo-sah”, accept and let go, only then can you give of yourself 100%!

So, those days that I feel like it’s all a dream and when I wake up, I’ll be somewhere else I remember that my little family is real.  The people in my life are real.  The good, the bad and the ugly were and are all real.  Everyone came through it for a purpose.  Some for a season or two, some for a longer reason and you take what you need and give back in return.   Moving and leaving behind a huge support network is very hard but one must stop and count one’s blessings in the here and now.  The friendships and relationships we have made and cultivated during our time in Canada are priceless.  It’s been quite the journey and I feel blessed to have the network a.k.a. family that I do.

I am grateful.

Adoption Day – November 7, 2013. It was a good day!