Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Here's your cake. too bad you can't have it.

It’s not just a birthday cake; it’s a red velvet birthday cake. That means it’s for my dad. Every year for his birthday, my mom always made one of two cakes. Either German chocolate with home made pecan coconut frosting or a bright red, heart shaped, fluffy frosting-ed red velvet. They were as inevitable as the pan of lasagna, and just as welcome. Red velvet cake always makes me think of my parents.
So this cake isn’t really about the cake. It’s about my parents being halfway around the globe.
It’s not been easy having them so far away. Life goes on and there haven’t been any major blips because they haven’t been 15 miles down the road, but still there is a hole there. They missed seeing my youngest born and blessed. They missed watching Matt learn to really talk. They missed Sarah singing at a competition for the first time. There have been times when I really needed my mother.
But then again, there were a lot of people who needed my mother worse than I did. My parents are doing a job that needed them to do it. They are having an adventure of a lifetime. How could I be sad when my dad has finally gotten to go back to Japan?
So I make a cake. It’s not much, but while my family eats it tonight, it will be Dad’s birthday in Japan.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

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