GODSTUFF: Our first Thanksgiving through a child’s eyes

Vasco called it “Thanks-for-giving.”

There is no Thankgiving holiday in Malawi, where my son is from. So yesterday was his first. And it was my best.

Seeing the holiday through a child’s eyes for the first time makes it all so very clear.

It’s not about the food, or the Macy’s parade, or even the pilgrims and the original Americans.

Thanksgiving is just that — a time to be thankful for all that we have.

Last week in school, Vasco made a list of all the things he was thankful for. He’s 10 so we expected that he’d tick off all of his toys and his soccer team winning the championship and the gifts that he got for his birthday and being able to ride a bike without the help of training wheels.

But this child is special. He’s wise beyond his years. What Vasco said was:
“I am thankful for my mom and dad. I am thankful that I can hear people laughing. I am thankful for friends. I feel thankful for love.”

Vasco was an orphan when we met him in Malawi two years ago. His parents and grandparents had died before he had reached the age of five. He lived alone on the streets for a number of years. And he was sick — born with a hole in his heart that left him struggling to breathe and just survive.

Last spring, with the help of many generous readers and wonderful doctors at Hope Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, Vasco’s heart was repaired. He’s perfectly healthy now, growing fast and gaining strength every day.

We are now in the process of adopting him. Vasco is my only child.

Our son is the greatest blessing I’ve ever been given, the most precious gift I’ve ever been entrusted with. It is an immense privilege to be his parent. My own heart has grown in ways I never knew it could.

Every time I look at him, healthy and happy, I am overwhelmed with gratitude.

This Thanksgiving, I am the most thankful for him. For family. For friends who have walked us into parenthood and surrounded our child with chosen aunts and uncles and cousins.

I am thankful for the journey that brought us into each other’s lives.

I am thankful for the kindness of strangers who continue to bless us with their generosity, for a community that welcomed him with open arms and delights in his life.

I am immensely thankful for the chance to see the world with new eyes, to experience the magic of holidays, the wonder of nature, the pure delight of play and discovering new things.

On Thursday morning, while cinnamon buns were baking in the oven, Vasco snuggled up next to his dad on the sofa and watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

When I was a child growing up in Connecticut, my father used to take my brother and me into the city to watch the parade in person. The huge balloons trundling through midtown Manhattan, the marching bands, the gleeful anticipation of Santa’s arrival at the end of the parade. It was pure delight.

In recent years, the wonder of the parade was replaced with disdain for its crass commercialism. But seeing it from Vasco’s vantage point replaced my adult cynicism with that joy I had as a child.

I am thankful for that, too.

For second chances. For fresh eyes. For the reclaiming of the goodness in things that had grown a bit sour with life’s experiences.

The 13th century German theologian Meister Eckhart once said that if the only prayer we said in our lifetime was “Thank you,” that would be enough.

It’s so simple and yet so powerful.

The night before Thanksgiving, Vasco was on the phone with his grandparents in Connecticut. We asked him to tell them what he was thankful for.

“God,” he said.

We’ve not had to tell him that all we have, all the many blessings we’ve been given, are all from the Creator. That’s just something Vasco knows.

Thankfulness is his natural response to everything he encounters. Not just the material possessions, but the people in his life.

It’s a lesson he’s taught me anew.

Vasco said the grace at our Thanksgiving dinner. As is his custom, he listed all the people he cares about and ticked off the events of the previous day. Seeing the parade. Cooking with mom. Riding his bike. Watching movies together. Going to the beach before we ate turkey. Playing with the cats. Talking to neighbors. Being a family.

One of the songs in the Thanksgiving mix that played while we ate dinner was the World Party song, “Thank You World.”
It says, in part:

Colors scents and symphonies
Fall on me like tears
And time around me stretches back
And forth across the years
Was I sent to see your beauty
Just to please my aching heart
Well I want to say good morning
But I don’t know where to start
Thank you world.

Thank you world. Thank you God.
That was our prayer yesterday.
That is my prayer today.
That will be my prayer tomorrow.
Thank you.
It’s enough.