Turning 50....

My dad is turning 50! Not yet though.... April, next year. But he is soooooooo incredibly excited about it. He's on a diet, and working out, because he wants to look grrrreat when the big 5-0 hits him.

My dad is the best, so's my mom. Our story should be written in a book really. We are actually Nicaraguan, but in '79 when the whole sandinista thing happened we had to fly. I mean, literally. My mom took me (I was 45 days old) and we moved to Guatemala. But we didn't know where my dad was, because he had been sent on some kind of mission. A bunch of women did the same thing as my mom, but others were lucky enough to leave together with their whole family. Three days later, my mom got this call that they knew where my father was and they were going to send for him. And they did. One week after my mom and I fled we got reunited with my dad. Other women weren't that lucky. My mom was 22, my dad 24.

But we had nothing. Do you remember in GG, when Jess goes to look for his dad and his dad says something along the lines of I got nothing... and then Jess gets pissed and says "you've got nothing.... I'VE GOT NOTHING!", well we were Jess. We had no house, no clothes, no cars, no bed, nothing! We had to start from scratch... or more like, my parents got to start from scratch and carry me with them. But God never left us. A few days after my dad got here, he found a job. Which was a blessing!

My mom got a job too, as a live-in maid sort of. And those people let the three of us stay there. A few months later, we were able to afford to move out to our own apartment. I was probably 7-months-old.

Life started treating us better, and better. God gave us amazing oportunities. Then we got my brother. And that was so great. My brother was born in December, and I was sent to school in January (the school year in Guatemala is from January to October, with a week off during March and two weeks during June). When I went to school I already knew the alphabet, how to write my whole name, the numbers up till 20, and I kind of knew how to read.

I have the greatest parents in the world. Do you know why? I never felt that I had nothing. I felt that I had everything I ever wanted. The only bad thing about it was that I didn't get to see my dad as often as every girl does. My dad's a pilot. He adores his job. It's the job that has supported his family for so long. But at the beginning, this first job my dad got kept him out of the country for almost three weeks a month. But the days he spent with us were always amazing. We had fun. We would play baseball, or run around, or wake up at 4 in the morning and start watching Disney Channel, and then get up and do a stack of pancakes "a la Donald Duck". My dad has always made the most perfect pancakes.

Since we left Nicaragua and moved here, it's been 25 years. That's how old I am. And life has treated us so well. My dad has an amazing job. They put my brother and me through college. My mom doesn't work. He bought his dream car.... and then he bought one for my mom. Same brand, except my mom's is more suited for a mom. My brother and I have everything we need and more.

And now, he's turning 50. There was a point in his life that he thought that he just might not make it. That things were so heavy and so overwhelming that he wouldn't be able to get through them. But he always has had my mom. She supported him, when he thought that he might crumble. And she never let him. And we never did.

For his 50th birthday, he's not planning a big bash. He's not planning on getting a new car to celebrate his half a century. He's planning on a trip. For all of us. We're not going to Europe, since apparently I'm heading that way next year in September. But we are going to New York (and I Loooooooove NY), Chicago and Washington DC. Three of his most favorite cities in the US. Although, I think that NY is in the plan more on my account than his. I turn 26 exactly 10 days after he turns 50. And my mom turns 48, six days after my birthday. And mother's day is the day before my mom's birthday.

When I told him, "Daddy, why don't you take a trip just you and my mom?" he told me that he wouldn't have made it to 50 without thinking of us.

So I'm going to celebrate my father's 50th birthday! My dad is turning 50!