A letter

Dear Kostyn,

At the very start of your life, you already are blessed in so many ways. You’ve been blessed to be born into a loving family, with a roof over your head and food on the table every single day. You’ve been blessed to be strong in both mind and body. But you’ve also been blessed because you were born a white male in the United States of America. It will be years before you understand the implications of those three blessings put together, Kostyn, but trust me — they’re big.

The thing is, though, the color of your skin got a little less important today. And that’s a beautiful thing. Today when Barack Obama became our first African-American president, he redefined the American dream for millions of people, people of all colors and ages and social backgrounds.

Years from now you will read about it in your school’s history books and hear about it at our dinner table — like many other tales from the past we’ll probably bore you with. Your life is one that will blossom with the simple reality that a black man can hold the highest office in the most powerful country in the world. For you, this will seem like a simple statement of fact. For your father and I, on this day, it is an astounding, awesome revelation.

It’s true God has already blessed you in many ways, little one. But today, He blessed us all.

Love,
Mama