1 . My 13-year-old daughter sent a postcard to us while we were still away on our most recent trip to California. It ______ our house about a week later. The touching ______ nearly brought me to tears.

“Even though we ______ have two days of adventures ahead of us, I am just so ______ for everything we have experienced together on this trip,” she writes.

Our youngest daughter is just about to ______ 11 years old. In those years, we have never taken a true ______ as a family of four to a place we’ve never been. Like most ______, I have no idea where the time has gone. But I also think these are some of the best ages to ______ with kids.

This vacation to California was our very first ______, long-distance trip together. The kids helped ______ the trip with input on things they might like to see and do. They reached for our hands in crowds. I can’t remember the last time they held our hands ______.

One of our family bonding moments came when we took a family surfing lesson. It was the first time any of us had tried surfing, although it was something the girls had been ______. The smiles on the girls’ faces were everything. They were so ______ when they stood up on the board and rode the waves one by one.

Those are memories I’m going to ______. And yes, I will remind them of these times the next time I reach for their ______.

4 . Quite often my mother would _________ me to set the family table with the “good china.” Because this _________ with such frequency, I never _________ these occasions. I assumed it was just my mother’s desire.

One evening as I was setting the table, Marge, a neighbor woman, _________ unexpectedly. She _________ on the door, and mother, busy at the stove, invited her to come in. Marge entered the kitchen and, _________ at the beautifully set table, remarked, “Oh, I see you’re expecting _________. I’ll come back another time.”

“No, it’s all right,” replied my mother. “We’re not expecting company.”

“Well then,” said Marge with a(n) _________ look on her face, “why would you have the good china out?”

“Because,” my mom answered, “I’ve prepared my family’s favorite meal. If you _________ your best table for special guests when you prepare a meal, why not for your own __________?”

“Well yes, but your beautiful china will get chips,” responded Marge.

“Oh well,” said Mom __________, “a few chips in the china is a small __________ to pay for the way we always feel as we gather as a family at the dinner table. Besides, all these chips have a story to tell, now don’t they?”

Mom walked to the cupboard and __________ a plate. Holding it up she said, “See this chip? This plate was broken the day we brought our newborn son home. Trying to be __________, my six-year-old daughter dropped that plate as she carried it to the sink. I’ll never forget that day.”

We all laughed. At that moment, I knew for sure that the china held for mother a number of love __________ about our family.

6 . The arrival of spring always means a trip to the bamboo forest for Kaitlyn Hennacy and her family, followed by an afternoon making bamboo buns (包子). This ________ started when Hennacy’s mother and grandmother discovered ________ bamboo growing near the University of Maryland, where her mom was studying in the early 1990s. Hennacy said her grandmother immigrated to the U.S. from Zhejiang, China, where she ________ cooking with bamboo often.

The trip to ________ bamboo usually happens in late April. Each person in the group has their own bag to ________ as they get each bamboo shoot out of the ground. However, no one picks more bamboo than Grandma. The entire ________ of picking the bamboo and making the buns reminds Hennacy of how ________ her grandma is — and it ________ her own work ethic. “She turned 80 this year and still hikes up a hill,” Hennacy said.

To make buns, the bamboo has to be cut into small pieces and ________ with other fillings. Hennacy learned how to make the buns by ________ her grandma, but she had to work to measure everything and write it down because her grandmother cooks from ________.

Hennacy said she and her family are ________ to have Grandma living with them. She ________ everyone’s favorite foods and routinely ________ healthy meals. “That’s how ________ a person she is.”

Hennacy said. “She shows her love through cooking.”

7 . For the past 18 years, my daughter has been around me all the time. Now that she is in college, the _______ of our relationship has totally changed and our relationship is completely _______. I’m not going to be there every morning to have breakfast with her. I won’t know when she’s mad or when she’s happy. Here’s a little story of our new _______.

A week ago, my daughter wanted to _______ so she called me during the day as I was in meetings. I _______her later on, but she was in class. At midnight, she reached out _______ to ask if we could talk. Well, guess what? I was _______ . I thought we would talk the next day, but she was not   _______ .

Research shows that parents are _______ when their children are grown up, but for me that is when I start to get concerned. I am always left to________ , how can I, as a parent, remain ________to my daughter to guide, support and love through life's changes?   

We may have to ________ the way we communicate. My daughter encouraged me to go digital. That’s how I ventured into the world of social media, following her updates and occasionally sharing my own experiences. Through this   ________ presence, the physical gap is ________and I feel I still have an active role in her life. This experience serves as a reminder that ________, however scary, holds the promise of growth in our shared journey.

8 . My dad loved everything about Northern Soul music. He _________ in England in the 1960s when the music was popular. He had a _________ childhood there. I believe this music _________ him through hard times in his life.

At the age of 57, he was diagnosed (诊断) with cancer. When he was _________ from the cancer, he also turned to his music. The music made him _________ and he wanted to dance. One of the songs I knew he _________ was “Because Of You” by Jackie Wilson. He _________ told me why he liked it, but after listening to the _________ of the song, I believed it was for my mother, who _________ him. But my mom insisted they saved each other.

The song ________   me of the time when my dad and I were sitting in his living room after he was diagnosed with cancer and he told me this was his favorite song. I __________ it down in my note section of my phone because I knew it was __________ to remember it. We ended up __________ it at his memorial service. It also reminds me of how my mom and dad __________. My dad was only 23 and was trying to find his way in __________. My mom was 22 and was also trying to find her way. They helped each other over 40 years.

9 . Now I finally understand how much my mother loves me.

Back home from the _________, during the first few weeks of my daughter’s life, it seemed like I was never doing anything besides _________ the baby. Life was little more than a thin stream of milk _________ any body to hers, _________ interrupted by a peanut-butter sandwich.

Of course I’d heard _________ were always waking up. But this now seemed like a joke. How did anyone get them to _________ in the first place? Every time I put the baby down, she cried and cried. She slept only when she was being held. So my husband and I _________ by turns. Usually I _________ her till eleven or so, my husband was with her until two or three or four, and then I got up to hold her again until morning. The Internet said babies _________ comfort at dusk because of their primal (最初的) __________ of being deserted in the dark. “Don’t worry, baby,” I told the crying baby in my arms. “I won’t __________ you in the dark.”

My mother finally arrived to help. I had __________ for her arrival every morning. Her __________ meant I could get some rest. Every few hours, my mother put a plate on my lap, loaded with __________. She said, “You need to eat.” She held my baby girl against her chest and __________ in her car, “You know how your mama loves you? That’s how I love her.”

10 . “All my children show concern for people,” says Mary Killough, director of the Illinois Department on Aging. Once when they _______ someone with a serious disability in the shopping mall, they asked me, “Mommy, is that person OK? What happened? ”They even told me they were _______to help him if necessary.

Knowing that children constantly (不断地) learn everything from their parents, Killough always _______ positivity and kindness at home. She tries to make lessons in compassion (同情) heartfelt and _______.She often tells her boys, “we all need _______at some point in our lives, and there are times when you need to lend a hand. The _______ have become part of their life.”

One evening at the gas station, Killough and the boys saw an older woman who was _______ as she tried to find out where she was and drive home. It was starting to get dark, and they tried to give her _______, but she couldn’t understand. The Killoughs led her all the way to her _______. “Although it took an hour or more, no one ________. There’s nothing we’re doing that’ s more ________ than helping each other,” she told them.

DiAnne Crown, now an author on Illinois Times, also ________ compassion at home as a young child. Her parents would take her to ________ events at KumlerFood Pantry where local hungry families can receive food. There was ________ money on the counter for a family in need. “My son and I have ________ the same kindness toward families in need many times since,” DiAnne says.