Living life in the present. Dad wrote a very touching email about living in the present. Mom had always talked about living in the present. Time has slowed down significantly for me these last two weeks. Perhaps this is the effect of living in the present. As some of you have shared with me, time seems to slow down when you are worried about something. The taste of food seems different and time spent with Erin and Nina become that much more precious. I have been trying to capture on video more moments with Nina to share with Mom & Dad. People reaching out to us provide a way to help the heart divide the burden or sorrow.
So many things that Mom has experienced. One of those things is the love she has for her sons. As a child and son, I had not realized the amount of love she had for me. Despite all of the wonderful things I had (too many to list) because of the sacrifices she made, I never truly understood until I became a father almost a year and a half ago. I must admit that I am disappointed in myself, in that I did not understand all of these years.
Spending Christmas with my family, my parents, and my siblings in New York was good. Unfortunately, as a child, that previous statement was all I would have shared with my parents. Now as a father, I would add that the time together was in fact ground breaking for us. It was the first time all of us were together since Nina's birth. Nina experienced not only air-travel for the first time, but also a taxi ride. She got to see many new and different people (aka New Yorkers). Most importantly she got close interaction with her Popo & Koungkoung and uncles. It took about a day for Nina to warm up to them. But soon thereafter she was bringing things to them. Nina warmed up to Uncle Bert immediately. Bert has a quality about him that she liked. Can't quite describe it. Uncle Greg had the largest smile from ear-to-ear I have ever seen. There was lots of laughter.
I had hoped that Nina would be able to spend a summer vacation with Popo & Koungkoung in the future. How cool would that be for a little girl to say to her friends, "I'm going to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa in Singapore!" (Or Mauritius, or elsewhere). Perhaps she will. I think Erin has been lucky in that she was able to know both sets of her grandparents well. She had many hours of fun and laughter with each of them. I know that Erin admired her maternal grandma very much. This is something that I missed and as most parents can relate, I want the best for my daughter.
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