Humble Beginnings...

On the sixth floor of a high-rise building in an outskirt of Kuala Lumpur, overlooking a rather small ex-tin mining lake and the distant eastern foothills of peninsular Malaysia, a little girl takes her first basketball shot on a toy backboard attached to the side of her sister's cot. The girl walks up to the basket. She holds the ball in two hands. She gets into her ready position, knees slightly bent, balance on the balls of her feet, center of gravity allowing her a sway without falling over. Her eyes are set on the target. She eases her hands forward and, with a smooth follow-through, pushes the ball through the hoop. Instant success!!

...To her father the image unleashes dreams, hopes and aspirations that she will be healthy and active, that perhaps she will become an athlete and sport will be important to her, as it is to him. Perhaps he'll get a chance to coach her in little league, and shoot around with her in the park because she wants to. Maybe he'll watch her play varsity basketball one day. He sees himself in the stands, cheering and being proud. She'll win awards and medals and recognize the value of hard work and persistence. She'll recognize the importance of teamwork and cooperation and sportsmanship. She'll internalize the value of sport in society and learn to identify herself with it. She'll become a better person because of it. Daddy's thoughts return to the moment...

Irini smiles, celebrates and moves over to pick up the ball again. She's 100% from the line. Time for another shot. :-)

Growin' Up & Smilin' Wide

Life is full of ups and downs. From tantrums to fits of laughter. From a floor full of spilled milk to a house full of giggles. From a persistent level of exhaustion forcing mothers and fathers to early bedtime, to a house filled with little footsteps in the wee hours of the morning. From tears of frustration to group hugs and shared kisses. Life is all of this. Thankfully, and happily, there is much more laughter and giggles and footsteps and kisses in our end of the world. Irini is growing into a beautiful young lady and her sister is catching up pretty fast too! Whether they are hanging out with Ida, or playing with mommy, or climbing all over daddy, life is a good one and moments come and, unfortunately, go before you know it! The girls are growin' up, but every day brings with it a new joy we never knew we could find. Irini and Amalia are amazing. Laurence and Natalia are tired (but extremely happy). Ida comes and goes and makes sure we're all in one piece. Group hug!!

Family, Community

It's a Sunday morning. Natalia has spent much of the night making sure that Amalia has been breathing well. Yesterday we went to the doctor, who was out. We were asked to visit another doctor, upstairs. We did. He was delightful and spoke some Spanish. A real hit, but when leaving we were given a small arsenal of medicines which, upon review, were all geared toward adults and children over two. We deliberated, wondered, read the information sheets in the medicine boxes and decided to put four of the five medicines away. The one was a cough syrup. Amalia has bronchiolitis, we were told. It's a virus. Amalia's first. She spent much of the past two days like Irini had the few days before, coughing and slightly wheezing. Natalia and Laurence, not wanting their poor children to go through this alone, decided to pick up "the bug" as well and have spent a good portion of their days with runny noses and phlegm filled throats. Last night was better, though still with a couple bouts of cough. Today was a new day.

In the morning we were visited by Polly. Though she is leaving for Bali tomorrow she was able to sneak a few moments to share a breakfast with us and bring some yummy apple-lemon muffins. They were inhaled almost instantly and, when Amalia began to cry again, Polly's soft touch and movement were perfect to put little Amalia to her first nap of the day. Later, Laurence took Irini to KizSport where he met up with friends/colleagues Chris and his son Fletcher and Matt and his son Jonny. It was active and fun and the return home brought with it instant naps.

Then it was Skype time with family in Greece and Sweden, before Leanne finally arrived with goodies for dinner (two entire chickens - baked and oh so much more), followed closely by Rebecca and Scott, with even more things for dinner. It was great, and Irini and Amalia had some good old fashioned quality time with all of them (and some of us too) before heading off to bed. Now that we sit back and chat about how wonderful our daughters are, we realize how wonderful everything is - from community here to family across the world to the friends at KizSport to the time in the pool.

As Sunday night found its way to us, Amalia had largely recovered and smiling broadly and Irini had only vestiges of a cough. She is ready for pre-school tomorrow and Laurence and Natalia are ready for the new week to arrive. Every day is a new day. Every night we fall in love with two beautiful faces peacefully dreaming beautiful dreams.

Amalia's a-growin'...

A month or more back Irini was playing with our camera and dropped it. Oops. Laurence rushed as quickly as he could and picked it up, moving it from side to side and turning it on and off. Apart from a small dent/scratch in the upper corner there seemed to be no problem. Then, a couple days later, it decided to go to sleep. It was promptly taken to the Cannon shop where they informed us that they could fix it, but it would take a few weeks. It has not come back yet and so, as little Amalia (and Irini) grows we have few photo opportunities actually captured.

But despite the lack of photo documentation, Amalia is impressing the world. Today she was picked up by a family of a Saudi man and his two wives (or was it a wife and friend, or sister?) and passed from one to the other. They are expecting their first child in the end of this month and seemed very excited. The contrast between the black-clad full-body-covered women and little Amalia in her pink shirt (and Irini who was soon picked up as well) could not be starker, and yet there was a common thrill in all of us. The two women cooed and ahhhed their way through the discussion and Natalia talked with all of them. It was a true bridging of cultural gaps and Amalia was at the forefront. By the end of the meal, we gave them our goodbyes and congratulations, they asked if they could have Amalia (presumably in jest) to which Natalia politely responded, "you'll have your own soon" accenting it with a broad smile, and we went off. How amazing that a little girl who cannot yet speak (though communication is loud and clear) can bring people together like that? If it were not for her we would have sat there in our respective tables, side by side, and chatted amongst ourselves, perhaps sharing stereotypical thoughts of the people 'next door' or attempting to decipher the intricacies of the other culture's value systems and behaviors. This approach was a whole lot more direct, interactive and completely positive. Way to go Amalia!!

The pictures above were shot not at that interchange, but last night as our friend Rebecca (and her husband Scott) were visiting. Amalia smiled broadly most of the night. She is delightful and lovable. Her parents, her family, even the people at the next table, are delighted and in love.