Until Next Time, 'Cott & 'Becca!

What's in a decade?  Mommy was a younger "still getting my feet wet" in the world of international living and teaching. Daddy was a much younger self, with the enthusiasm and naivete that implies. Their meeting 'Cott and 'Becca was fortuitous, as Scott would say. Basketball. Life. One thing lead to another and before you knew it, our children were born to the love and support of our biological family (Abuelita, Taita, Pappou, etc.) but also into the lives of these two wonderful souls (and their beautiful daughter, Elisabeth). Scott was the first one to see Amalia (after mommy and daddy that is) and Daddy will forever remember his hug with the arrival of Irini when emotions ran every which way across plains and mountains of different dimensions. 

Where Scott has been the one Natalia has grown to love to "talk to", it is his listening and thoughtful feedback that stands out for everyone around him. In ten years, these moments of listening have amounted to weeks and months, we are sure. Where Scott's demeanor more personifies the moon (thoughful, inquisitive) Rebecca is certainly the sun. Filled with an unbridled enthusiasm for everything, an impressive zest for life and the continuous explosion of positive emotion, she has filled our lives (and more importantly the lives of our little ones) with nothing but love and playful interactions. 

It is difficult to encapsulate what 'Cott and 'Becca mean to us, and perhaps it is best left that way. Fumbling for the right words could not do justice to this bond anyway. Suffice it to say that June 8th, our last day in Malaysia together, was one filled with bitter sweet moments. But they were moments magnified with the increasing pressure of the passage of time. It was as if an invisible hand was ticking away at everything we did. The night before we had spent the evening with them in the Rennaissance Hotel. That morning we had breakfast. Tick, tock. Later the Brownie family (and our little girls) arrived and we played in the pool. TICK, tock. Then it was lunch pool side. TICK TOCK. And finally it was the descent to the ground floor. TICK TOCK TICK TOCK. 

The goodbye was not pretty. The girls continuously asked everyone why they were crying. The adults, beyond the capacity to explain through the sorrowful goodbye that carried with it the power of a decade of friendship, simply smiled as well as they could and let the tears roll down their cheeks.  The drive back home was silent. Everyone looked thoughtfully out the window. Amalia kept asking "Mommy are you crying?". "Yes", mommy would say. 

We suppose that the emotion expended in goodbyes is directly proportional to the power of the experience and this has been ten solidly wonderful years with them (and Lizzie when she's in town). Their goodbye to KL came after ours. We'll be back. They move on to Vienna (where they are now, having found an apartment today). Our friendship will be forged differently from here on. Much of it will be through the limits of a computer screen, but at least we have that and a promise to see each other in 2014. Tick tock, tick tock...

The First Award

It was Wet & Wild day at school today. We took Amalia as well, just to see what it was all about.  Though both the girls essentially sat the morning out, refusing to participate in any water-based activities (as daddy fretted) the late morning was a "much better" experience. The different classes split up and walked into their respective classrooms. Mommy was working outside, helping with the set up of the food table and daddy went inside to see what was happening. He found himself in a heart-to-heart talk by the teacher, Mrs. Curtis, who took the time to ask every student to stand up and walk over by her side. Wet & Wild day had turned into an end-of-year appreciation day! Daddy realized that this was a "not to miss" event and went out to switch roles with mommy. In the classroom each student was given an award, highlighting something that they were good at. 

Mommy walked in and soon saw Irini proudly standing next to Mrs. Curtis being told that she had been wonderful all year, that she was friendly and supportive of other students, particularly the ones who were new or needed a friend.  The list went on and on. Irini accepted the award humbly as her sister, who was sitting in among the other students, applauded her moment. Daddy came in later on to see the end of the awards, realizing he missed it. But happily he looked over and took a glimpse at his daughter's award and noticed the world "Citizenship" on it. He smiled broadly. 

In the end both mommy and daddy would like it this way... that Irini (and her sister, of course) grows up to become a woman of compassion, of empathy, of love. No matter what skills she might learn or what she decides "to do" may this award be one that only highlights the things that awards cannot shine on... an inner light and a positive path. We love you Irinoula!