Thursday, January 24, 2013

“Lucky to See Dad”

I was up before 5AM yesterday as I had a flight to catch for a business trip.

I tiptoed down to the kitchen to have a quick bite to eat before heading out. Apparently, I wasn’t as quiet as I was trying to be.

Kai came out of his bedroom and out into the hallway. Lately, he has resumed his old ways of waking up in the middle of the night, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise that he would be awake now.

“Hello, Kai,” I said.

“Hi Dad,” he said cheerfully. He was wide awake. “I wanted to wish you a good trip before you left.”

I went over and gave him a big hug, and told him I loved him.

And then I sent him back to bed.

Several minutes later, just as I was ready to depart, he came out again.

“Goodbye, Dad.”

I encouraged him to have another good day at school, and said goodbye.

And then I sent him back to bed and told him to not wake Mom up until it was time to get up.

My day was very busy, but I made it back to my hotel room just at Kai’s bedtime, and initiated a Skype call.

This is my second business trip since I started this job. On my first trip, I stayed at a hotel that had a lot of fancy features in the room that I was able to show my family over Skype. Kai wanted to see what kind of room I had this time. I showed him that it was just a regular room.

I asked Kai about his day. He told me that he had another good day at school. Only two more days for a third straight safe week this month, I told him.

Other than that, Kai seemed a bit quiet on the video call. But my wife told me what Kai had said to her this morning.

“I was lucky to see Dad before he left!”

Ha, I’m glad that he is still enthusiastic about seeing his dad.

Of course, I was the one who felt fortunate to get such a nice send off this morning, and to know that he did well while I was gone.

Now hopefully he will have one more good day that he can tell me all about when I get home tonight.

6 comments:

  1. That is certainly one for the good memories book :)

    It is those innocent moments where a child expresses his deep caring which are the most precious...the ones which are spontaneous and come from the heart.

    When you have something to look forward to at the end of the day...somehow, the small negative events during the day don't really matter. Without him even knowing it...a child provides not only great energy through his motivating presence in the lives of his parents...he also provides emotional armor. When a parent has moments such as you had had...all of life just seems better.

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    1. Shiroi, yes it was a great start and end to a long day for me. As you say, definitely one for the good memories book!

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  2. Aww...so sweet. don't you just love those little moments? They don't happen every day, so you just want to hold on to them!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, these are the little moments that I truly treasure.

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  3. This made me cry a little - such a moving thing
    So sweet
    "I was lucky to see Dad before he left!”

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. K, I know you can relate to the emotions (on everyone's part) that accompany a business trip.

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