Travelling Mom (plus two)

Travelling through 200 miles of wilderness during a recent business trip gave me time to reflect on my situation as a travelling mom. 

I travel heavily for work, sometimes being in 2 countries in one week and then travelling again the following week to another part of the globe.  Many families have been affected by this type of work situation.  But I am glad that my work has never affected my home life. In fact, it has brought my family even closer.

I am lucky that I have a very supportive husband who, working in the hospital, also does not have a fixed predictable schedule.  Because of this, we were able to turn our situation to our advantage.  Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves that we are spending a lot of time apart, we made it work for us.

I have to admit though, it has not been easy.  We both try to adjust to each other's schedules and plan for every last minute changes. When I am required to be in a country for only a few hours of work, I choose the earliest flight out and take the last flight back, just so I can be beside my hubby and baby at night. When work requires me to be away for a longer period, my husband then adjusts his schedule so they can join me on my trip. Of course it is not as easy as it sounds, and this set-up has not been very kind to our pockets. But one thing is clear, the husband and I have always made our family our first priority.

It takes a lot of work to keep a family together.  We need to identify our priorities and make sure we stick to it.  We need to ensure that we have work-life balance.  We need to give 100% at work and do the same for the family.

Instead of being away from them on my business trips, they instead, join me! They have their father-daughter bonding sessions while I am at work, and then we all go to explore the place after I finish work. 

We have never travelled as much as we are doing now.  And I must admit, it has been a very expensive solution for our situation. Some people may not even agree with what we are doing. But, for all the memories we are creating, for all the learning and discovery that baby J has been having, and for the love and attention that we are giving our baby, I think it is totally worth it.  

Why we celebrate our baby's first birthday

When baby J was turning one, I felt very happy and very sentimental at the same time.  I decided to put those emotions in writing.  Now that baby J is turning 2 in 2 months' time, I am once again reliving the wave of emotions I felt 10 months ago.  I would like to share with you what I wrote then:

Our baby is turning one in a few days. Looking back at the past year, I would say it has been the most difficult but most fulfilling twelve months of our lives. We grew up from adults to parents in the blink of an eye.

Caring for a baby can be quite scary (especially if it is your firstborn) because the care of that tiny bundle of joy is solely in your hands. What if you do a bad job at it? What if you harm your baby because of your ineptitude? All these things run through the minds of first time parents. That's why the baby's first birthday is always a cause for celebration, celebration for the parents that they did not botch the job of raising their baby! :)

But seriously, it has been an overwhelming year for my husband and I. We knew it would be a very tiring first year for us. But we didn't know it would be so much fun as well. Despite the year-round lack of sleep for me, having Iya around has brought so much joy not only to us parents but to the rest of the family as well.

The last twelve months has been a year of so many firsts as well, both for us and baby J. It was my first time to be admitted in a hospital, it was my first time to have an operation, it was our first time being parents. But what is more important are the firsts we have witnessed in our daughter, like the first time she uttered a sound, the first time she slept through the night, the first time she ate, her first tooth. There are so many firsts happening, and we never thought those small things can actually make a person happy. But it did! And it still continues to make us happy.

Last night, baby J wanted to eat the bread we were having for our midnight snack. It was her first time to eat bread. And she ate quite a big portion of it! Telling you now about it may seem a normal thing for you, but for us parents, we couldn't seem to stop smiling about it, seeing her eagerness to try the bread, and how happy she was when she was eating it. Remembering it now still brings a smile to my face. Such is the effect of a child on any parent.

It has been a wonderful roller coaster ride. Having a baby teaches us to stop and smell the roses and to appreciate the seemingly mundane things of everyday life.

Truly it has been a year of firsts for us, it is the first year we have truly lived!

Now that we are better at parenting than we were when baby J arrived, one thing remains the same, having baby J around makes us look at the world in a new light.  You will only stop and smell the roses when you have a little one around.  Babies teach us to appreciate and find joy in the littlest things.  Everyday we thank the Lord for blessing us with baby J who made us truly alive.