Five Years Ago Today....

Five years ago today, a few minutes after 8 AM, I was sitting at my desk at the Hoov, trying to work despite being a nervous wreck: We were on the last day of the two-week window that comes between when a Korean child matched with parents in the U.S. gets his or her Korean passport and when that child is approved to leave. I'd been waiting for the call every single day since getting the call that our kiddo had his passport. Every single evening I'd head off to the gym depressed and dejected because the phone hadn't jingled. And by this last day of week two, I was at my wit's end.

And then, a few minutes after 8, the phone did ring.

Thirty-six hours or so after that call, four months after the call came from the agency asking if we'd like to consider a certain baby boy, we were on a plane headed for LA, where we'd get on another plane headed for Seoul, where we'd finally meet our son in the flesh, get to hold him and, best of all, bring him home.

Pardon my maudlin moment. The past five years have been...interesting, to say the least. Any parent could probably tell you the same if they're being honest. Sure, I still have many day when I fervently wish Chez Boeckman-Walker were limited to two humans and two, maybe just one feline, and neither of those adults have had many serious thoughts about changing our position on the "just one" decision we made. But then I also can't imagine how dull the past five years would have been without the kiddo. And with him packing off to kindergarten in the fall and starting a new phase of his life, I just...I just get a little maudlin.

While driving the boy home from daycare Monday, I was attempting to engage him in conversation, which somehow steered to the topic of what he wants to be when he grows up. First he said he wants to be a (base)ball player, but then he quickly corrected himself and said he wants to be a person who "drive ships." Not space ships and not airplanes, but aircraft he designs himself that fly in the blue sky. And his ships would only have room for him; Mommy and Daddy, he informed me, would have to design and build their own, as would Nana and Papa. And the kiddo would fly his ship in the blue sky and deliver surprises to people. I offered to bake cookies for him to deliver for his surprise delivery service, and he thought that'd be good. Then he decided he'd also bake cakes to deliver--as a surprise.

I won't add any snerky comments about finding VC funding for that little idea of his, and I'll withhold commentary about how one writes a business plan for such a venture. I think it's nice that my kiddo has an imagination and a desire to do things for others.


With some practice...and learning how to bat right-handed (although being a switch hitter could be a good thing, I understand from my limited knowledge of baseball), I think he'd make a pretty good ballplayer.

Tomorrow I'm off to the races to help Keep Austin Weird by running 5K and losing my road race virginity. It's a good one to lose one's road race virginity too: Ya gotta love an athletic-y event with a bar in the runners' village. Look forward to it!