First trip home post-BFP

I came home on Wed to see Mum and Dad, this is the first time they're seeing me since I've announced my pregnancy to them. And wow, what a reception I got! The moment my car pulled up in front of the gates, Mum and Dad rushed out to help me with my bags with Dad yelling at me, "Don't carry the bags! They're heavy! I'll come and carry them!" This is despite the fact that I'm a fairly fit mid-30 something while Dad is in his mid-60s and my bags were really light as a feather.

Mum made sure she cooked me fish every day (DHA for brainy grandkids, you know...) and indulged me when I needed an afternoon nap. Both ran around our little hometown looking for my preserved ginger when I was running out of it and needed it for my nausea. When I came out to help bring in the laundry from the rain, Dad forbade me to help because the "...laundry poles are VERY heavy, ok!" Erm.. I've carried those poles all my life, they weigh something like 4lbs each.

Ooh. I like being pregnant. I get treated like something soooooo precious. LOL

Today, Mum took me to her favourite temple to ask for blessings for Little Monkey. I'm not particularly religious and I follow Mum around more to please her and to set her heart at ease. Since I can't speak very much Chinese, I've always prayed in English, never very sure if the clan deities of my Chinese ancestors could understand me. But I guess they must because when I was last in the temples during Chinese New Year, I did ask for them (Them?) to bless our family with a Little Monkey and here's our little one on the way. There's a part of me, the non-scientific, non-mathematical part of me, that likes to believe that Someone Up There is watching out for us down here. Or in this case, Everybody Up There.

My TM called a few times everyday from Jakarta to chat and to enquire about how Little Monkey was handling Mum's cooking. TM's tastebuds have yet to adjust to Mum's traditional Chinese cooking but luckily Little Monkey quite enjoys it.

Something's different in this trip though. It's not just me being treated like royalty. It's the thoughts I have when I see the places of my childhood. I feel very happy that I will be able to show my very own child the place I have grown up in, to take her to the temples Mum had to practically drag me to, that one day she might ride a bicycle up and down the same road where I learnt to ride mine and play in the garden I'd played in.
TM remarked once, "All mothers are greenie conservationists because they want their kids to have something." Perhaps it's true. Perhaps because we know that we're carrying the future within us, we're so desperate to make sure it's a future worth handing down. Ever since I learnt I was pregnant, I have this urge to save the whales, save the panda bear, save the forest, save the trees, save a snapshot of my own childhood... you name it, I'll want to save it. I want it not for me, but for the future that I'm carrying right now.