It’s November and the Christmas drinks at Starbucks are here. So on Saturday morning, I convinced my husband to go to the nearest Starbucks with me so that I could get my Toffee Nut fix.
But his idea was even more crazy brilliant: Take the twins with us and have a little family date. And so we did, and what I got was more than just a satisfied craving.
Going to Starbucks has always meant for me either one of these two things: (1) to meet friends for some catching up, or (2) to have some alone time with my laptop, my earphones, and my thoughts. Bringing along two giddy little girls is surely a deviation from my usual Starbucks “dates”.
Instead of having a meaningful conversation, my husband and I had our hands full—holding the babies close, feeding them, entertaining them, singing songs to them, and making sure they didn’t fall off the couch.
But in the midst of the riot, I found myself pausing for one moment and holding back tears of joy.
It was my Dad’s birthday that day.
He would have been 64, and I still often find myself wishing that he’s around to spoil his grandchildren rotten, watch them grow, and steal them from us every now and then so that the parents can go away for a date haha.
But even if there’s a little bit of sadness in that thought, mostly there was joy knowing that a part of my Dad lives on.
So we placed a little candle on our Banoffee Pie to remember the life of the Great Lolo Bob who still never fails to inspire us even until now, 6 years after he’s gone to be with the Lord.
Happy birthday, Dad. Happy birthday, Lolo. We love you.
I praise God for moments like this.
In fact, I look forward to moments like this. Afternoons when we can just slow down and breathe in this new life that we have as a family. Times when we can bring them along wherever we go (while they still have no choice!), take them to places we love, and make some happy core memories.
And okay, maybe I’m a little too excited about making memories. They just turned one year old and surely they won’t have a recollection of this day just yet.
But someday.. someday, they’ll start to remember.
In the meantime, I’ll keep taking photographs and writing memories down.
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