Kids

I got a very early wake up message from my mother - she sent me a SMS notwithstanding the time difference between her place and mine - telling me that the kids are still in the running for honors in their levels after the release of the third period grades. That was worth being woke up early at the start of the week... well, I believe that being a parent who is away and working overseas, the best news that you can hear from home is the one that your children excel in school. It's kind of making the sacrifice of being away worth it, at least from my perspective. It is really a sacrifice working overseas... and I believe that kids give their share of sacrifices too. They try to cope with us being away... try to grow up alone... try to be more mature and responsible at an earlier time... it's kind of sad thinking of these things, but this is the reality...

My kids remind me somehow of my years as a child... then and now are two entirely different worlds altogether, and growing in these worlds are definitely different experiences, but somehow, growing in a middle class family in the 70s - with both parents working virtuously the whole day - makes me think of similar circumstances for children with overseas parents today... well, one will argue that at least when I was a child I have my mother to teach me the lessons in school at night...

I admire my kids... I remember our eldest son, who is turning ten in April, trying to hide his emotions the first time I told him I have to go abroad again and work... he's like that, always trying to show us he can handle things... the two small ones (6 and 4) are of course, more naive on these things, with our only daughter only showing occasional mood swings during the first few days that we're not there... and I love them... they're the same sweet and loving kids (especially our daughter) when we call them on the phone, and we could hear from them the same active and lively voices that we nurtured and cared all these years...

When you're away from your children, you tend to be more observant with their voices and their signals... I don't know, but I feel that whenever I talk to my kids on the phone, I tend to feel something different... like they're growing up... maybe that was partly because of the longing...

Going back to my mother's message, she told me that my oldest, as well as the second one - the only daughter - are currently in the top three in their respective batches, and the youngest is an achiever which means he is included in the top ten of his batch... not bad at all... there is no better moment for a parent than to go up the stage and pin that medal to your kid every end of the school year... as a parent, that is your proudest moment... to do it three times is, well... what can I say?

Kids are definitely our heroes...