Waiting for Waves

Last weekend, we all got up early and ventured out to the East Coast Park in Singapore.  We were motivated by a triathlon swim training session for Regis and Adrienne's love of anything related to sand, dirt, and especially rocks. While the hubby was off doing swim training drills and Adrienne was digging holes and moving piles of sand, I could sit back in the sand with a lazy eye on both of them and enjoy some early morning sun. Eventually Adrienne apparently got all the sand sorted so it was just right and wanted to venture down to the water. While she is a 'head-first' sort of gal in a lot of things, she is always  cautious when it comes to the ocean shore. She grabbed my hand and pulled me down to the water's edge, just close enough that big waves would greet our feet but we were otherwise safe from the water.  This, like so many other seemingly trivial things, is endlessly fascinating to a 20-month old.  So we would stand there waiting and guessing if this wave was going to reach us or not, all the while the excitement building and climaxing in squeals of laughter once the waves hit our feet.  

Waiting for waves is a fun game to play with Adrienne, however it sometimes seems that we have been doing this figuratively in our life for awhile. Waiting. Our plan was to come to Singapore for 2-3 years. We are now rapidly approaching our 4 year anniversary and yet still no immediate plan to move back. This past year has brought a lot of good-byes to our Singapore friends; friends that have now come and gone in the time we have been here. That has been hard for us to see, both in seeing friends go and in being left behind. We are anticipating that wave of change to come for us soon, waiting sometimes hopefully and other times abjectly. But I realize that, like the waves, change has come and is always coming. We have grown, we have worked, we have traveled, we have become parents, we have met great people....hell, we have even started saving for retirement. Now if that is not change, I don't know what is! While we stay hopeful that our lives will move in a westward direction, life is happening now and happening so fast. The thing about kids is you feel like there is so much to teach them but then they surprise you with life's little lessons. In this case, like my daughter so enjoys, that it is important to remember to savor the sand between your toes while you are waiting for the next big wave to hit.