...kinda like back on the horse.
Today, Chris and I took our first boat dive trip out to the island of Atauro since, well - that day on 20 March 2011. It was my dad's 60th birthday, and I had chartered the newly arrived dive boat on that Sunday to surprise Chris for his birthday with a group of friends for a dive trip. I was just 30 weeks pregnant, and joined on board by a friend about 2 weeks behind me in her pregnancy. While our husbands and others dove, we had a lovely time relaxing, snorkeling and catching up on all things pregnancy and birth planning-related including when we would leave, what route we are flying, and how we both upgraded to business class for the long flight. Little did I know the 'cramps' I started feeling at the kitchen table a few hours after returning from the boat would result in an emergency evacuation to Darwin the next day, and the birth of our beautiful boy the following day, nearly 2.5 months early, - just in time for his daddy's birthday. I think you know the rest of the story.
Not to be nostalgic (well, I guess this is sort of a nostalgic blog), but today was somewhat significant in that it was the exact same boat where I was last happily pregnant before it all came to an abrupt end, with me, Chris and poor Luka unprepared in so many ways. Sitting on that fly bridge, looking out toward the islands surrounding this vast ocean world we live in, motoring next to a pod of whales, it all seemed so similar, so amazingly recent...yet it is almost a year, and this time I had my boy waiting for me at home. Incidentally it was the longest I had ever been away from Luka since his birth, apart from nights he spent in hospital without me by his side for a few hours....
In many ways I think it was an important trip. The boat has always sort of signified the start of our journey with Luka, and I like to tease our skipper that 'he put me into labor'...so it was not without remembrance, humility and thankfulness that I boarded the same vessel today for a similar destination under wholly different conditions.
On another level, it was also important to have the time to connect with Chris doing something we both love. We had two spectacular dives. Those 20+m viz, no current, thousands of fish (including a 200+ school of barracuda), serene, 70+min dives that remind you of why we love this sport.
We got home to Luka having dinner with his nanny and her sister-in-law - he squealed as we walked in the door, arms outstretched - then immediately snuggled his face in my neck as I hug him in close and tight. What our lives are, have forever been altered by the events that originated on the very same boat I just stepped off.
So grateful. Such an unbelievable journey.
Today, Chris and I took our first boat dive trip out to the island of Atauro since, well - that day on 20 March 2011. It was my dad's 60th birthday, and I had chartered the newly arrived dive boat on that Sunday to surprise Chris for his birthday with a group of friends for a dive trip. I was just 30 weeks pregnant, and joined on board by a friend about 2 weeks behind me in her pregnancy. While our husbands and others dove, we had a lovely time relaxing, snorkeling and catching up on all things pregnancy and birth planning-related including when we would leave, what route we are flying, and how we both upgraded to business class for the long flight. Little did I know the 'cramps' I started feeling at the kitchen table a few hours after returning from the boat would result in an emergency evacuation to Darwin the next day, and the birth of our beautiful boy the following day, nearly 2.5 months early, - just in time for his daddy's birthday. I think you know the rest of the story.
Not to be nostalgic (well, I guess this is sort of a nostalgic blog), but today was somewhat significant in that it was the exact same boat where I was last happily pregnant before it all came to an abrupt end, with me, Chris and poor Luka unprepared in so many ways. Sitting on that fly bridge, looking out toward the islands surrounding this vast ocean world we live in, motoring next to a pod of whales, it all seemed so similar, so amazingly recent...yet it is almost a year, and this time I had my boy waiting for me at home. Incidentally it was the longest I had ever been away from Luka since his birth, apart from nights he spent in hospital without me by his side for a few hours....
In many ways I think it was an important trip. The boat has always sort of signified the start of our journey with Luka, and I like to tease our skipper that 'he put me into labor'...so it was not without remembrance, humility and thankfulness that I boarded the same vessel today for a similar destination under wholly different conditions.
On another level, it was also important to have the time to connect with Chris doing something we both love. We had two spectacular dives. Those 20+m viz, no current, thousands of fish (including a 200+ school of barracuda), serene, 70+min dives that remind you of why we love this sport.
We got home to Luka having dinner with his nanny and her sister-in-law - he squealed as we walked in the door, arms outstretched - then immediately snuggled his face in my neck as I hug him in close and tight. What our lives are, have forever been altered by the events that originated on the very same boat I just stepped off.
So grateful. Such an unbelievable journey.
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