Can’t believe our Lil Guy is 6 months old today! We feel like we’ve already been on a full journey with him in these first 6 months of his life. So as Ellen and I were thinking of how to celebrate with a 6-month old baby, we tossed around the ideas of taking him to a fancy ice cream parlor (though he can’t eat ice cream), throwing him a big birthday party with lots of friends (though he wouldn’t know what was going on) or getting him a cake with candles at a neighborhood BBQ we were hosting anyways (though he can’t blow out candles or eat cake). Then Ellen suggested taking him to the Aquatic of the Pacific aquarium in Long Beach and that was the perfect idea! When he was only 2 months old, I took him to a pet store to look at fish and he was mesmerized. So we went to the Aquatic of the Pacific and he was excited to see the colorful fishes, jellyfishes, giant eels, giant lobsters, sharks and Lorikeet birds! His eyes got big. He looked at the fish intently; the fish looked at him intently. The fish swam up to the glass; he reached out and touched the glass. He bopped up and down with excitement and his eyes bounced from one fish to the next. He was captivated by the humongous glass tanks filled with blue water teeming with aquatic life. It was a perfect day to celebrate 6 months of his precious life.
6 months. The journey of watching him grow and develop has been incredible. To see what he was like before to who he is now has amazed my wife and me. I have new appreciations for terms like grace, redemption and restoration. While we are his present family, his future family is still to be determined. My wife and I have determined that being a part of his journey in life so far has been a meaningful blessing to him. But lately, I’ve been thinking that it’s just as much the other way around. I could say we are a part of his journey during this first year of his life to bless him, but often it really feels like he’s joined us in our journey during the middle of our lives to bless us.
Brian See Chan 