Val-isms: A special day for a special woman

Someone celebrates a birthday every day. In fact, I dare say that MANY people celebrate their birthdays every day.

Today, the only person who's birthday is important to me, is Linda's.

Though on her birthday, I am forced to confront our age difference (thought until my birthday 8 months from now, we are only 12 years apart!), I am also reminded that this person who I plan to spend the rest of my life with, was born very far away from where I was and it's truly amazing that we found our way to each other.

I love hearing how couples meet. The various journeys they take in their brief beginnings that bring them to their respective life partners is nothing short of miraculous sometimes. And then there are people like a friend of mine who I happen to also work with. Shemet her now husband of 23 years when they were in the 5th grade at their Elementary school (which is where my daughter now goes!). My co-worker swears that the minute she met this boy, she knew and felt that she was going to marry him someday. Wow, huh? And I've gotten to know him over the past 5 years and they are both very lucky to have found each other and have adopted 2 beautiful children together in the last 7 years.

However, Linda wasn't just born on the other side of the state or even on the other side of the U.S. She was born in what is now known as Saigon, Vietnam. Her Dad was an American G.I. and her Mom was a local young woman and they fell in love in the late 1960's when he was over there involved in the Vietnam war. Their story became a happy version of Miss Saigon.

Linda's Dad married his love in her country and brought her and his 6 month old baby girl home to live in his home state of Connecticut. The year was 1970. America wasn't a very welcoming place for Vietnam veterans and I'm sure that it was doubly unwelcome to a couple that involved a Vietnam native.

Linda's Mom knew that her daughter would be better off here in the States than in Vietnam. And she was right. When Linda returned to Vietnam in 1999 with her parents for the first time since leaving as an infant, she was shocked and saddened to see the poverty up close.

I am amazed at all that she has had to endure for being a 'mix' and have so much respect for all that she has accomplished in her life so far. She's an excellent student, a hard worker and a driven spirit who genuinely looks for new opportunities that are outside her comfort zone. She has taught me much in the past 5 years that I have known her.

She has been such a positive step-parent influence on Sophie that has taken a special friendship role and blends it with a pseudo-parenting role which provides Sophie with a special confidante that as she gets older, she will surely appreciate and be grateful for. She has pointed out to me different and often more efficient and productive ways to guide Sophie that also tend to be less stressful for all parties involved! The fact that she is an Asian-American has also provided Sophie with a live-in cultural role model.

And despite our age difference, her favorite music is from the 60's! She's a real Motown fan. She also loves the 70's & 80's, of course, too. Somehow we seem to be from the same musical background.

Though I wish we had met so much earlier in our lives, I know that things happen for a reason. We both had to take our own journeys and in our own time. The important thing is that our paths crossed and then merged. A nice Jewish gal from Brooklyn, NY falls in love with a nice Amerasian woman from way across the ocean. Who coulda known?!!!

I am enjoying the journey that we're on together today and the next day and the next.

Happy birthday, my love.

And though it should be a day where we go out and celebrate together tonight, she has given me a gift. Tonight, I'll be going to "Family Math Night" with Sophie and my ex at Sophie's school. Thanks for being so understanding.

8 Comments

Happy Birthday Linda!!!

Posted by: weese | 04/30/2009 at 08:33

Happy birthday Linda and very sweet story!

Posted by: Leah Weiss Caruso | 04/30/2009 at 08:45

Happy, happy birthday Linda!! :D

Posted by: Tina-cious.com | 04/30/2009 at 10:13

Very interesting story about Linda's parents.
It IS a miracle how we meet our beloved significant other!
btw Doris is 12yrs older than me. hehe.
Happy Birthday Linda, and may you have many, many more.

Posted by: KMae | 04/30/2009 at 11:45

Happy Birthday, Linda!

Posted by: JR | 04/30/2009 at 12:52