Memory Making

I have decided that Memory Lane is in my top ten list of favourite destinations.

I'm not sure what prompted the thought, but today on the way to church Shae asked if we could show Ethan the video footage we have of her and Asha as sub-one year old's helping take the washing out of the machine and place it in the dryer at our apartment in Robinson Heights, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong.

And thus began a 3 1/2 hour walk down memory lane. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon. After having watched about an hour and a half of video-taped memories of the girls (which only covered from about 8 to 18 months!) Matt and I started to get guilt-pangs over how much we had recorded of the girls and how little we had of Ethan. So, Matt got to digging out the video camera tapes we have of Ethan's short life - and lo and behold there were 9 tapes!!! We watched from Ethan's birth day and quickly our guilt subsided. We had recorded a monster portion of his life too (phew!). Plenty of riveting hours of time on the playmat, in the bath, tummy time. We had a delightful afternoon of reliving first hours, first cuddles, first surgeries, first triumphs, first foods, first steps, first bike rides, first falls, first words, first books, first songs, first spots, first beds....of Disneyland and kangaroos, Grandparents' houses and kindergarten, friends, family, family-friends, Christmas plays, crawling races, elephants. Oh, it was great!

And what delighted me most was the realisation that we've only just begun with the memory making.

Take yesterday, for example - a day of memory making. We spent the late morning and early afternoon at Carrick Hill with some relatively new and precious friends (who feel like old ones already). We had brunch and sat in the garden with champagne and nibbles. We discussed life, love, dreams (and how they change), children, heartache, adventures, jokes. And all the while our beautiful children frolicked in the garden - every now and then contributing a delighted squeal to the ambiance of the day or returning to home base to refuel. It was divine.

And this is why I am a fan of Memory Lane. It highlights the best times that life has brought (not just the happiest, but also the most challenging that have resulted in immense growth) and encourages me that there are still so many more stops to add along the way.

We've only just begun with the memory making....