Let My People Go

Well, our week with the Williams grandparents is over. All in all, everyone had a great time. Gabe's colic calmed down for the past few days, allowing us to go a bunch of places with my parents without it turning into a complete disaster.

So in addition to hanging around the bloc and the hotel a lot, we managed to head out for a family trip to Auchan, where we bought some baby stuff because the entire suitcase full of baby stuff that my mother brought with her wasn't enough. Maybe now we have enough baby stuff. If you ask me, anyway. You would have an easier time getting the military to admit it has enough jet planes than you would getting my mom or Io to admit we have enough baby stuff.

Fail.

We also headed out to Rahova to visit great-grandpa and great-grandma Negru. They were very happy to have us over, and to see Gabriel again. It was also a chance for my parents to meet them, and vice-versa, and for my folks to see the house where Io spent her adolescence.

It was an interesting day, because you've got three people who speak only Romanian, one who speaks Romanian and some English, one who speaks English and some Romanian, two who speak only English, one who speaks by screaming, and only one person who speaks both Romanian and English fluently. Poor Ioana was constantly being asked to translate things one way or the other, and she's the only one who can feed the baby, so there was a lot on her plate. But she had a good time along with everyone else. My parents even got to try some of the Negrus' home-made wine.

They're going to be really mad when they see I put this picture up.

Sorry guys, it was too awesome.

They're not actually drunk. So we all hung out there for a while and then headed back, and on Thursday we enjoyed a day of just lounging around the bloc with no real plans.

Tania made an excellent meal as she always does, and my parents continued to love the local cuisine. It's hard not to, really: lots of great meat and potatoes, and nothing yucky that is good for you. Tania even made her special home-made donuts.

Today was the last day we had together. My parents checked out of their hotel this morning, and we all had lunch together at The Beer Wagon. It was a typical Romanian slow-service, two-and-a-half-hour lunch, but the food was good and the place remains a beautiful place to have a meal.

After lunch, we sent my parents off to join their tour package. They're scheduled to take a tour of downtown Bucharest tomorrow, and then they are off on a river-boat cruise up the Danube.

EEE! EEE! EEE!

We said goodbye to them out in the middle of downtown Bucharest. I'll be seeing them in July for my brother's wedding, but we don't know when they'll see Gabriel again, or when they and Io will see each other again, so that's hard.

Bye parents! Thanks so much for visiting! It's not many parents who get dragged halfway around the world to post-Communist eastern Europe by their kids. I think of it as payback for hauling me off to live in Australia all those years ago.

So now, everything here is pretty much back to normal. There's the normal cleaning to do to recover after a week of out-of-town guests, but for the most part it's just going to be a bunch of getting back to regular activities: baby doctor, ESL classes, nursing exams for Io, and so on.

We have one last fun trip planned before the end of June when I have to leave. In a couple of weeks the whole family will be heading down to the Black Sea for a couple of days. Tania and Gagi are going to a wedding and Io and Gabe and I are tagging along. I'm looking forward to it because I've always wanted to see the Black Sea and we've just never had the time. So that should be pretty fun.

In a couple of weeks we'll ask the INS to let Io back into the country this year, and we'll see what they say. Odds are unfortunately very low. But we have to try. Assuming they say no, after that we go one more year and then odds are nearly certain that she'll get to come back.

A year is a long time, though.

I'm realizing that it's one month before I go back to Los Angeles, and that's hard. Watching my mom cry as she said goodbye to Gabe reminded me of how I'm going to have to leave him, a dark thought that comes up from time to time and usually gets pushed to the back of my head with a "Well that won't be for a while yet." But it's getting harder and harder to say that convincingly.

Moment of Zen: