Waking up

This morning, I woke up. I don't mean I ended my nightly sleep routine. I mean I woke up.

After my alarm went off, I hurried and got dressed so I could take Yoon Mi to work. She works on Saturdays from 9am to 2pm. After I took her, I went to the sauna for a good shower and soak. The roads are super icy from the snowmelt the day before freezing in the subzero temperature. So it was really slow going and dangerous. Normally, driving in Korea is hazardous to one's health but today was even worse and not just because of the ice. The entire time that I was conscious, the only thing I could think of today was that I would find out the gender of our baby. It was on my mind all morning. So, when I was driving through road construction on icy roads, uphill, I really shouldn't have been. Luckily, I've been driving here long enough that apparently even though my mind was not on the road, my eyes apparently were. Thank goodness for muscle memories, eh?

When I got home from the sauna, I still had to wait 2 and a half hours before Yoon mi got off work so I tried wasting time as only social network site games can do. Finally, 1:45 came around and I could leave to pick up my lovely wife from the pharmacy and head to the doctors office. When we walked in, the waiting room was full of women. FULL! well, luckily by the time Yoon mi finished with the blood pressure check and weight check and all the other little checks that the receptionist/nurses can do we only had to wait a few minutes. When we walked into the doctor's room, it seemed like 30 seconds before Yoon mi was on the ultrasound table with a sore head from knocking it on the monitor. I was seated above her head with a full view of the monitor.

My god, there is no way to express the jubilation, the rapid jump in my heart rate, the overflow of emotions when I saw my baby's face pop up on the screen. Then we could see the brain. It looked like two little kidneys. We counted all four lobes of the beating heart before we listened to it pump the life blood that my wife is allowing it to create. We could see the thigh bone as the baby was trying to conceal the entire groin region. I think our little Kong knew why we were invading the privacy of the womb. As I was staring, I remember saying, "I need to remember to blink." Right after my eyes were re-lubricated, I saw the beautiful ribcage and spine followed by the baby's bum. I don't know how long we watched the ultrasound magic, but it ended far too quickly. To my eyes there was no clear evidence if we would have a son or daughter. I thought that we missed the chance and would have to wait until who knows when to see for sure. However, as soon as the doctor stood up, he said something in Korean and I wasn't sure if I understood him correctly, but the look on Yoon mi's face told me that she understood perfectly so she looked at me and told me what he said. He told us what we can expect.

Let's just say that in about 5 years, I'm going to be going to Taekwondo practice and little league baseball games. I'll be out in the park, playing catch.

I'll be watching, cheering, supporting my son.

Today I woke up.