I was teaching on a US base in Okinawa when our first daughter was born. Gale was and is a natural with all children, but I didn't have a clue about relating to this new person, so small and delicate, suddenly in my care. When the baby was about four months old, she suddenly learned to smile and stole my heart. Soon we were on a plane to Taipei for a vacation. Her first plane ride.
We transferred to Germany and more flights would follow. She would fly across the Pacific and then the Atlantic before her first birthday.
In our German apartment it was Gale, me, and this magical little elf who kept us laughing. She was the center of our lives. When she was sick, we had no grandparents to give advice and take night shift watch. When she ran a fever she would move all over the bed, probably dreaming her baby dreams. We would make a pallet on the floor so she wouldn't fall off her bed. One of us would stay with her.
One really bad night as she and I slept on the floor, I heard her whimper. She had crawled into the drapes and was lost. I called her name and said, "Come to Daddy," and she crawled as fast as her chubby legs would carry her and curled up beside me.
I've been to quite a few places and had some wonderful experiences, but one of the most memorable, one which I keep in my heart is a night in Germany when my baby slept nestled under my arm.
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