Birthday Highlights - Part I

little late on the post, but better late than never, right? here a little start to the highlights...

last saturday i turned 29 for the first time (i plan on repeating this age for a few more years). started out the day w/lunch at the French Meadow Bakery -- UBER YUMMY. my parents drove up from rochester and my younger brother erick and his fiancee melissa came up from mankato, trekking an hour and a half each just to have lunch w/me... now that's luv! erick and melissa picked me up and suprised me w/flowers. look at how pretty they are!

at lunch mom and dad told melissa how my birth delayed their move to the US. this is a story i've known, but until now, they've always left out 1 MAJOR detail... 29 years ago mom and dad had just gotten done visiting the US embassy in seoul, who had told them they and my older brother were approved to immigrate to the US and could leave at any time. afterwards, mom (who was pregnant w/me) said her tummy hurt so dad got a cab and they went straight to grandma's house cuz they were leaving from there. grandma wasn't home and since the gate was locked, dad had to jump it (lots of homes in seoul are surrounded by a 6-ft-or-so tall metal or stone gates). they got inside and shortly afterwards, i was born at grandma's house. THIS MUCH I KNEW. the part i didn't know was that my parents returned to the embassy a few days later to inform them that they now had a little girl and needed to know what to do. the US embassy told my parents they had 2 choices:

1. leave me in korea and move to the US w/o me, or
2. apply for a visa for me so i could go with

WHAT?! LEAVING ME WAS AN OPTION??? i found myself repeating this over and over again as lunch turned into a sitcom. it was hilarious! dad kept saying while laughing, "yeah, can you believe that? they said to just throw you away!" at the same time, mom was trying to reassure me in a more serious tone, "but it's ok! we brought you with!" and all the while erick is laughing at the idea that i could've been the girl under a bridge (another story for another time).

now as i reflect on the past 29 years and how much of a pain in the ass i was growing up, i wonder how many times my parents said to themselves, "damn, we should've left her there..."