8-8-08

Okay, I cried. Got choked up and let the tears run down my face watching the Today show yesterday. Matt and the girls are reporting live from Beijing. There it was, in all its splendor... the Great Wall, the Forbidden City... the crazy circles of highways... and the screen went blurry.

We have anticipated the opening of the Olympic Games with great excitement - a chance to see the Bird's Nest completed, the Aqua Dome, finished, and the joy of sitting with Alex and shouting, "Hey!! We were there! We saw that!" And that is what we did.

Great feats always overwhelm me with emotion. It is not uncommon for me, yes me, who could look at this week's People Magazine and not recognize a single celebrity, to become a devoted fan of a figure skater or swimmer once every four years. It is not unusual to find me choked up as the flag is raised, national anthem blaring, and a medal is placed around an accomplished neck.

And I guess that is what happened to me last night. I saw again, the images of Beijing. And we were the accomplished ones. The emotion I felt, a release. The last time I saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, I was at the end of one journey and the beginning of another. It was around 3- 8- 08 and I was days from meeting my daughter - jet lagged, thrilled, overwhelmed, a delighted traveler - so many things - too many things to feel the emotion of what was about to transpire. But on 8 - 8 -08 - I could.

As most of us now know, eight is considered the luckiest number in China. Thousands in China were married yesterday. Thousands more hoped for the birth of a child. Here in Fly Creek, NY, I'd say 8-8-08 was a lucky day too. We played at the playground, and the rain held off until we were ready for lunch. We made flags from construction paper - one for China, one for the U.S.A., and one each of our own design or choosing to decorate our living room for the next few days. We found the glue. We had the colors of paper we needed. We made a Chinese feast with the colorful bounty from our garden and our CSA allotment. It was great. The kids loved it and ate every bite. We played games and waited for the ceremonies to begin, and then we all sat together, all in amazement of the spectacular show before us, this unbelievable staging of events in the land of our daughter's birth, and because we had been there, it belonged to all of us, to Cate, to Alex, to Steve, to me, these dancers, these drummers, these singers, these fireworks, these new architecture wonders and those ancient wonders of the world, belonged to us all.

And in a strange way, these Opening Ceremonies were for us, for our family, for our accomplishment, for our celebration.

We don't have much of a budget. Our stadium is not very big. But we have contruction paper flags, two young dancers that can move their hips like nobody's business, a tiki torch with an eternal flame, a collection of plastic gold metals, plenty of glow sticks, and a few remaining fireflies to lend their magic to the night sky.

One world, One Dream. Our dream.

Let the games begin.