One year ago from today

I found out I was going to be a father. It's kind of a crazy thought as Helena already feels like a such an important part of the family. Depending on how you feel about embryo's I suppose she already was last July as well.

The morning I found out about Helena, Maya messaged me while I was in New Zealand and told me we needed to talk. I assumed I was in trouble and had done something wrong as most men would in this case (it was 8 AM NZ time). But instead I was shocked, even though physically obviously I knew it was possible, finding out she was pregnant came out of left field. It had happened so quickly and since we weren't telling people right away I couldn't (or didn't want to rather) announce anything on this blog - specifically around the time of this post.

And then I was back in New Zealand, thousands of miles away, on an adventure WWOOFing, hitchhiking, sightseeing, and meeting a young 19 year old German named Max. Although we only knew each other for less than two days, it was a very memorable time. Max had convinced me to go on a winter hike to Brewster hut (see pic.) below even though I had almost no winter gear and wasn't sure we'd survive the night. He, like many NZ visiters (especially from Europe, of which there are many), was already an experienced winter hiker and assured me we'd be fine. While we didn't end up reaching the top of the mountain, we did travel a significant distance through some serious challenge. Once we reached elevation (after a hitchhiking adventure to get to the mountain), the snow was often several feet deep and even the gators I bought didn't stop the snow from getting in and freezing my legs. We made it to the hut and spent a night discussing life stuff by candle light and witnessing one of the most beautiful full moons I had ever seen. Thankfully, the pipe with the running water, so important at the time, thawed in the morning and we made it down just fine. Back at the road we said our fairwells and went our separate hitchhiking ways (which unfortunately involved several hours of waiting alone after he got picked up quickly going in the opposite direction).

Now one year later Max writes to me to ask if I remember him and to ask if I ended up naming our child Brewster- ha! I told him we hadn't but it was amazing to look back one year ago today and put my feet back in those icy cold snow-filled NZ boots. This is especially true in the two shower summer days of Atlanta where I currently exist.