A Day of Reunions!

Sunday - May 27, 2012

Susanna and Megan, Oct. 1989

With Susanna and her girls, May 2012

My energy continued to surge today - at the perfect time!  Today brought two wonderful reunions with friends from our Beijing days, 23 years ago!  I was so happy to meet up with my former student, Susanna Itkonen and her family (lovely husband Pekka and their two adorable girls!).  Meeting downtown for lunch, the girls gifted me with a healthy dose of much-missed 1st grade and preschool humor and story-telling.  Susanna and Pekka shared how they are taking full advantage of their assignment in the States.  They are traveling and doing so much in DC;  I feel so very fortunate that their Colonial Williamsburg vacation and my health overlapped so well!  Susanna, her sisters, and parents were such a strong presence in my first teaching experiences during our two years in Beijing. They fill so many of the memories of those years that I thrilled to see and hug the now adult Susanna.

Beijing, Sept. 1989

THEN in a phenomenal coincidence of timing, I headed downtown again for an afternoon rendezvous with Robyn and Graeme Steven, dear friends who we met in childbirth education class before Megan and Robert were born!  We had last seen one another when through the vagaries of scheduling and international air travel, I helped Robyn at the birth of her third child in Hong Kong while Graeme flew down from Beijing.  On Friday, Robyn had flown from their home in New Zealand to meet Graeme as he traveled in from London.  She is accompanying him on business travel across the States!  Doesn't that sound terrific?  Before they set off, Robyn and Graeme drove down from DC so we could meet up after so many years.  Gosh, it is so lovely to fall back into comfortable rhythms after so many years.  New Zealand is at the top of the Ammirati travel list and will be much more accessible when we live in San Fran but who knows?  Thank goodness for Facebook and the internet  :)



AND last but certainly not least - Megan is home, cuddled next to me on the couch with Jonathan alongside her!  She is home for 10 days and overlaps with Jonathan's visits both this weekend and next.  They are so very sweet and helpful, keeping me company, raising my spirits, making me smoothies (JPA) and googling fearlessly (MEA) as the need arises.  Joe is so on top of everything but he certainly must be happy for the extra TLC.