Not letting go

Despite not being able to float, seriously I sink like a rock if I'm not actually swimming, you can see me here risking life and limb in the water. No, that's not me in the pretty pink bathing suit, that's me with the beard and big boof-head. Not only do I have my own life in my hands, but that of my niece @smallsteps who my brother @tarazkp entrusted me with that day. We were at the lake only a very short stroll away from his apartment and having a great time. She loves the water and we were out there just hanging out, talking about stones and trees and other interesting things like how good munkki's are! Seriously, if you haven't tried one you should get on it. Anyway...

At the time I'd only known her for a few days despite her being almost two years old. I live in Australia which is about 13 bazillion kilometres away from Finland where my brother lives with my niece and sister-in-law. Still, my niece and I hit it off and became pretty good friends. I spent time teaching her how to talk like an Aussie and she spent time wrapping me around her little finger, which didn't take very long...I think about 1 minute or so.

We were fortunate in July 2018 that the weather in Finland was hot by Finnish standards, some 28-29 degrees. In fact that's what we'd had all the way through our 6 week trip, even in the UK! We were lucky. It allowed us to go to the lake several times and I have a lot of photos to remember our time there at the lake and the various other places we went together. Although, six months and 13 bazillion kilometres later it hardly seems enough. I miss my niece and am afraid she may forget me, or at least the times we shared.

We video chat a lot, most weeks at least once, and I send videos to her of us talking. I also receive them back courtesy of my brother and his wife which is greatly appreciated. I'm worried though that, moving forward, her two-year-old memory won't recall the time we spent together. When leaving Finland to come home that was one of my biggest worries. I was a bit of a mess when I said goodbye to her to be honest and it played on my mind for a long time. How do you explain to a two-year-old that 13 bazillion kilometres separates us?

As she gets older she'll have different memories of us. I'll be sure to show her pictures of our adventures together and of course there's a constant stream of stuff my wife and I buy for her heading to Finland so she's always surrounded by those things, our videos and chats. My brother and his wife also do a great job of helping her remember us so moving forward I think we'll have a great relationship, but for now I miss her a lot.

We have plans to return to Europe in 2020 and will see my niece of course. She'll be around 4 years old so after a lot of hugs I'll be able to accelerate the Australian language lessons, she's pretty good already to be honest, and I'm sure she'll teach me a thing or two also. My hope is that one day they all come down to Australia so I can play tour-guide for my niece, take her koala bear-hugging and to the beach too however I'll need to wait a while for that to happen I think.

Right now I'll have to be content with the photos and videos I have, to love her from all the way over here and save up my pennies to get back there in 2020...If any of you feel sorry for me and want to donate a couple of flights to me (I'll be happy to accept business-class tickets) please let me know. I'd be most grateful of course. You know I'm actually kidding right... I'm happy to take premium economy tickets too, not just business class! 😝

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