Dear little Ms. Jayawardana,
Hi baby! You might still not know me very well like you do your mum, but I am the person who tells silly jokes every day and night and laugh out loud with your mum every single time. But we will get to know each other very soon and baby, I can’t wait to hold you, cuddle with you, and spend a ton of time with you.
To give you a background story, daddy and your mommy was always planning to return to Sri Lanka (a beautiful paradise island in the Indian ocean where we both born and brought up. You will get to know about it a lot with the endless adventures coming up!) from Singapore, where you are right now. Daddy had moved to Singapore to work about 4 years ago, and then mommy moved in about 2 years ago. We always wanted to go back home at the end of 2022 but wanted to wait and see when you would want to step into the world. As it turns out, seems you too had that same timeline in your mind!
We believe that our beautiful home in Sri Lanka would be a perfect oasis for you. Daddy built a brand-new home for us with ample space for you to crawl around, a cozy library for us to read beautiful books and study together, a very big courtyard for us to ride bicycles, a nice place just for you and me to do stargazing, and a lot of friends for you to play.
And did I mention the playground right next to our place?! It’s the best! We can play, fly kites, and go on picnics and have a load of fun there! Daddy used to spend his entire childhood playing there, I guess it’s going to be your turn now! Not to give a spoiler, but there is a big garden with lots of fruits for you to eat back there. I am sure you will love to eat the freshest Avocados, Mangos, Oranges, Guavas, Woodapples, Amlas, Rambutans, Jack Fruits, Mangosteens, Wild Olives, and you will get to drink the freshest juices too! (Writing this makes me hungry!).
There is a big family and friends who are super excited to meet you for the first time! Achchi and Seeya who are in Sri Lanka are looking forward to playing with you and even planning how they will hold your hand while taking you to school! Achchi and Seeya who are in Australia (Another biggg country just to the bottom right of the world map, and someday we will visit to see your cousin sister Aavya) right now are already planning their flights back to Sri Lanka just to see you! So, everybody is preparing to welcome you, see how much you mean to the family?!
You are going to set foot in this world right after a very challenging time. Somebody ate a Bat and the whole world was locked inside their houses! People in Sri Lanka is going through a tough time due to some issues and still their generous smiles have never faded. A lot of people asked from daddy and mommy why we want to go back to Sri Lanka during this time because you will get to have a lot of nicer toys and other things in Singapore. To be honest we think regardless of the small troubles in Sri Lanka, that beautiful environment and the lovely people would make your childhood more enjoyable and loved. You will have a much memorable, enriched childhood rather than the “nicer” materialistic temperory stuff that you will get in an enclosed place. This would definitely be worth more than any amount of money daddy would ever earn by being here. It’s the little things that matter! Period.
When you slowly grow up, I want you to be yourself. Enjoy your life to the fullest and live a great, fulfilled life with loads of memories. I will get you a lot of dolls to play but if you like cars and bikes like daddy do, we will have a lot of those too. Frankly there is no limit to who you can be, what your inspirations are and what you can become, so whomever you choose to become, you will have an entire army of people supporting you! In the old days there were limitations on who you can become according to the gender, but now those are blurred lines which not restricting anybody at all!
There is something called social media. Those are becoming inevitable in the present world, which has positive things but majority negative. A lot of people that you would get to know would have profiles showcasing on them, but later you will realize that half of what is there is not even real! People tend to curate their profiles trying to show how much happy they are on them, while the real life is an utter mess. So, when the time comes, I will show you how everything works, and how much it is important to focus, be happy and satisfied in real life than on somebody’s database!
I don’t want to make this so long, because we will have a lifetime to talk about a lot of things. I do not normally write things like these, but the excitement got the better of me for this time. Your arrival alone has a beautiful effect on us all, and I believe that’s just the beginning. And I repeat, can’t wait to meet you baby! Daddy had to travel last week to Thailand to meet some people, which I thought I would regret being away from you. But even though I missed you and mommy a lot, I got to meet so many great people from all over the world like Petro from Greece, Glenn and Blake from USA, Walter from Netherlands, Tomi from Singapore, who sends you their best wishes and gave solid advice on how I can be a great dad for you as they have been for their kiddos. And Daddy’s and Mommy’s friends Chathra uncle and Melanie aunty came to stay with you and mommy with loads of delicious food! Let’s say thank you to them when we meet them again okay?
Life is not a race, it’s a journey. Don’t compare yourself to others, but to you yourself. Make sure that you improve yourself than the yesterdays you. Live your life to the fullest, have no regrets and love with all your heart. Be kind and be a shining light for the people around you and leave a good footprint with each and every one you interact. Remember, the world seems so big, but in reality, it’s a small world and everybody is equal. So, treat everyone respectfully regardless of all the differences that would be pointed out and be humble enough to learn the lesson which they will teach you. But you will have bad times too like everybody. But they will set you up for the best times of your life. Life is full of ups and downs, but the trick is to stay neutral, be less effected by the things happening around you.
My promise to you is that you are going to have a great time, you are going to make a lot of great memories and meet a lot of great people. I promise that all of us will be there to hold your hand, lift you up, clap and cheer for you and to wipe your tears. I promise you we will do our best to make you the best version of yourself that will ever be and I promise I will set a very good example for you. Daddy is not a perfect human being, but I will be my perfect self ever for you.
The only thing I can’t promise is that I would be there for the rest of your life, but I promise you that I will love you unconditionally for the rest of mine.
Can’t wait to meet you!
Lots of Love,
Dad
