Mr O does America (Part 2).

It’s crazy how a little person can have such an effect on so many big people. We are adults, grown ups, mature and seasoned, yet a little one says your name or reaches out to touch your face and you melt into a million pieces in front of them.  
This is what I have seen over and over as I watch Oliver with all of the friends and family that he has met during this trip. 

He’s always been a watcher, he takes it all in and slowly he warms up and eases himself into a situation. And it’s the same with people. He sits and watches them, listens to them talk and follows the way they move, and over time he edges closer to them, answers a question, or reaches out a hand. And then they are hooked. 

He is who people gravitate towards when they enter the room, he’s the centre even if he’s still and silent. And that’s the amazing thing about children, they bring adults together. They make us stop; to listen, to feel, to appreciate the small things. 

Everyone who has met him this trip now understands the importance of a good stick and a patch of dirt to dig. They see the paint on the road and the lights that are shaped like balloons. Sounds are louder than they ever were and there’s a digger everywhere if you’d only open your eyes and look. 

The love that has been thrown at this child over the last two weeks is impossible to describe. We are lucky, lucky, lucky to be surrounded by such a phenomenal circle of people all over this amazing world. But the problem with this world is that it is expansive, and no one has come up with a teleportation device yet. We had to say goodbye to the ones we love at home so that we could be with the ones we love across the sea. And now we have to say goodbye to them, so that we can make our way home again. It’s unfair and heartbreaking that Oliver can’t be surrounded by all of these people all of the time. I just so hope that some of the love he has soaked up over here will come home with him in a memory. 

We have traveled through Ames, Iowa and Chicago, Illinois and we are now in Denver, Colorado, on our way to Boulder to get into the hills. And this time we have left all family behind and it’s just us. 

Thank you to everyone who has loved our boy, thank you for helping him grow into a world that is kind and warm and so incredibly full of love. 

He will be two years old tomorrow. Thank you for fuelling us on love for the last two years. We are so lucky.