Destiny

Just in Jeju (Part I)

Son Ye Jin POV

Time waits for no man. 2020 just left us a few days ago, and now we are in a brand new year, 2021. I hope that this year will be better than the last. So many things happening in 2020 not only the pandemic that hit the entire world but also to myself. It was the most surprising year for me. Who would have thought, in last year alone, I got married, pregnant and gave birth to Yerin? If you asked me, those are the happiest moment throughout my 40 years of life. No words could ever explain the feelings to be a mother and a wife to your soulmate.

Career-wise also, it did well for my husband and me. Thanks to our hit drama Crash Landing On You, I am more recognized as an actress globally. I got so many international CF offers last year, but I had to reject most of it because I got pregnant. But certain brands still want to hire me as ambassador even after knowing my condition. Bin ssi is doing well too. He got another movie offer after he came back from Jordan and he is still reviewing it. 2020 so far was not that bad for us. The only downside is we were not able to travel abroad together and mostly staying home. I think that explained how we conceived our baby. We stayed indoors too much.

Life as a mom is totally different and how I wish there is a detailed manual of motherhood. It has been 40 days since I gave birth to my beautiful Sarang. 40 beautiful days of sweet memories, also 40 days of painful experience when breastfeeding goes wrong and 40 days of anxiousness whether I do things right or otherwise. During the early days, I got panicked every time she cries as I did not know what that cry is for, but slowly I learned that it is slightly different in her screams. Now, I know which cry tells me she needs my boobs when she is hungry, which cry she needs her Appa's shoulder to put her to sleep and which cry when she feels uncomfortable because of her diaper need change. After all, that is part of our learning process as parents.

As someone who leads 2 companies, Hyun Bin is quite busy after the New Year holidays. He had to attend several meetings this couple of days. Luckily Ahjumma now working daily from 8am to 7pm to help me out. If not, I may get nervous, staying alone with Sarang without any help. Trust me, taking care of a baby is not as easy as it may seem. I hardly had time to water my plants nowadays. Having ahjumma to help out with the household chores is a big help.

Yerin is sleeping, so I take this time to list down things to pack to bring to Jeju. My husband plans to take us to Jeju for my birthday this coming weekend. This will be our first trip as a family of three, and I do not know what to expect. Will, my baby, love flying? Will she cry all the way inside the plane? Will she have problems adjusting to an unfamiliar place? Is she a born wanderlust like her daddy and me? And the list goes on. I also need to ensure I bring all her things to avoid any hiccups while we are on holiday. As I am writing down the list, it reminded me of my mother when I was a child and how she already start packing weeks earlier before our trip. I do understand it now.

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We flew off to Jeju two days before my birthday, and I can say we had a pretty smooth journey except that we have so many pieces of luggage with us that the check-in process is quite long. There is 6 luggage, and 3 of it are Yerin's with an additional stroller and car seat. Thank God we are flying business, so we have an extra allocation on pieces of luggage. Yerin behaved well throughout the journey from we left home until we arrived at our homestay. This little girl seems to enjoy flying. I follow the advice from mothers who are well experienced flying with a baby to feed her once I enter the plane so that she will fall asleep during the takeoff and it works! She slept the whole hour from Gimpo to Jeju-do and only woke up when we are already in the car on the way to our Air BnB and did not cry. I could not imagine if she cries the whole flying duration, and it might cause inconvenience to the other passengers.