Dedicated to~my dad for helping me make this story come to life

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/ai3vmu38fiyc

My name is Shiming. I lived in China, in a place called Chifeng. In 2006, I was 33 years old. I have a daughter who was one and a half years old and I loved to play soccer with my friends or just kicking a ball in my backyard at the fence under the blazing sun. I have a little sister that always has a positive attitude and even though I’m the older sibling, she’s taller than me by a few inches. My mom loves to cook, and oh! how I love the smell of her cooking from the kitchen! Life seemed perfect or normal.

But one day, I decided to migrate to Canada, because of serious air pollution but also because I wanted my kids to have better education, better environment and a safe community. It was so tough to not see my family and friends, since I only had friends in China and they were a huge part of my life. It was especially hard for my daughter to say goodbye to my mom because she always stuck with grandma no matter what. On the plane, I was uncomfortable, anxious and uneasy. What if this wasn’t a good idea?

When we arrived, we were greeted by my wife. When our daughter saw her, she had a look of confusion in her eyes. She didn’t recognize her mom anymore since we didn’t see her for one year. Then, we drove to the little house we were staying in by the sky train and the huge mall. Our neighborhood was very quiet and the people were nice, but where ever I go, especially when I’m talking to other people, my stomach gets all tangled up in random knots like a messy ball of yarn because some people can’t understand the accent I have when I speak in English.

For the first few weeks, I felt butterflies in my stomach, but I realized that there were a lot of other Chinese people around which loosened the tight feeling I had a bit. Canada is a beautiful place. When we went to Victoria, the ocean shimmered under the shining sun like a thousand crystals which made the flowers look like they're glowing. In the stores by the sidewalk, I can smell the sweet iciness of ice cream, the dark rich flavor of chocolate and the strong fragrant perfume smell of soap and lotion. Maybe this won’t be a bad decision after all, I thought, but little did I know about what was going to happen next.

About a year later, my wife had a new baby boy! For the first few weeks, it was very tough for my daughter. Her new little brother was getting all the attention. He was extremely picky about food, and he whines and pouts all the time, but he is of course adorable. Now that we have two kids, it’s been pretty wild, and my wife and I don’t always have time to take care of them, so we had a babysitter to care for the kids sometimes, but that didn’t last long, the kids didn’t like the babysitter or any babysitter at all. And that was just part of the weight on our shoulders.