Jason & Susan

One of the most commonly asked question of us is when we are planning to start a family. It’s been more than two years since we got married, so naturally people assume it is the time.

Well, bringing a new child into this world is a huge responsibility that we are not ready to partake in yet. We could barely keep a plant alive! We need to start with baby steps. Last year, one of Jason’s colleagues gave us a pot of lily plant. We said if we could Lily alive for 3 months, we’re on our way to starting a family! (some of you are snickering…)

Well, not quite two months and Lily was showing sickish yellow spots. We gave her lots of water to drink but that didn’t seem to help. Then in the middle of moving out of the SMIC Living Quarters to our new home, we kind of forgot Lily and left her sitting on the dining room floor. By the time Susan remembered about Lily, she had already withered to her death. So that didn’t go too well. We mourned Lily, then buried her in the LQ dumpster.

Last August, after we moved into our new place, our contractor gave us two big pots of plants. Actually, they looked more like trees than plants because they both have thick stems/roots. This time we didn’t want to name our plants. There’s something to be said about the act of naming things that stamps inexplicable emotional attachment. We had barely gotten over the loss of Lily, so we weren’t quite ready to commit but since these two just showed up our doorstep unexpectedly, we took them in anyway. We decided it was time to move on and have a new beginning. We set a mark of six months. (As it is said about dog years, one dog year = seven human years. We believe that one plant month = seven human years.)

We took great care of Plant #1 and Plant #2. Both of us took turns watering, feeding, and changing its diapers trimming them. When we went back to the U.S. for six weeks, we had our friend Mary babysit them. They were both happy and doing well for a few months. . . exactly four months. However, in the last few weeks, #1 and #2 started shedding leaves. First the leaves. Then the stems. Now the entire branch would crack and fall off. They are sick and we don’t know what’s wrong with them! Help!

Well, with all that said, there’s a reason why we don’t have any kids yet and aren’t planning to have one for a very very very long time.