Few days ago we decided to organise our secretary which is filled with many important but also unimportant documents. Mixed in between was one folder with our wedding certificate, Nathan’s birth certificate, other important certificates and also our passports. Okay you might think what’s so special about few passports…well we are three people in the household and the number of passports is a bit higher than that.
Let me start:
Wife: Chinese passport
Me: Finnish and German passports
Nathancuty: Finnish and German passports + Chinese Travel document.
All in all those are 6 passports/ official documents allowing travel abroad and I guess it is a clear sign of having an interracial family.
Are those all mine?
I understand that the travel document is not 100% a Chinese passport BUT it allows him to travel to China without any visa!
Hopefully China will recognize soon dual/ multiple citizenship as it would mean for my wife that she could apply for the German nationality and maintain her Chinese nationality but also that Nathan would be allowed to keep his current greyish borderlinish triple nationality.
Thanks to the Finnish and German nationality both Nathan and I have a huge variety of countries we can travel to without visa but sadly this does not apply to my wife. A list of the strength of the different passport you can find here. This entire blogpost is partly inspired by a similar one written by Carissa Hickling from Everyday Asia.
Do you have several nationalities?
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Madh Mama just posted this interview with me on her running series “Your Intercultural Love Stories”. Madh Mama is a blog by Alexandra Madhavan and I actually don’t even know where to start describing her blog. Well, first of all there is so much about intercultural relationships to find there as she is herself a Canadian woman married to a South Indian Man and they have a beautiful daughter together. You want to find out more about India, Indian recipes, life in a intercultural relationship and stories of other intercultural couples? Then this is a must see blog for you!
So here is a little snippet of the interview:
Who proposed and how?
I proposed to her on her birthday in 2012. We went first to eat at a restaurant in downtown Helsinki and I had planned to propose there but I just didn’t find the right moment as silly things happened non-stop – such as the noisy people at the next table, the waiter popping up at unexpected moments and so on. Due to this I decided that we should take a walk after we got back home to the nearby lake and I proposed to her standing on a berth just as the sun was setting.
Thank you Alexandra of Madh Mama of doing this interview with me as it was a really nice experience to reflect on my life on what happened in the past years!
Yesterday, the 21st of February, was Nathan’s first birthday. To think that it is already a year since he was born is quite hard to grasp for me as it feels like it just happened few weeks ago. So what do you do when a kid turns one year? My wife got all the answers!
Really, in case the birthday party had been planned by me we would just go out eating with the family but of course that is not enough for her. My wife had big plans, very big plans for this birthday of Nathan including several cakes and more than enough guests at our home.
Nathan looking forward to the start of the party
First of all lets talk about the guests. Naturally my parents were invited and my brother with his girlfriend. To bring some more children to this birthday my wife invited my cousin and her husband together with their four children. Last but not least some people from her German language course were invited with one having a baby girl just one week older than Nathan. (however she is already able to walk for three months now while Nathan just did his first steps without support few hours ago!)
Now to the food. That was some rather intense topic as we had to drive to several shops to get all the right stuff. I offered my wife to go alone and buy everything so she can prepare more at home for the party but this didn’t work out. Why you may ask, well, I would need a grocery list but my wife just said “I don’t know what we need, I will know when I see it.” Great planning there! As we had already more than enough to do preparing everything for the celebration my mother got the task to prepare two cakes and my brother’s girlfriend has to create the real birthday cake for Nathan.
My brother with his three cousins twice removed and our rabbits
One might think that there just has to go something wrong because at least when I plan something like this there is always something which gets messed up. But big surprise, nothing went wrong at all. All the food was ready just in time when the first guests arrived. Furthermore all the guests were coming at the right time, something I have never experienced before as there was usually always someone who was very late or had suddenly other plans. Perhaps Nathan is cute enough so people don’t want to miss his birthday and of course free food? Or am I just used to the daily craziness in this family so I always expect the worst to happen?
After the main meal was done my wife brought the birthday cake to Nathan. The little one got a birthday song by all of us and then he was allowed to get closer to the cake. As he is still a bit too young to blow out the candles his second cousin Paul had to do it for him. After this my wife had a little game planned for Nathan. We placed several items in front of him such as a sports medal, pen, calculator and so forth and then we set him lose on those items. The idea behind it was that the item he grabbed first would be then his “future” profession. As he grabbed the pen my wife believes that he will be an author later. It seems me trying to read to him “The Hobbit” has already paid off.
The kids chosing their snacks
From here onwards more eating continued, more noise by all the children, drinks were spilled and the trash mountain in the kitchen grew taller and taller. In between we opened the presents for Nathan and he was allowed to try out each one of them…with his mouth. He just still loves to try to eat everything he can grab such as his favorite chewing toy: The Glass Table!
Now its been already a day since the birthday party and we are still exhausted. To have so many children over and prepare this kind of birthday party is certainly draining your battery quickly. However something exciting happened today and that is all about Nathan doing his first steps on his own. So now I will leave the blog post as it is and try to videotape him testing his walking skills.
Nearly got it right how to read the book, lets just turn it around next time
The cake
Happy with Grandfather
In the arms of his second cousin
Nathancuty got some help with the candles
How are your experiences from birthday parties, your own and those of your children, or even grandchildren?
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Crazy Chinese Family 