Maia Wants To Buy A Plane
Maia has been missing Vietnam.
It's where she was born and the place she knew for most of her life (she will be 4 in September). It's where her grandparents, auntie, and cousin live.
One evening last September in Ho Chi Minh City, after two hours spent with our loved ones outside of the airport's gate followed by a few tearful "goodbyes," we lifted her onto a plane. Twenty seven hours later, we stepped out into a world completely unknown to her.
For her tender age, Maia's little brain struggled to comprehend that vast distance and how she could have moved so far in just 27 hours.
"Where are we?" she kept asking. "America," we said. "America?" she responded. Then, as if not hearing our answer, "where are we?" she would repeat.
She gets that we are in America now. Sometimes, she even goes as far as to say we're in Indiana. But, she hasn't stopped asking where grandmas and her cousin are.
I explained to Maia again and again that to get to Vietnam, I would need to buy her plane tickets to fly there and that her mom and I are working hard to buy her tickets. "I want to fly to Vietnam. I want you to buy plane tickets," she said.
Today, another tearful episode occurred, except Maia has forgotten the word "tickets" and only remembered "plane." "I want plane," she repeated those words like a mantra while tears were rolling down her cheeks.
We sell cookies, not coca*ne. We will be able to buy her plane tickets with enough hard work, but not a plane.
So, I gave her a dollar. Told her to put it into her piggy bank to save up for a plane. Between $1 and a bowl of rice and soy sauce, Maia was content enough to stop crying and get on with her day.
Good luck with your plane purchase, kiddo!
