Happy Birthday!

Today is my father's birthday. He's turning 57 this year (waow already?). Now that we have a blog, I wanted to honor him here, even though they don't read the blog because everything is in english. I always loved him very much and always considered him as my idol. He is so smart, and humble, and has a very diplomatic way of handling things; and I always wanted to be just like him. I was always very close to him growing up. During my first year of marriage with Juri, I realized how Juri and him are so much alike.
Even though my dad doesn't believe whatsoever in the existence of a higher Being, in God, he is still a great and fair and honest person.
Do you want to know some interesting facts about him?
Well, he was born at 7 months old at home in a very small island in very modest conditions. His parents put him in a basket full of cotton that they took from the trees to keep him warm. I learned in 2006, that as a baby, he was almost sold to a chinese guy (my grandpa is chinese) who wanted to have a son, but my grandma's parents took him instead. So he was raised by his grandparents, which wasn't uncommon in the islands with big families.
My dad was baptized and raised as an Adventist, but in 12th grade, in his philosophy class, his beliefs changed to atheist.
He didn't graduate from high school, and yet today, he has the training and the knowledge of an engineer (he works for the Civil Aviation). He is a year younger than my mom, so when dated, she was 18 and he was 17, and my mom's friends made fun of her saying that she has to be careful because he wasn't considered an adult yet.
I went to a party once with my best friend ( I was 5 days shy of being 18) and got really drunk, so drunk that I think I passed out and my friends parents took me to their house and I slept over there. The next day, they called my dad to pick me up and told him what I had done. He told me to be more responsible next time and that we shouldn't tell my mom about it, otherwise she'll freak out.
My parents never wanted me to have a boyfriend (just like any parents I guess); my mom said that my boyfriend is "school" until I'm done with studies. Well I had my first real boyfriend at 17 and he was 20 and we would always somewhere in his car. One day, my dad told me that he knew I had a boyfriend. When I asked "how", he just replied that he had eyes everywhere and that he trusted my judgement to not waste my life.
When Juri proposed, I told my dad about it over the phone and guess what he said "NO". I was too young (18 years old) and he was russian. But when they came over for the wedding and met him, all the apprehension went away.
For Christmas 2007, I called my parents and in the conversation told my dad: "you can have an expensive but fun Christmas with us or a cheaper but not so fun Christmas without us" he said "money doesnt matter, if I had the money to fly you over, I would have, despite of the price".

I love you dad and Happy Birthday.

PS: After school, I'll train Taiamani to say "Joyeux Anniversaire" and then call my dad through Skype (thank goodness for skype) at 5:30 pm so it'll be 6:30 am in Tahiti, right before he goes to work.