No, it's not what you think: I did not impregnate some woman years ago only to find out I'm a father, it's nothing like that. 🤣

Rather, I got married few months ago. 😀

My wife and stepdaughter.

Allow me to introduce my wife, Evi Novianti, and my stepdaughter, Shafa. Evi was a widow when I met her in 2017. Her husband had died from pre-leukemia, leaving her a cute daughter. We met in a local masjid and attracted towards each other. I began courting her ever since, then we finally got married a year later. In August 11th, to be exact.

A photo from our wedding.

Above is a photo of our wedding. The party was arranged in my wife's village where she lived with her parents. Traditional Indonesian weddings could take seven days, but we decided to have it simple, with marriage vows in the morning and reception in the afternoon. As shown in the photo, I wore folk costume. After all, Indonesia is a tropical country, with hot and humid climate, so folk costume is definitely much more climate-friendly than your typical morning dress. It should be noted that I insisted wearing boater shoes than traditional sandals! 🤣

Less formal dress for the afternoon.

In the afternoon the gathering become less formal, so I changed to my usual Navy blazer, khaki trousers, and ascot tie. My wife also happily changed into something more comfortable.

Meaningful smiles.

The selfie above was taken after... ah, I couldn't tell you! 😀

A happy family.

We live in my house --my part of the house, to be exact. My parents' house is pretty large --certainly too large for modern living without manservants and maidservants, so my younger brother and I has agreed to split the house in two, both legally and physically. Above is a photo of us jogging around the neighborhood.

Me, a father.

That's me and Shafa in the living room --formerly my parents' bedroom. Yes, the bedroom has its own sitting room, and since my part of the house doesn't have one, I converted the bedroom into a sitting room and a living room.

Anyone notice the strange things labelled 'Thrustmaster' in the background?

And yes, you can see my Thrustmaster joystick collection behind.

Anyway, the photos below were taken from our visit to a kid amusement center yesterday.

Mother and daughter, happy with the unicorn.

So, I, Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman, audiophile, retro computing enthusiast, and former bachelor, now have become a husband and a father. But wait, that's not the end of the story. My wife has missed her period, and we bought a pregnancy test kit. Two lines mean positive, right?

So I am indeed a father.

Amidst all those happines, there is one thing that saddens me though: I couldn't share this with my mother, she passed away three years ago. If she and my wife ever knew each other, I bet they would really like each other. When Evi and I were still dating, we went out for seafood, and while waiting for the meals, Evi patiently and lovingly brushed Shafa's reading skills using the menu book. Then I remembered my mother did the same to me when I was Shafa's age.

Too bad my mother isn't here to share the happiness with.

Notes of observation:

1. Shafa is a gamer. The first thing she did when I lent her my Android tablet is installing games. Of course, being a little girl she is, she installed 'girly games' like Baby Panda's Hospital. But she was also excited when I showed her violent PC games like Shadowgrounds. Too bad I haven't got the time to introduce her to classic DOS games like Ultima 6 and Wing Commander.
2. It seems my stepdaughter also has potential to be an audiophile. I haven't got the time to build our home theater, so we watch movies using the TV's internal speakers. Naturally, the sound always gets clipped and distorted whenever we turns up the volume, and she always hears it first (and complains accordingly) even before I notice it. She doesn't mind when I pumped up the volume of my desktop system, and I guess it's because the PC is equipped with a pair of JBL L20T loudspeakers that stay clean in loud volumes. Anyway, my dad taught me to be an audiophile when I was twelve, so I guess I should do her the same, no?

UPDATE: I am a father again! 😀