Once upon a time, my wife and I were DINKs. For those who don’t know, that stands for “Dual Income No Kids.” It’s a very comfortable life, I will admit, and a very appealing option. I judge no couple for choosing it, but do note how vastly different it is from the choice to have or bear children.

Once upon a time, Jenny and I also had the opportunity to do one of our favorite things, which is travel together abroad. This coincided with our DINK lifestyle, prior to children. She periodically continued to travel for work after the kids, but it wasn’t quite so much fun since one of us (i.e., me) had to stay behind with them. C’est la vie.

One of our last trips abroad as DINKs was to London, right before the kids entered our home and altered our status forever, back in the spring of 2016. We thoroughly enjoyed it, even as we had no idea how thoroughly life was about to change.

And here we are again, providing the kids with one of their first sojourns across an ocean, once again in London. It feels full-circle, especially when we consider that our oldest is potentially leaving the nest here in her last year of public school. It feels like an accomplishment, not only for her but for us as well, when you think about where they began.

I acknowledge you’re never really finished with the job of parenting, but there are a few satisfying stages I still hope to cross, this being one of them. All the more meaningful when you consider, even if they don’t yet, where they’ve been and how it could easily have been a different outcome for them.

Kids are a form of chaos. It’s true — don’t try to deny it. Navigating the critical stages may feel like a cakewalk, or more likely a turbulent off-road adventure. It depends on the kid. Regardless, it will require effort on your part, not to mention sacrifices on your part, which they may or may not acknowledge. Lack of recognition is part of the job, unfortunately, that I daily try to swallow and simply move past.

But here and now, seemingly full-circle in a country with all the kids we once were about to take on, I feel a glimmer of accomplishment and hope, which is fleeting and temporary at best in the day to day job of parenting. They may have no idea about either in the ignorance of adolescence, but I can see it clearly 9 years into the job, as one of them happily prepares to move on, and seemingly happy to be here with us, still calling us mom and dad.

The satisfaction of completing challenges take many forms. Parenting, adoptive or otherwise, is its own special form, I will tell you. We’re still in the thick of it, but I think I will remember the two trips to this specific place as a couple of bookends, from the uncertainty of the task ahead, to a stage of the task fulfilled, regardless of whether or not it looks exactly like I imagined.