As I have stated before, Pasith and I are from opposite ends of the world, literally.\u00a0 The fact that we met and married is made up of many small miracles and a few divine interventions.\u00a0 We also have a few unexpected parallels in our lives.\u00a0 One is that we both have families that saw a need, took a leap of faith, and made an enormous difference for our families.<\/p>\n
Today we had a BBQ at my brother-in-law\u2019s house; a celebration.\u00a0 31 years ago my husband\u2019s family was sponsored by a group of people in a St Pierre, Manitoba church.\u00a0 They were given a way out of poverty, starvation and an uncertain future.\u00a0 My husband\u2019s family had already escaped in the night in a leaky boat across the Mekong under the deadly search lights a few years before.\u00a0 They were now in the refugee camps of Thailand.\u00a0 Not under constant threat of conscription or death but now starving.\u00a0 His Dad had applied to go to the United States but the paperwork fell through a few days before they were to leave.\u00a0 They were stuck there for a few more months.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine his parent\u2019s disappointment at the news of being stuck there for even a few more days let alone months.\u00a0 But, then they were given hope when they were sponsored to Manitoba.\u00a0 They arrived in a March blizzard.\u00a0 The youngest boy, 3 years old, was very sick and in the hospital within a few days.\u00a0 The sponsors were in for more than they had realized.\u00a0 From explaining how to sleep in a bed, to just simply trying to communicate.\u00a0 But, they stuck with it and helped this family get started in a new country, in safety.\u00a0 The impact that this group had on all our lives is immeasurable.<\/p>\n
On my side I also have a family, well more like a village.\u00a0 But one family in particular that went above and beyond to help out a struggling Mom with 2 babies.\u00a0 Uncle G and Auntie D had met my parents a few times.\u00a0 Uncle G was over talking farm machinery the day before my Dad was killed.\u00a0 My Mom and Auntie D had shared afternoon coffee a few times.\u00a0 So when the night nurse at the hospital told Auntie D about my Mom in the hospital with a new baby and a toddler staying with family she knew she had to help.\u00a0 She went to the hospital and walked the floor with me.\u00a0 Auntie D sat with Mom, prayed with my Mom, tried to provide some comfort to a grieving widow.\u00a0 \u00a0A few months later when my Mom\u2019s family had gone home to Minnesota and the farm had been sold Auntie D started a routine of taking care her own house, two boys and us.\u00a0 Driving back and forth from farm to town and back helping with meals, dressing, baths whatever my Mom needed.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally after a few months she was exhausted.\u00a0 So they put a crib in the spare room with a sofa bed for my Mom and sister.\u00a0 My Mom would go out to the farm for supper and may not have gone home for a day or two.\u00a0 My Mom always brought our pajamas along.\u00a0 As I learned to talk I called Uncle G, \u201cDad\u201d.\u00a0 I followed him nearly everywhere.\u00a0 I had a system, which my Mom never knew, of calling one Mom and the other Mommy.\u00a0 This is not to say that we were never at home with my Mom, I have memories of the house in Moosomin where we lived till I was 3 and I know that my Mom tried to do her best but she needed help.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t know where we would be without this family.\u00a0 We continued to go back several times a year after we moved to Manitoba.\u00a0 Last year Auntie D reprised her role of 34 years ago and sat with Mom and prayed with Mom in the hospital, but this time it was cancer.\u00a0 And she came out several times in November to help out with Mom\u2019s final wish of dying at home. \u00a0We are eternally grateful.\u00a0 I hope that I can make even a fraction of the impact that these people have made in our lives in someone else\u2019s life.\u00a0 They have taught me what generosity of spirit is all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I have stated before, Pasith and I are from opposite ends of the world, literally.\u00a0 The fact that we met and married is made up of many small miracles and a few divine interventions.\u00a0 We also have a few … Continue reading