What Differences Can Parents Make?

"By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict." (Hebrews 11:23)

We arrived the hometown of grandma and grandpa past midnight. We were surprised to find many relatives waiting to welcome us. The next morning, we had lunch with grandpa's nephews, nieces and their offsprings before walking to their old houses and visiting ancestors' graves. That evening, we hosted a banquet with seventeen tables. Grandma shared her immigration experiences and her faith in Christ. She also showed two of her paintings.

I never realized my husband had so many relatives because he grew up in Taiwan and U.S. with only three siblings and his parents. Lives for his cousins in China have been very different from his. I thought about my huge extended family and the thirty or so cousins I grew up with in Hong Kong. May be I have to take our son to HK one day.

One side benefit of going on this trip is a chance to be roommate with my sister-in-law again. She and I shared an apartment for three months almost 31 years ago (when she was still single). After honeymooning with her brother, I returned to Berkeley to finish college while my husband stayed in the South Bay for his first FT job.

My sister-in-law was deeply touched by the differences her parents made by leaving Mainland China. What could happen if they stayed in China instead of moving to Taiwan? What if they did not move to the United States with their school age (elementary, junior high, high school) children?

Copyright © 2006 Winnis Chiang, Parenting ABC