Well the Lord gives and the Lord takes away... and you never know when the Lord will give again, but you know He will!
May's sister, my age, recently moved in with her boyfriend, living in a factory dormitory at the company where they both work... She just couldn't stop thinking about her siblings and couldn't stop crying after she left them after the funeral.... She begged her boyfriend and her dorm supervisor to allow both May and Doi to come live with her. After a week she called me to let me know she wanted to come pick up both of the kids and bring them to live with her.
She really loves them so this is a great situation for the kids to be together and with family. The sister is very nervous and told me she knows that life is going to change so much and she just doesn't know how to raise kids... I'm praying for both her and her boyfriend.
So May and all her clothes and stuff left on Tuesday night... She and Doi will come stay with us next weekend, and from then on maybe once a month or so?? we'll figure it all out as we go along.
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But life is so unexpected. Wednesday morning michelle and I marvelled that it will only be the two of us for the first time since last September. WEIRD!!! Exciting-- we can make sushi, watch a movie in English, hang out! But God, what a blessing for us to have the roommates that we have had, to be stretched in this way, to now have this extended family and these loving relationships, to have grown in our faith and service. Both of us thought, wow, we'd definitely be open to having people live with us again.
The same night I went home and Ba Pawn told me, "Lexie! Grandma Pan has been waiting outside your house for three hours... she wants to stay there."
As I walked over to this sweet, blind, slow-walking woman, other neighbors came to tell me, "Oh her daughter doesn't want to take care of her anymore. She said its better if Grandma Pan lives with you and Michelle."
I thought, "ohhhhhhhh HECK no. We are not like, the doorstep where you can leave your dependents if you don't feel like taking care of them anymore."
I was mad. I know this daughter, a middle-aged friend of ours, and I know she has the means to take care of her mom.
But as I sat down and talked to Grandma Pan I started to feel really sad. She's so sweet. "I walked here by myself. I knocked on your door but no one was home. I didn't know anybody else around here. They gave me noodles to eat, and water..."
I thought, "How could her family not love her and want to care for her?" It would be no problem to just open up our door, bring down an extra mat and extra fan, and allow her to stay the night or several nights. We've done it before, and it's no extra work.
Hard to know what to do in this situation. Take in an unloved lady and allow our neighbors to shirk their responsibility? Or escort her back to her home to a place where she can sleep and eat but not maybe not be treated like the precious person that she is? What is best long term in our community?
What would you do?
1 comments:
What! We were just talking about how your and Michelle felt about future housemates. I don't know the best decision but I will pray for you guys. Love you!
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