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"Mama-San" is my mother. The name descends from the years we spent in
Japan in the early 1950's. You'll note that it's her recipe above. This is a
reflection of two things:
• the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. As my wife says, I have an
eight lane freeway.
• it's a measure of my mother's love for my wife that she shares such things.
The two are genuinely close.
How much my parents love my wife was shown the night we announced our
engagement. We had been dating for two years. My parents were just going to
bed when we made the announcement. There was a slight pause; an
exasperated sigh, and my father got up and put his robe on. Walking over to my
intended, he took her by the arm and walked her out to the kitchen. For the next
hour and a half, he did his level best to persuade her that she was making a
serious error in judgment. When he finally quit, my mother picked up the theme
for another hour. Fortunately for me, they failed. They then congratulated me
(and went to bed). But perhaps this story has grown in the telling?
Since then my parents and my wife have shared happy times and sad. When
Betty's sister committed suicide, it was my mother who greeted her at the door
with open arms and open heart. Through two earthquakes it's Betty who has
cleaned up the mess. Hospital trips for heart attacks; child birth and surgery on
our infant daughter; all are shared. She is not a daughter-in-law; she is a
daughter-in-love.
A family like this is not "earned" or "deserved"; it's a gift. It's something you're
born into - or get adopted into. The family of God is like that; it's a gift. We are
all members of that family. But let me ask you: are you welcoming others to that
family with open arms - or trying to talk them out of it? Sometimes our actions
speak louder than our words.
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