This was a letter I wrote to mom for my Mother's Day message at Bay Area Chinese Bible Church - San Leandro. Dear Mom, I have never written you a real message other than signing a card on an occasional Birthday or Mother’s Day. Of course, even then you would ask me to read it to you so it really wasn’t a written message. I wanted to take this opportunity on Mother’s Day 2012 to write you since we now have marvelous inventions such as Google Translator to allow you to read this in a language you can understand. Thank you for having me. I know everyone thought I would be a girl and my siblings already had the name Clara picked out for me. I hope everyone is not too disappointed at how I turned out. You used to say to me, “Wait until you become a parent and you will know how hard it is.” Well, I am one with grown children and still will never know how hard you had it. That’s because you made it easy for me not only to be a son, but to be a father. I will always admire you as a single mother raising two boys while also having one away at grad school. You have given me a heart for single mothers. Thank you for the tips along the way even though I didn’t take all of them. I’m sorry that I didn’t become a pharmacist like you wanted. I’m sure if I became one, I would be able to afford the three houses that I was supposed to buy each of my children and the giant mansion that I was supposed to buy for myself so that you can live in it with us. All somewhat kidding aside, I think that is the greatest trait that you have passed on to me: a sense of humor. Very dry humor. It is what masks the pain, heartache, and difficulty that we experience in our lives; and you have experienced far more than I. Thank you for also giving me the tenacity to want to succeed. I will never forget that when faced with a difficult challenge where I would say, “I don’t know how to do that”, you would say, “Learn and you will know.” I hated that phrase, but I knew it to be true. You never allowed me to settle for less than the best. It would frustrate me to no end. Nothing was ever good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, rich enough, fair skin with no marks enough, or financially supporting of parents enough. Then I realized that such was not a goal to be attained but a journey to be constantly pursuing. And that rather than be frustrated at failure, I was to be gratified that by being pushed, I got a little farther than if I weren’t. Thank you for your sacrifice. I know now that your sacrifice was meant to be a model for us kids. We will never be able to express our full love for you. But maybe it’s because of the way you’ve taught us in everything else, that we need to view it as a constant pursuit and not a point of failure. We will constantly pursue our love for you, just as we hope our kids will love us, and just like Christ loved us. Love, Junior