💌 470. "How happy you are to have such a good mother-in-law?"

Even though my mother-in-law had promised to help me until my mother returned, she left in a hurry. The next day, our young landlady visited me while I lay down, weak and exhausted. She spoke kindly, "How happy you must be!" "What do you mean?" "You must be happy to have such a good mother-in-law. A mother-in-law as good as yours is found nowhere else in the world."

Up to then, as I had never spoken to anyone about how my mother-in-law had treated me, I simply responded with a "Yes" seemingly indicating that she was right. Then, she became more excited and continued speaking: "Yesterday, she went to the kitchen, personally boiled water after making firewood and bathed my baby. She also fed formula to my baby. When I ate only a little meal, she said, “The postpartum mother must be healthy.” 

And after she finished her lunch, she boiled mung beans in the cauldron all afternoon, straining them and cooked porridge for me even though I tried to stop her (*from such burdensome work.) On top of that, she did all the cleaning, prepared dinner and even did dishes before leaving, saying I was going through hardships after giving birth to the baby. Where else in the world could someone like her be found? You must be really fortunate." "Oh, I see. She has done really well." I smiled outwardly, but inside, there was a deep bitter sorrow.

“While my children, unable to eat baby food or meals, were going through hunger, my mother-in-law bathed our landlady’s grandchild and fed the baby with formula milk although there was somebody else to help. I experienced severe vomiting and diarrhea disorder after eating the meal served by my mother-in-law. Consequently, I spent the night going to the distant pit toilet, vomiting everything including the bile juice. In the end, I collapsed so hard and injured so severely that I could not walk properly...

I briefly wondered, “So, when I could not take care of my children, my mother-in-law did not come to our aid because she was busy making mung bean porridge and did cleaning for the healthy and young landlady. But then, what made her so busy that to leaving, she cannot even give a glance to my children?” However, quickly changing my mindset, I thought, “Let me consider it a cunning trick of the devil of disappointment, using my mother-in-law to provoke me into feeling disappointed. I will offer it up with Semchigo as if she treated my children and me with love.”

By offering it up in such a manner, I could even feel thankful for the love that my mother-in-law bestowed upon the landlady’s daughter-in-law. This was because, on that day, the old landlady had gone out for business and had not been at home. Furthermore, the landlady had often told her daughter-in-law, "Try to resemble the female tenant (*Julia)," and had been so kind to us.

So, there were many occasions when I felt sorry for the daughter-in-law of the landlady. Therefore, I regarded this incident where my mother-in-law helped her as well done. Just as I was about to become disappointed, I offered it up with Semchigo as if I had received help and abundant love from my mother-in-law. However, she left without keeping her promise, even before my mother returned home.

As it was, the next day, instead of going to the beauty salon, I had to take care of the children and do household chores in the midst of the pain. Despite feeling so much pain and agony, I crawled around, practicing Semchigo as if my mother-in-law had helped me and managed to cook and serve a meal for my husband and the children. While looking after the youngest child, I thought, ‘Despite that, how thankful I am for being able to work even during this vomiting and diarrhea disorder because the Lord healed me from terminal cancer and saved me to live.’ I gave my gratitude to the Lord.

Two days later, my mother returned with a bag of grains on her head to provide to my mother-in-law and us. Seeing me stay at home, my mother was surprised and asked, "Well, did you not go to the beauty salon?" I replied, "No." She then asked, "Where is your mother-in-law?" I said, "She left." She remarked, "She left even before I arrived? I was going to give her this (grain)..."

I mentioned nothing about what my mother-in-law did during her recent visit or about the suffering I went through due to the vomiting and diarrhea disorder. I just said, "Yes, it seems like she had something to attend to." Reflecting on this situation, I thought it would be impossible to get any help from my mother-in-law. Mustering up courage and determination, I spoke to my mother.

"Mother! Now that my brother-in-law passed the bar exam, could you please stop farming and only take care of the household? While you handle the household, I can earn more money." I pleaded with her, asking her to take on the household chores. She agreed.

My mother was assisting me, her daughter in need, in various ways, so I felt both sorry and extremely grateful at the same time. Although the severe vomiting and diarrhea disorder was an unexpected situation, I pledged to take good care of both the household and the beauty salon to the best of my ability, at least thinking of my mother to whom I felt so grateful.

My personal reflection note with Mama Julia🌹💗 

Link 👉🏻

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScMn-IyINZ8oGN8Jv4M0-pozcdF67tEqzlPkk4s0EZKdnOdEw/viewform?usp=sf_link