Willing To Live For

You have heard of the question “what are you willing to die for?” But I wish to ask you a different question, who are you willing to sacrifice and live for? What I am about to share with you is a completely true account about my mother-in-law.

If you are not aware, I will fill you in on a detail. My spouse is from the Philippines. As a young child, they had no home to call their own but instead slept on the dirt, transformed burlap rice sacks into clothing, and made do with bamboo leaves or whatever else to protect them from the elements. Her father tried his hand at the fishing business but a series of medical issues taxed his humble income until a choice had to be made.

Courtesy of an error by a physician, the youngest daughter of the family acquired an ailment that continually breaks down her neural synapses via epileptic seizures of the Grand Mal kind. My wife had anemia and the eldest brother was not without a few challenges. Like is the norm in the majority of the world, there is no state sponsored welfare system. There is no free medical care. Insurance companies do not rule the medical field. Either you have the funds for necessary medical care or you die. So what do you choose? Do you watch your children die or take measures to make certain they live?

As any good parent would do, you do whatever you must for your children. But I challenge parents here in America to reflect on what that means. Can you do what my mother-in-law did? It is easy to say yes, get a job and increase the income. But the answer is not so easy there. To acquire the funds necessary, it requires you to leave the country and work far away from your children you are trying to save.

So when my wife was eight years old, her mother was working in Kuwait. Yes, the same country Saddam invaded later. Yes, she was there when he opted to acquire Kuwait. Can you tell your children you have to leave them behind to grow up without a mother and a father on the seas? Can you survive with your only contact being a message you get to send to your children once or twice a year on an audio tape? How well could you last as a daughter who loves her mother and not hear from her but know your life and the lives of your siblings are given to your by her sacrifice? How well could you last if you see on the TV the country your mother works in being invaded and not knowing if she will live or die?

Her mother did survive smuggled out to safety through special circumstances to live in Switzerland. Striving to continue to provide for her son’s needs, her middle daughter’s education and anemia treatments, and the neurologic treatment to keep her youngest alive. All this while living in an apartment not much bigger than a 15’x20’, staying faithful the whole time, fending off job loss, personal medical issues w/out family around, the deaths of loved ones back home, and not being there to guide your children as they grow up.

Can you pay that price for your children? Can you keep it up for not just 5 years or 10 but for 20 years? Is there a prize worth the price? I submit to you there is. Whether my mother-in-law knows it or not, I look forward to the day as I stand in support of my wife as she says 5 words to her mother.

“Thank you and welcome home.”