My love,
it’s July 2023. We’re on vacation.
Can you imagine? I know.
This is our first vacation that we’re doing purely for the sake of
vacation. Yeah.
Since being back from China,
right, we’ve had a vacation.
But we got to see your mom in Virginia.
Your parents, rather.
Yeah, but that was kind of like dual purpose, right?
We were invited by my sister,
and we were kind of helping her with the baby and so forth.
So this is the first time that we are electing and can afford
to do such a thing. And it’s modest.
And we’re so grateful to god for this opportunity.
And, you know,
being here has just made us to consider our humble beginnings
and how that when we first came vacation,
we’re working 15 and 16 dollar an hour jobs at Whole Foods,
slash Amazon. Now you make enough salary.
More than the both of our salaries combined at that time.
And I am a stay at home parent.
I don’t know if I’m allowed to say all those details anyway,
but why not? Why not?
Okay, so take us back to the beginning.
Take us back to,
you know, working at Whole Foods. Just.
I remember our mindset of just
we’re new to the States, we’re broke.
Let’s just get any job and start working right away.
And then just kind of walk us through what happened,
you know, the first year in the United States
and however far you want to go,
And then I’ll prompt you the next question. Wow.
You know, there’s a saying that slow motion is better than no motion,
and I think it’s true. That’s the approach we took,
obviously with the help. With the help of god.
I remember when we got here,
we only rested for two weeks.
And this was during COVID.
Ha ha.
We got here and then, you know,
stayed at home, got some rest,
and after two weeks, we were out working.
The mindset was to play the long game and had a very strong vision.
I think that really helps
because that becomes the drive.
You know, you.
You have a destination in mind,
and the present circumstances don’t and really bother you.
So our first year was pretty tough.
We were living with your parents,
and that was good. And then we got pregnant with Charlie,
which added a little bit more pressure,
because working a minimum wage job,
expecting a baby in Massachusetts,
I mean, we put our heads together,
we trusted god. This is home to you.
But I was also starting life in America,
and I was still learning my way around,
and that can be challenging.
I remember making jokes like,
when you come here and you.
You can speak English, you can drive,
you can use the internet. Everyone thinks you’re fine.
You hardly meet people who look you in the eye and ask, Thomas,
how are you doing? How are you settling in?
How are you coping? It’s like,
I mean, you can drive,
you got your licence, you know how to use the internet,
you’re tech savvy, you’re educated,
so you should be fine. But I think,
you know, sometimes life gets tough
having each other, and this is the goodness of being married.
Having each other helped. We were doing this together.
We put our heads together
and we know two is better than one,
so. Right, Charlie,
two is definitely better than one.
So having you, having your parents,
we can talk about the support we got from our families.
Your siblings, my parents.
It was very helpful having family around.
We were with our parents for,
I think, three months or so
and we made a decision to move out into our own apartment,
which is where we still are.
And a lot has changed. Thank god.
And thank you, ha, ha.
For, you know,
being with me, for supporting me,
for being my helper. From very humble beginnings,
God’s been faithful. And we’re getting better.
And I think we’re gonna get even better.