Jerry and His Parents

David’s reader Jerry’s parents invited us to have dinner at their house Monday night. David asked me whether I was up to it (physically). I said “I’m always up to good food”. Jerry’s parents work for the Shanghai restaurant. His dad is the head chef there for many years. I read with his mom Yunny for a few weeks until she stopped coming to Friendspeak due to the work schedule. We were very excited about knowing more about them and enjoying a wonderful meal.
They live right across from church. We got to their house by 6:30pm. The aroma of delicious food was already full of the house. We didn’t know how many dishes they cooked – our big dining table didn’t have enough space for them! David and I “Hmm”ed every dish. They not only looked picture-perfect, but also taste heavenly! Jerry said it was his first time to eat some of the dishes. His dad gave us the best dishes that he only made for special occasion. Wished I had a picture of them – but I thought it might be rude to take a picture of the food we ate. All the vivid images were deposited in our memory …

Jerry’s parents are good communicators. They were impressed by David’s Chinese. I was too! We talked to Jerry in English. But his parents don’t speak English at all. They told us how much Jerry liked David; how Jerry’s dad was baptized on the second day he arrived at America; how they wished Jerry could go to church with us … I was touched by their simplicity and genuine spirit. They didn’t have many friends. David was the first American they invited to the dinner at their house. We were so happy that they shared their life with us. Later at dinner, David and I shared with them the baby news. They were thrilled for us. They said: “The baby is the blessing from God. Don’t worry! It will be smooth.” Jerry’s mom told us that she had four miscarriages before and how she finally had Jerry. Her advice greatly encouraged me and David. She told me whatever I wanted to eat, if I let Jerry know, his dad will cook for me. That was very nice of them to offer that! Jerry's dad taught me some tricks to make the Chinese sauce at home. By 9:15pm, David told them the baby and mom needed to rest now and my back started to ache. We said good bye to this lovely family.

On the way, David and I found out we’ve been searching for a girl’s name today simultaneously. He had a list of names in his wallet; I had a list of names in my purse. He liked the names ending with “ie” and I liked the names ending with “la”. We were going to put the list on the website and rank them to come up a name for our baby if it’s a girl.