Princess Conseula Banana Hammock!

--edit: I wrote this like a month ago, but haven't posted it until now--

Today, along with the past two weeks, have been dream-like. There are these huge mountains surrounding the River, covered by snow and these white cumulous clouds. It kinda gives off an Appalachian Mountain-esqe type of feeling, adding onto my already confused feeling about "real life."

Corn pops is doing better. (one of my fav cereals growing up) Thank God that He hears our prayers...and is a God that is for us and not against us. Wooo! Our obedience+trust -> GOD's POWER!.

Moreso than my dad, I got the chance to get to know my mama a bit more during our hospital stay (who btw...looks just like Jesus. Thank goodness I'm speaking figuratively..she wouldnt look good with a beard.) I'm a little coy about writing this blog, since the subject of it is going to be about my mom, rather than my dad, but her stories are too good to not be written down. They definitely need to be documented for future conversations and delightful reminders of how awesome my mom is. There's more than meets the eye...when it comes to Linda Cho, RN.

She's turning 57 in December, but she's lived a life of a rockstar and has been really good at hiding it from the fam. Premeditative Warning: this is going to be a long blog dedicated to story-telling of a woman that 95% of you people have never met..or in retrospect, will probably never meet. So.. if you don't care.. just leave. I for one, found her mid-20's to be rather exciting and enjoyable (not being bias in any way) :)

*ahem* Way back when, my mom's grandfather and grandmother were unable to have children, so her grandma resorted to stealing her brother's firstborn son. That son became my mother's father. (my grandpa) Her father, along with his theive-like wife and 4 additional concubines, lived in Korea as rich folk. (have i lost you guys, yet?) anyways, this was just a backdrop to her dysfunctional and dramatic family. He eventually grew up to become a mayor of a small city and father to 7 children; including my beautiful mother. To fast forward: my mom begged my grandpa to let her go to nursing school in Germany, so she studied hard and even learned the German lanaguage. That all went down the drain after months of drama, but she was eventually stationed as a nurse in Dubai, Saudi Arabia.

Zipping forward, and these are her words exactly, "i found my first and true love there." Forbidden to have any interaction with the local people, my mom and her two nurse friends would sneak out of their hospital dorm and go party it up with the local hunks (sounds a lot like what people my age do....) To make an extremely long story short, my mama met a tall, dark, owner of a mercedes, man and went by the name Sayid. They fell in love. He would whisk her away at the break of dawn to take her on his boat... would teach her to water skii....feed her grapes, perhaps. (when she was recounting this part, i kept picturing a scene from james bond or the original version of charlies angels) at the end of her two year mark, she had to make a decision whether she would continue in Dubai or go back to the motherland. She left that ultimatum up to lover-boy-Sayid, but unfortunately, this is where the story reaches its climax. My mom finds out that Sayid is a part of a royal blood line, hence all the money, and he had been set up to marry his cousin since the year that the two were born. Furthermore, he was Muslim and marrying him would mean my mother's sacrificial religious conversion. However, there was a glimmer of hope for Sayid, as the culture back deemed having more than 1 wife acceptable. My mother, believing that it was her pride, but was really by the grace of God, would not allow herself to become his "second wife." She was also very adamant about being a Jesus-lover, rather than an Allah follower. (Thank the Lord, hallelujah)

anyhoo, they were suppose to meet at the this one place at this one time, but she decided to not meet him, and ended up flying back to Korea. (wow, dramatic-huh) Time goes by as he realized he loved her too much and decided to buy her a plane ticket back to Dubai. She went, foolishly blinded by love, but half-way during her visit she realized she was tormenting herself by being there and left once again.

Years pass by. My mother had torturously gotten over her Aladdin prince, and started nursing at one of the best hospitals in Seoul. It was there that she met her, again in her words exactly, "my 2nd love." *sidenote: my mom aint no playa. She was actually a very independent, head-strong, I don't need a man, type of woman.. too bad they flocked to her like a pack of wild geese.*

She meets lover #2: Dr.Kim, the dreamy surgeon of Korea's Greys Anatomy. McDreamy. However, there is one huge catch..and ultimately the deciding factor for leaving him: his fanatical, money-hungry, mink-wearing, mother.

Even though my mother was in love with this man, she knew that her furture "mother-in-law" would never accept her the way she was and in turn, make her life a living hell. Never would she succumb to a lifestyle like that, especially when she had worked hard to build a life apart from the cultural limitations that were binding all women back then.

OKAY. I know this was long and I probably lost all of you (though I have about...3 readers maybe. 4 if I'm lucky) My mom had enough and was planning to leave to America, but her mother was so inducive for her to marry before she left, out of respect and obedience to her, my mom stayed. She eventually met MY dad and has been with him for 30 years now. Her story is a bit satirical and ironic, bc she wasn't in love with my dad in the beginning. In fact, she wasn't attracted to him at all. It is a bit sad, but the truth of the matter is, that was the culture back then. It was at that moment in our conversation, where I saw my mother with brand new eyes and a new refound respect for her. She has faithfully stayed with my father for all these years, loving and pouring out her heart to him, sacrificing so much of who she was and is for their marriage. Here she is....30 years later, holding my dad's hand and taking him to the bathroom, changing his sheets, never once leaving his side. This is Jesus.

More than for you readers, I think i wrote this for my own amusement. I've also decided to make a movie out of this and I, Sharon Cho, will probably be casted as the lead role. I'm not sure I can live up to my mom's amazingness, but I think I'm okay with it. She teaches me to be a better person and that's all I could ask for.