Someone is watching us from afar...

As most of you know it was two years ago today that Mom was taken from us.

Right after mom passed I went back to work about two weeks later. My first day back was really, really hard. I was pregnant and exhausted. I needed to get out of the office, and I needed to be alone. I decided to go to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. I took a magazine and ate alone. I was still adjusting to the idea of mom being in Heaven and how we think of people who have passed as looking down on us from there. Although faithful, I was not convinced. I just kept thinking so literally. Was she really looking down on me from Heaven watching me eat my wonton soup? The idea was too much for me but for some reason it was just about all I thought about during that meal.

The meal ended and my waiter dropped the check with the fortune cookie. I absentmindedly opened it, read it and it reduced me to tears.

My fortune said:

Someone is watching you from afar.

I got the message.

I kept the fortune and it hangs now in Sofia's room in a small shadow box I made for her before she was born. Inside there is a photo of me as a baby being held by Mom. I also put the prayer card from Mom's funeral with the fortune. I hope Sofia will keep it always - she points to it now and says, "Baba!"

Last night after work Dan and I went for a quick dinner with Sofia. We ended up at a Vietnamese / Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. The meal was uneventful but when the waiter brought the fortune cookies he brought three. Sofia reached for hers immediately and was squealing with delight while I opened it for her. I broke the cookie, handed some to her and read her fortune.

Her fortune said:



I was almost in tears again. I couldn't believe it. But I get the message!

I know there's a company that makes fortune cookies and I know they make millions of fortune cookies and I know they reuse the same fortunes over and over.

I also know that Mom is watching us from afar.

I kept Sofia's fortune and put it with mine in her shadow box.



I love you, Mom.