by
Nov 18. 2024
2,941 Miles to Find Daddy
A Miraculous Reunion!
For children, both father and mother are precious beings.
In my life, I also experienced a sudden separation from my mother during my childhood, so I knew deeply the necessity of having both a father and a mother.
However, despite knowing this well, it was difficult when I became a mother myself because not everything was prepared.
As humans living each day of our life’s journey, how completely can we prepare for everything in life?
I am just grateful for my two children who were born as the daughter and son of parents who ran with a Mission work in their twenties, regardless of the circumstances, and grew up well.
When my daughter was three months old, I, as her mother, couldn’t take care of her on the mission field due to tuberculosis and various illnesses I could not bring her to pakistan, so my mother had to take care of mydaughter so in Korea for a year.
When my son was less than three months old, his father had to leave for Singapore alone due to a sudden visa rejection.
So, with a 3 month old son, a 21 month-old daughter brought from Korea, and a my grandmother, we had to live together for six months without my husband. Living in Pakistan without a man was not easy. However, miraculously, I was able to safely complete my duty with the medical team and finally go to Singapore to meet my husband.
Interestingly, both my daughter and son experienced separation from their father around the age of three months. As a mother who experienced separation from parents during childhood, that is why I was extremely tense every time I crossed this unstable bridge of separation with my two children.
Carrying my 9 month-old son in a white diaper sling, I led the way with bags hanging from both shoulders like a clothes hanger. Grandmother, holding the hand of my 21 month-old daughter, boarded the plane with a face full of fatigue.
At that time, there were no disposable diapers.
So, I boarded the plane with a bag full of cloth diapers, and because I had to go in and out of the bathroom frequently due to the two children, the flight attendants appeared to help me at those moments.
They also gave small gifts to the crying and fussing children on the plane, holding and taking care of them.
Throughout the flight, tears flowed continuously, not knowing whether they were tears of joy or sadness.
Without their father, I worked hard at the hospital and church with my grandmother and two children.
I was so busy that no small emotional turmoil could shake me. And the intense instinctive drive to “survive” kept me going 24 hours a day.
A 30-year-old mother with long hair tied up and carrying her son in a white cloth diaper,
A 77-year-old grandmother with a bent back, A daughter toddling along holding hands,
and three-tiered immigrant bags being dragged along…
WOW! Now everything is over.
Finally, we are on our way to meet my husband and their father.
It was heartbreaking and regrettable that we could not live as missionaries as wonderfully and excitingly as we had dreamed, but on the other hand, I felt relieved that the long, arduous journey had finally ended.
I wanted to do a great mission with my whole family together…
Thinking of my son lying in front of me, my daughter sleeping next to me, and my husband waiting for us alone, I was grateful that we all safely left that land, hoping that such a day would come someday.
How will our family live in Singapore in this situation?
I deliberately pushed away the fear and anxiety that surged in my chest and instead calmed my mind throughout the flight by praying in gratitude to God, who protected and guided us through the storm.
With the announcement that the plane had arrived in Singapore, my heart beat a little faster and brighter.
Ah! Finally, our family is all together.
How has my husband been during this time?
How excited must he be to meet us!
Singapore Airport was very clean and had large glass windows. As if expressing my refreshed mind, everything was clearly visible without any obstructions.
It was amazing that we had come to such a different new world in just a few hours. Like riding a time machine to a future city full of electric lights and neon signs, we slowly went to the place where the luggage came out to find the bags full of diapers for the two precious children we had brought.
Grandmother and I were carrying my sleeping son and looking for our luggage with my daughter. My eyes were pounding as I searched for my husband among the many people standing outside the window.
From afar, I saw his still smiling face through the window.
So, I said, “Daddy is over there, go see him.” As if understanding my words, my daughter slowly walked towards the large window of Singapore Airport.
It was the first meeting between daughter and father,
who had flown 2,941 miles from Karachi to Singapore to find Daddy.
While I was gathering our luggage, my daughter toddled towards the window where her father was, among the many people.
Her father was already standing by the window with tears in his eyes, looking at her with his hand on the glass. Did my daughter find her father among all those people?
She slowly walked up and placed her hand on the window where her father’s hand was.
How did my daughter, who had been separated from her father since she was three months old and was now only 21 months old, remember him? How did she find her father among the people lined up by the window?
It was a miraculous moment of reunion between father and daughter after 19 month.
It seems that the DNA of love truly lives in our nerves, drawing us to each other.
My daughter’s eyes must have imprinted her father’s face as she started calling him “Daddy” while looking at his photo.
It was impressive and amazing to see her find and approach her long-missed father at once.
“Oh my, look at her finding her daddy, look at her going to him, when did she ever meet him?” Grandmother cried for a long time.
My husband, standing with open arms at the airport door, ran to hug our daughter with tears in his eyes.
“How have you been?”
he greeted Grandmother, hugging, and patting his back, and my husband also sobbed.
Dragging the black three-tiered immigrant bags, carrying the baby, holding one child’s hand, and appearing with Grandmother, my haggard appearance made my husband cry and hug me tightly.
“You’ve worked hard, honey!
Let’s never be apart again. Let’s never be apart again.”
