My Mother's Ao Dai

(PICTURE: My mom looking like the other Vietnamese women.)

On the second day that my parents were in town, Huyen and I went up to their hotel room. While we were leaving, my dad quickly shut the closet door in what couldn't have been a more conspicuous action. I asked him what he was hiding and he said it was a surprise. Naturally this got my brain working a million miles a minute trying to figure out what the surprise was. My guess was that my parents had put together a chuppah for the wedding similar to one that they had made for my brother's wedding. I was so confident about this theory that I eventually started questioning Huyen about whether or not she had been part of it. Well, like many times in my life, I was totally wrong.

I finally saw the surprise in the hotel, right before we departed for the an hoi. The surprise was that my mother had an ao dai made for herself. I must admit, I was very very surprised and extremely touched. I thought it was an awesome gesture by my mother to show her acceptance of the marriage and of Vietnamese culture. I don't know if she knew (mom, did you know) how touched I was because of the rush to get ready for the an hoi. However, every time I saw my mother at the ceremony, I felt a great sense of pride. It was truly an awesome thing to do.