Meet the Parents

I had two basic goals to accomplish in my first two weeks here:
1. Get settled into my new job. (And tell my parents that I "got the job.")
2. Meet Taer's parents and win them over with my charm.

Goal one? Check!
Goal two? Well...

I did meet Taer's parents. They, like my parents, were opposed to our relationship because of the last name thing. Our fathers, more specifically, were the ones who were very stubbornly standing by their beliefs. We felt our mothers bending in recent months. Personally, I think they were just ready to marry us off after all these years so they could enjoy being grandmothers soon.

My dad has decided that he would consider accepting it all if - and only if - Taer's family accepted it first. Not only did my father want their acceptance; he wanted them to embrace me happily into their family. He didn't want me to become an unloved daughter-in-law. He was proud of me, probably a bit more than he should be, and he felt that anyone would be lucky to welcome me into their family. So that was our the plan, and it wasn't an easy one.

Taer's dad threatened to disown him too. We're totally living a modern day Romeo and Juliet story... except that we're BOTH Capulets.

After a relatively quiet car ride and a bit of small talk at dinner, Taer brought up the serious stuff. Both of his parents asked, "So do you HAVE TO marry each other?" I'm pretty sure they knew the answer to that one. We didn't put ourselves through four years of traveling 3,000 miles back and forth for nothing. "Well, it's obvious that you'll go through this no matter what we say..."

And then, amazingly, they said ok. They weren't overjoyed, but they didn't fight nearly as hard as we thought they would. Taer's dad actually apologized to me for the past four years. And his mom hugged me when we said goodbye.

Slowly but surely, it's working out. Taer and I recently got fortunes in our cookies which read: "The three greatest physicians are nature, time and patience." and "There will soon be a cake in your future."

I think that waiting so long to be together has worn our parents down. Here comes the wedding cake!