I was having one of those days today, where I was feeling really guilty having my family cramped into a small space, as we continue to look for our next home. Despite the benefits of being closer to my family due to the small space, I occasionally feel guilty that I am not providing enough for them. 

Nonetheless, Khiem, Justin and I  frequently spend quality time in our bachelor basement apartment discussing the events of the day.  Today we got to the topic of our next house, dreaming about Justin's bedrooms - one for himself and one for his friends when they sleep over (!), dreaming about Khiem's big kitchen, dreaming about my home office with a TV and a bar, dreaming about the games in the basement and dreaming about the circular drive with 3 garages.  

The thought was that we could pool every family member's money together to buy a nice and big dream house.

Justin, being the curious 7-year old boy that he is, wanted to know how much money mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa and uncle Jim had.  Not wanting to get into the details, I told him we had a thousand dollars each.  Justin immediately began to add all the amounts together,  "... one thousand, two thousand, three thousand... six thousand six hundred and sixty one dollars and two cents."

Confused, I asked Justin how he came up with the $6,661.02 figure.  Justin's reply was "well, you, mommy, grandma, grandpa and uncle Jim put in $1,000 each and I will put in $1,661.02 because that is everything I have in my bank account!"  He goes on to say, "I don't need the money because I'm just a boy."

At that point, I broke down in tears. I was overcome with emotions by the thought that my little boy would literally take his entire life savings and contribute to the family home.  

Justin made my day today!

by John E. Tran