The god-grandparents

People over here in Australia often mistake what I mean when I refer to my godparents. Over here, godparents mean people who look after your religious education. The Chinese version of godparents mean the people who look after you should anything happen to your parents. They are in effect a second set of parents to me, especially when I've been over here in Australia.

My godparents have absolutely loved looking after Liem whenever we've required baby-sitting. Life would have been much harder without them around to give me a break or to let Khiem and I have a day out together. They bring things with them to entertain Liem. They bring food! They are also trying to speak a bit of Mandarin to Liem so that he may pick it up too. Liem, of course, shrieks with excitement and jumps up and down with glee whenever he sees them coming over.