Can you really blame four-year-old Hana Saldate for following her mom around like a puppy dog all day?
In March the preschooler kissed her mommy, Euna Lee, goodbye thinking she would see her in a few days. Sadly, it would be more than five months before mother and daughter would share a hug again.
The story of Lee’s imprisonment in a North Korean jail touched many people’s hearts, but none more than her preschool daughter Hana’s.
The little girl had no clue that Lee had become a pawn in the increasingly antagonistic relationship between the United States and North Korea. To her Lee was (and is) simply mommy. A mommy who went to the airport for work and didn’t come home when she was supposed to. A mommy who lost out on nearly a half a year of her young daughter’s life. A mommy who had no way to communicate with her only child to tell her how much she loved and missed her.
A couple of weeks ago the world got a front row seat to the emotional mother-daughter reunion. That tearful event was followed up by a thank you letter Lee posted on Facebook, which described life since her return and the affect of her absence on Hana.
“I am slowly fulfilling the wish list that I made in North Korea one item at a time,” the grateful mom wrote in post, which appeared on LauraandEuna.com.
Lee reveals that she spent the first days as a free woman dancing with Hana, brushing her daughter’s long locks, making scrambled eggs for her preschooler, and treasuring every simple pleasure of motherhood.
The 36-year-old mom also admitted that her return has prompted her daughter to reveal newfound insecurities.
“If you don’t listen, mommy will go to the airport,” Lee heard the little girl tell one of the family cats.
Lee candidly admits that her daughter is still adjusting to life with both parents in the house and “is still a bit nervous about mommy going to work again.” Lee says Hana recently told her “Mommy, when I ask you to leave (she meant ‘come home’), please come home to me.”
As a result of her daughter’s security issues, Lee says, “I will wait for the time when Hana truly believes that mommy’s always there for her, then I will be free to share my stories and experiences in North Korea and be able to express how thankful I am.”
If that story doesn’t make you want to hold your kids a bit closer, then I don’t know what will.
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