This is a story from over 15 years ago, but it has always been close to my heart.

Just the background: I married a Japanese woman when I lived in Japan a million years ago. We had three children, and in the middle of doing that, we moved back to the U.S. I had a great relationship with my in-laws, my father in law especially, and they came and visited us a couple of times in the U.S. We went to Japan quite a few times, also. We would send them videos of the kids, and they sent us videos of Japanese TV kids shows. We also talked a lot on the phone. My kids were their only grandchildren.

My wife passed away when our oldest was 13. Her parents came for the funeral, and a few months later I took the kids to visit them by myself.

I remarried a year and a half later. My second wife is also Japanese. Her father passed away when she was young. Her mom did not like the idea of her daughter marrying me, but she gave us her blessing when she saw that it was going to happen anyways. Her mother has been pleasant to me and my children ever since.

About six months into our marriage, we went to Japan for a few weeks, and we spent about five days travelling with my first wife's parents. This was all planned and instigated by my wife, who wanted to give them a chance to spend some time with their grandchildren.

That being said, my wife found it difficult on some level because my in-laws were strangers to her, not her family, and Japanese culture being what it is she felt a lot of pressure to be polite and considerate in a formal way on this "family vacation", but my father-in-law especially has a very gentle, friendly nature, so that at least by the end of this time together she felt more comfortable and at ease with him.

Fast forward a couple more years, and we reach the really wholesome part of the story.

My wife and I were expecting a child. Since this was her first child, she wanted to be with her mother during the baby's first few months, in order to learn the ropes. Since she would have to go back at least a month before her scheduled delivery date (I remember that we had to get a note from her obstetrician clearing her to fly because she was almost eight months along at that point), we planned for her to be gone for three months.

As much as I wanted to be with her during the last month of pregnancy and the first couple of months of my newborn daughter's life, it would not be practical for us all to go live in Japan for three months. It was in the middle of the school year, and for the five of us to pile into my second wife's mother's two bedroom house (where she lived with her oldest daughter) would be a bit much, especially adding a newborn into the party after a month or so.

But my wife did see an opportunity to do something special with my youngest son, who was 11 at this time. Her mom lives in a rural city in Northern Japan, and so she knows several people who were schoolmates of hers decades ago who now were in positions in local government and education, and so my wife asked her to see if it was possible to pull some strings and let our youngest son attend the local elementary school for a few months, just as a special experience. It was possible, the school would be very excited to have him, and so in the end, the plan was that she and my youngest would go to Japan and live with her mother for three months during the last month of her pregnancy and a couple of months after the birth.

At some point we mentioned this to my first wife's father during one of our phone calls, and he was very concerned about my current wife's safety and health, travelling on a long international flight, and then having to make a long trip to her hometown in Japan, all while being eight months pregnant and watching over an 11 year old who did not speak much Japanese, and with luggage to wrangle as well.

(My wife is an experienced traveler and was a great stepmom, and Japan has convenient luggage delivery services, so she was not overly concerned about the difficulties of this trip, or she wouldn't have made the plans that she did.)

So this 80 year old man volunteered to meet my wife and son at the airport in order to escort them to her mom's house.

He lived a couple hours west of Tokyo, so this meant that he would basically have to take a three day trip to do this. A three hour journey to Narita to await the late afternoon arrival of my wife and son (and you can be sure that he got there earlier than necessary, just to make sure that he would be there when they arrived), then spend the night at a Tokyo area hotel, and then a six hour train trip to my wife's hometown in northern Japan, spend the night at my wife's mom's house (while we were planning this all out, he said, "don't worry about me, she can just clear out a space under the stairs for me to sleep, I'll be fine"...like I said, he had a very gentle and friendly nature), and then travel all of the way back to his home the next day.

Well, I wasn't there, but apparently everyone got along swimmingly. My wife and her mother did appreciate what he did, and he was (not surprisingly) a very pleasant and polite guest. Japanese do not frequently have overnight non-family guests in their homes (and my first wife's father and my second wife's mother were complete strangers to each other), as the houses tend to be small and it does place an unspoken burden of politeness in close quarters that people do not undertake lightly. But he and my "second" mother-in-law went above and beyond to be considerate towards each other.

He and his wife lived for about ten more years after this. During that time, they and my second wife's mother would send each other the typical gifts that Japanese send to family, and call each other a couple of times a year on the phone, especially if one or the other's family member was sick or had passed away, etc. And of course both sides would send all four of my kids gifts at Christmas, making no distinction between grandchildren vs. "step-grandchildren."

Blended families can be fraught with difficulty, and I always felt so lucky that my wife and all of my in-laws chose to do their best to be pleasant and thoughtful towards each other for our sakes and our childrens' sakes.

This isn't me being broke/poor (well maybe a little). Unfortunately my phone died as I went shopping and I didn't have my wallet on me but I relied to much on my phone for the paypass option and Unfortunately remembering your card details isn't a thing. But this kind lady paid for my items (nappies, baby food, dinner stuff for my other daughters, and snacks for my partner about $85aus) in good faith that I would give it back to her when my phone was charged to transfer it.

Don't worry the moment my phone turned on I immediately transferred that money. Alot of times I've given people $10-$20 just because they may need it. I never expected someone to do this for me.

I don't post much of this kind of stuff too often but I'm so proud of my little sister. We both came from a really struggling home and got out on our own, she got out just 3 years ago and in that time she's done incredible things!! She got her GED completed, got her first job, ranked up to her now high paying job and found a really sweet guy. Ended up having two beautiful little boys (my amazing nephews) with him and even bought herself her own car!! Just yesterday she surprised everyone by announcing the home she just bought as well! It's a darling apartment with a lovely view and she's already filling it up with furniture and toys for the boys!! She's nervous about her new start in life and all I can see is her amazing success, she has no idea how strong she is and how incredible she's become. It makes me so proud to see my sister being a great mom and a happy healthy person, I want everyone to know how great she is!! Thanks for reading 🫶

A nice little inspirational nugget

I (22F) have been in a relationship with my partner since 2021, and I can honestly say that our journey together has been nothing short of extraordinary. There is no way I could ever feel more blessed than I do with him by my side. We met on a random street in a bustling market, almost straight out of a romantic novel, and from that moment on, my life has been forever changed.

In a world where suffering often feels like it’s lurking at every corner, he has this incredible ability to make even my biggest worries feel small. He is the kind of person who makes you fall in love with him every single day. His beautiful brown eyes are the light of my life, I pray for him and I write to him in places he doesn’t even know about—yet. His kindness, empathy, and warmth are the only things I seem to think about these days.

Don’t get me wrong, every person in love feels this way—but today, in this random Reddit space, I just want to count my most divine blessing. This post has no real beginning or end, but simply serves as a reminder to cherish the one you love the most. There is no greater blessing in life than being loved and in love, no matter what the future holds.

TLDR ; Count your blessings fellas, life is truly magical. Love your loved ones a little extra today - and everyday.

I originally posted this on r/relationshipgoals, but was advised to share here. Please remove post if not allowed.

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Hi, I'm kind of new to reddit, so not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I just needed to brag about my wife somewhere. Apologies for the long post.

So fairly recently I got back into reading after a long dry spell and I had no idea where to start. The previous Christmas I had gotten my wife a Kindle though, so she fortunately had plenty of recommendations for me. Well, I say fortunately, but she was (and is) mostly reading things like ACOTAR, which really isn't my cup of tea. Nevertheless, I finished them so she could vent to me about Tamlin and whatnot, and that seemed to make her really happy.

Still not sure what I was looking for, I decided to follow her recommendation one more time and read something she described as "light-hearted, sarcastic comedy in a fairytale world", which sounded great. Yup, she got me again, romance and smut galore. The non-romantic stuff, however, actually matched her description and I had a great time reading it. Not only that, but it really inspired me.

I wrote a couple of books in our native language during my late teens/early twenties, but to be fair they were quite generic and only about 300 pages long. I still like them, but they're not the most original works. Reading these comedy books recommended by my wife opened my eyes though. I don't have to write "properly" and in a serious tone? I can make my main character kind of a sarcastic asshole and make stupid references, etc? I can write in English, just 'cause I think their words for stuff sound cooler?

Long story short, I wrote a book. It took me the better part of a year and there was a lot of proofreading and editing at the end. My wife, amazing as she is, cheered me on along the way and helped in whatever ways she could. She also encouraged me to release the book in Amazon Bookstore for next to nothing, just so that friends, family, and maybe the occassional could get to read it too.

When the time came to release it, however, my wife was starting to act kind of distant about the whole thing. I suggested we celebrate the occasion somehow (which we usually like to do, even for smaller things), but only got non-committal responses. I didn't think much of it, but then suddenly, some time later (but still before the date of publication) my wife came around and agreed that we should do something as a small celebration, like go to a slightly fancier restaurant and order some champagne.

The evening arrived and as we arrived in the "restaurant district" of our city, my wife started leading me towards a place I'd never even noticed before. I was slightly surprised, but figured she had heard about it from a friend or something and wanted to try it out. Boy had I been underestimating her.

As we entered, I was met with cheers, golden banners, music, people dressed in suits and nice dresses, and champagne galore. As it turns out, for the last couple of months, my wife had been organizing a book release party for me, complete with custom merch, a signing station with laminated pictures of my book cover (since the book was digital only) and a freaking journalist from the local paper to interview me.

It was the sweetest, most thoughtful thing I had ever experienced. I'm a bit of an introvert, but I went around, hugging everyone and smiling like a fool the whole time. It was truly amazing and I still can't believe she did all that for me, I'm so lucky to have her and every day I try to make sure she knows that.

You have no idea how badly they might need it. Just a normal day and thought of my partner. Decided to tell him I'm proud of him and it turns out he really needed to hear that 💞 so here's your sign, tell them you are proud of them. Express your joy and appreciation. Just do it.