Why i am a vegetarian twice a month

Every 1st and 15th day of each lunar month, I will go for vegetarian food for a full whole day. I am not a religious person. In fact, I started practicing so about 5 years ago. To be more precise, a few months before my daughter was born.

FP had a miscarriage before a successful pregnancy. From a medical point of view, having a miscarriage seems to be common but it is not an easy fact for a commoner to accept it. Hence, we were very careful during the pregnancy period. In addition, doctor would also arranged a few tests along the way to help making sure the baby is developing healthily. One of the important tests was to check if the baby has a down syndrome. We had to wait for 2 to 3 weeks to know the outcome and if the test result was not positive, the hospital would call us asap for an appointment. that few weeks seemed years for us. Every telephone ring would worry us.

Well, the test turn out to be fine :-) But it gave arise to an unexpected issue. The test outcome suggested that there would be an addition chromosome in one of the 23 pairs ie having a mosaic trisomy. It also turned out that it was a rare disorder as there are only less than 10 recorded cases globally.

We could go for a more detailed test to confirm it but the risk of affecting the baby was very high. The device would be drawing some blood directly from the baby. Else, we could only know about the degree of the disorder when the baby is born. Of course, the possibility of a false alarm still existed. The baby then was about 4 months old. We have to decide if we wanted to continue with the pregnancy.

We were in a very difficult situation. We din bear to say bye bye to the baby. We also faced with the possibility of bringing the baby to the world with a wrong beginning and to suffer. We had lunch at home after the appointment. It was really overwhelming to know about it and may have to make such a decision for your own child.

We were silent, we broken down and we cried.

I was angry. Angry about why someone up there seemed to enjoy playing plank with us. We were totally at lost. We decided to continue with the pregnancy. We had no enough information to derive the baby off to see the world and to joining us. I also made a commitment to 观音娘娘 (Guan Yin God) that I would eat vegetarian food on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month. I hope and pray that 观音娘娘 would help to protect the baby safe and healthy.

Our worry of the disorder was cleared finally when my daughter turned 1 year old. The doctor shared that she is growing well :-) The test result then was, indeed, a false alarm.

Though I had already fulfilled my commitment to 观音娘娘 and felt grateful to have her blessing, I have made another commitment. I will continue to be a vegetarian twice a month for the rest of my life. I hope and I am sure 观音娘娘 will continue her blessing.