Mama I love you!

The new semester had just started, as usual during the first week of the semester , blood pressure shoot up, heart pulse increase and I was like a mad lady attending to over 300 students and at the same time juggling all the consultation sessions in between the classes. Yesterday after such session I was totally drained out and suddenly I had an incoming sms with the following message (I copied 100%):

Sender: Mil (from mother in-law's handphone)
ma ma ^ ^ mummy, how are you? I am good. i love you (by emily)

Well, suddenly my heart was at peace, pressure went down and I grinned while looking at the message again and again, my 7 year old girl sure made my day.

I replied with the following message:

Mummy is good and fine, love you too :)

Sweet slumber

I thank God that the girls still wanted me to sleep with them every night even now that they are already 9 and 7 respectively. The rule of the arrangement is - I can leave their room only after they fell asleep. Yesterday as usual after our devotion time together and prayer, we snugged into our blankets, turned the lights off and closed our eyes. To my surprise both girls came real close to me hugging me and claimed that they were both scared but at the same time they were happily giggling away. After checking out the reason for their fear, I realized they were just finding excuses to hug me and sort of to get my attention, anyway I was just so happy to be sandwiched in between the girls and three of us dozed of in no time. That's the reward of motherhood. As time flies I know one day they'll probably kick me out of their room to take control of their own privacy or when they outgrew and their two single beds can no longer accomodate three and sometimes four (+ daddy) of us. As for now I think I'll sleep with them as long as they want me to.

Mission Trip to Kampung Serundung Laut (2nd – 7th June 2011)

God has enable 10 of us to go for this trip, for I believe that it is not that we are able but it is our availability that matters to God. God has proven this again and again in the Bible, He uses ordinary people to do His extraordinary work, it is afterall His trip not ours.

Though we faced mutltiple hurdles (our flight was cancelled, our boat’s motor refused to work, our plan was turned totally upside down) but God is mighty, through all the uncertainties God let us see that He is in control.

Though we may not be able do accomplish much but through each of the members’ sharing, we can see God at work in each of us, in each of the circumstances and in each of the lives of the natives there.

What did I learned out of this trip?
The natives may be lack of materially but they are rich spiritually
Unconditional love - Pastor Janaring who a native himself heeds God’s calling to bring change into the lives of the people, through his ministry and the support of churches, the village now has water supply and a school is established
Serving – Jesus Himself came to serve and not to be served, as I collected the plates and bowls from my team members after dinner with the intention to serve them by washing them, I was unaware that in front of me there are already brothers and sisters who wanted to serve me and as a result they washed my plates instead
Obedience – God simply wants us to obey, when we wanted so much to go our way, God just wanted us to be still and acknowledge that He is God
Fairness and justice – We may think that God is not fair, afterall we are all human why the native’s needs are being neglected, why they have no access to a sound education, basic medical assistance etc. To these we have no answers but God is fair and just, all things work for good to those who love Him, He will provide in His time.

And finally…….. understanding – Why rural folks sat on the veranda most of the time and chat their time away? Because there is no better things to do – with no electricity, TV and other electrical gadgets, the veranda is the most cooling place both in the day and night time and that’s exactly what we did, happily chatting our time away, staring at the bright stars, sharing God’s goodness with each other and simply enjoying His creation. God is indeed good.

For photos of our trip, please click here.

"Owls"

To keep the girls occupied and to stop them from asking me "What do we do now, mom?", "What to do next, mom?", we made owls, idea came from a section from the STAR paper that gave very clear instruction of some DIY project using recycle materials. Well, above is the outcome, in the middle is Mama owl and sandwiched by Jeh Jeh owl and Mei Mei owl. Made entirely from recycled material - egg shells, newspaper, recycle paper, plastic egg container, some poster colours and empty toilet paper roll. They are now proudly displayed on top of our piano.

Be thankful, prayerful

I have not been reading the paper and online for the past few days but heard of the earthquake that happened last Friday. When I logged into youtube yesterday evening only I realized how massive the destruction of the earthquake cum Tsunami in Sendai, Japan. God is good that my brother did not plan for his business trip earlier, he booked his ticket to Tokyo on the 14th Mar flight.

I told my children and showed them videos of the earthquake and told them how fortunate we are to be in Malaysia, thus we should give thanks. We prayed for the victims yesterday night. Men can rebuild the city but only God can healed the hearts of men.

Emily girl

Emily turned 7 on the 22nd Feb 2011, thought of capturing her milestone all over again. Time indeed flies, my younger girl has grown up indeed and all I want to do is to thank God for her over and over again and of course for my elder girl too. I always reminded them that I love both of them just the same, no more no less, so they don't have to fight, argue just to get my attention and love.

Emily at 3 months old


Emily on her 1st birthday


Emily on her 3rd birthday


Emily on her 4th birthday


Emily on her 5th birthday


Emily, taken when she was six


Emily 7th birthday

What's in your name?

English Name – “Elaine” stands for bright, light or radiant and I remember my French lecturer used to comment that it the French variant for “Helen”. So I’m a bright shining radiant star!

Chinese Name – Middle character represents wisdom and last character represents beauty as the way of writing is synonym to a type of flower, of course the first character bears the family sir name.

So here I am, a bright shining radiant star with wisdom and beauty. Ha ha what say you ?