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 ?

The girls sure grew up fast!

Blogging time has been replaced by "checking the kid's homework" time nowadays, since they have replacement class today and daddy is away for training in KL, I found myself being pampered with luxurious "me" time... hmm... thought of blogging about the girls (ages since I last blogged about them).

I caught them in action while decorating my cake this morning and took this random picture of both of them, they sure grew up fast and from the picture you can see who is the cheeky one.

Michelle is in Primary 3 this year, as always she is independent with all her homework, she make up her own bed now, I trained her to wash her own dishes, school shoes, keep her study table and room neat and nice and she has been an easy going girl all this while. However recently we observed that she can be quite impatient with her little sis, exercising her authority as the elder sister e.g. bossing and ordering her around :) She has been playing the piano quite a lot nowadays, I can see she's enjoying music and gifted too, her hair is over shoulder length now and she intend to keep it as long as mummy did not oppose to it. For the past months she has been especially clingy to daddy and it's a joy to see both father and daughter bond so well (At least release this mummy and mummy can work on Emily..)

Emily don her new uniform and is in Primary 1. She is quite independent and glad that she blends very well with her new school and friends. One thing we got to insist that she needs to follow the school rules e.g. no bling-blings and fancy clips to school, definitely no toys or what so ever treasure that she can bring to school. I believe she tried to smuggle in even though we told her not to.. anyway I already told her the consequences and it's time she learned. Still in her care free and creative nature and I think that the new KSSR syllabus really suits her, less homework, more activity based and less exam oriented. Overall she's doing quite well. Following the sister's foot steps she is also planning to keep her hair long (as long as she ties them to school) and has repeatedly stressed that no scissors shall be lay upon the tip of her hair. I think she's inspired by Rapunzel. Now Emily is still very latched to me and is real glad that she can have me all by herself (when the jeh jeh cling on to the father).

As I watched then grow, it's amazing how God has lead them thus far, He is indeed gracious to us. Only God knows the mistakes that we made as parents. As I lay down with them every single night, I'm blessed to hear them praying and thanking God for their everyday lives. I stand in witness and declare that God is indeed good... all the time :) He loves us not because of who we are but because of who He is. Now isn't that really something?