In celebration of The Holy Family

For a change, we went to CTK for evening mass. CTK was having a special mass for family and married couples.

I like Fr Yim's homily today. He based his homily on the documentary, "March of the Penguins." I've watched that before so I know what he was talking about.

In a nutshell, the male and female penguins will waddle their way to this secluded area in the Arctic and after the female lays a single egg, she will pass the egg to the male. She will then waddle her way some 100 km away to find food after having gone without food for about 2 months. The males will then huddle together to protect the egg on their feet.

Ideally, the female will return to the male and her chick. But in reality, she may not make it as she can be preyed on or die from the exhaustion. Once, the female dies, it's an additional 2 lives that will be lost as the male will not have enough food store for himself and the chick.

Relating this back to our own families and marriage. When one spouse fails, the whole family unit is affected. But of course, we are humans, with much more intelligence and integrity than a bunch of penguins but the basic is almost the same isn't it?

Both parties need to work very hard to bring the young to the world, nourish, nurtured and guide the young. That's the basic even among animals. Needless to say, us, Humans.

That left a strong impact on me.

The Holy Family consists of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Even the earthly parents of Jesus has their fair share of worries, difficulties and trials. But they have faith in God and all worked out well. I think it's very clear as to the answers as to our own set of issues, marital, parental or otherwise.

There was a couple who shared on their special child. The path was not easy. But they did it with the grace of God. And all I found myself thinking was, "This couple went thru lots for their child, they really have lots of faith in God but please God, please do not give us a special child, I don't want and neither do I think I can handle, but please bless this couple abundantly, bless them with the strength and grace to move forwards."

I was touched and overwhelmed by their sharing. But yet, I still do not believe that I will do the same if I am in their shoes. Such is the wonder of God. He really makes all things possible and even though it's not easy, He is there to guide, to hold, to comfort, to heal, to console, to be everything! As I think back of our recent loss, I can't help but also to thank Him. To thank him for being the almighty and to take care of everything. All I have to do, is really to let go, let Him take over, obey His commands and watch how perfect everything is.

The Family Group in CTK was very sweet, they made arrangements to incorporate a segment where the married couples to take their marriage vows again during the mass.

I was a little embrassed to do it in front of the congregation. But I'm glad we did. It felt really good to have our wedding vows repeated and to be reminded of it. The Family Group really put in a lot of effort, each and every pair of couple was given a tea light in a candle holder, beautifully tied with red organza ribbon and complete with 2 red roses! I believe this really took lots of time. That's not all, after the vows, the whole congregation recited the Family Prayer together as one. The prayer is very meaningful and really all I can say is...

"Thanks be to God most high for all his blessings on me and my family."

Happy Little Boy during Post Christmas Shopping

Hubby was lucky enough to have won for himself a $100 Isetan Voucher from his company dinner last week. The Isetan Private Sale was yesterday.

Put the 2 together and it's a no wonder that we would have gone to Isetan to make use of his vouchers, on no other day than yesterday.

And so we did. Only thing is, I don't have the Isetan Card, so before that I have to go and beg, steal, borrow a card first. Thank God, Jeannie loan me her card since she's only coming down after work and we are there in the day. No clash of conflicts. =)

1 of the presents that Hubby received this year was a tie and tie pin set that Jeff, Emma and myself chip in to get for him.The first thing that came to his mind was, "WAH! The tie so colorful" and the next was "I don't have any shirt to match the tie!" -_-"

Hence, while at Isetan, the most heard phrase from Hubby to me was, "Do you think this shirt can match that tie?"

I though the tie was a very simple blue and white, granted the motifs can be slightly louder than what he normally wears, but I thought Pure Whites, Blues, Blacks can match the tie easily! Maybe even some stripes can do it too.

Well, being the highly excitable boy he is, he bought 3 shirts and the moment he came home, he did this. See! I knew Whites and Blues will work well. The black is multi colored strip so won't go too well but from far and for the fun of it, he matched it too.

Looks very normal to me, I thought. Mens' clothings are so standard. Shirt, Tie and pants lor. What else to expect rather than stripes, checks and or various ties? Anyway, in addition to the shirts, he gotten himself a pair of pants too.

This is one of those rare times where Hubby bought so much in one sitting. But this is also to be expected since he has $100 voucher to spend plus there were further discounts for some of the pieces! I thought it was a very good deal. Especially, in total, for the 3 shirts and a pair of pants, he only topped up like $40 or less lor.

So, the happy boy has got 4 new shirts (we got one a few days earlier while we were in Robinsons) and a pair of pants. He has also happily cut away all the tags and labels, folded everything neatly into a bag too.

I guess the only thing left is now for me to rinse everything for the boy so that he can wear it after ironing.

Took a coffee break at Paragon when we met up with Cindy and Dennis. She's looking a bit pale but other than that, she's quite well. Jia You Cindy!

Had dinner at Pepper's Lunch in Taka after another final round of shopping in Isetan Wisma and on a separate note hor, I bought absolutely NOTHING for myself despite the whole day of shopping lei. All I got was just a tunic / dress (tunic if on me, dress on Godma) for her as her Christmas Present.

Managed to persuade Hubby to get a bar of Royce Chocolates... need to persuade cause, he's not well and not supposed to eat. But if I buy the temptation is there. But, he gave in too after I said I'll save half bar for him.... but I think I shall be a cheat and eat more than half! hahahahahahahaha....

Just Clara

Our hearts are currently soo totally taken with this little darling... I can't seem to not not look at her face over and over and over!!! Aiyoh!!!

SO cute! Which is your favorite?

Cute Little Human Beings!

Had early Christmas lunch with Clement, Vic and their family.

I think we discovered a rather good place in future to hold our SW gatherings; since that place has a rather good ambiance, centralized and best of all, not crowded!

That place is non other than TCC in Millenia Walk!

Today is the last weekend before Christmas and from the time we were there till the time we left, the place was never full! There was a good crowd but NEVER full! So, it's good for us the next time we have a gathering.

Anyway, the main focus was of course on the 2 little Babies that came with the parents. While the adults eat and talk, the Babies also have their way of making their presence felt and NOTICED!

Wei Lun got his attention by eating what the parents eat! He's at that age already where he wants Adult Food! So fast lei! And he sure loves it lor. Kept coming back for more and his cries were what we heard whenever the mommy got a little slow in bringing that spoon full of goodies to his mouth!

After he woke up from his afternoon nap, the little thing just wanted to get down on the floor and want mommy to carry. See! Struggling so hard! Even daddy seems to be having trouble holding him still lor!

But of course, I'm most enamored over my little darling. Ok, I'm not really ready for photos (looking sleepy, but I think that's also because, the photographer is sitting down, shooting up while I'm standing up looking down hence the downcast eyes) but the thing is, this is the FIRST photo that Clara and I are both looking at the camera! Cute, little thing!

She's really a very responsive child. As she grows older, she has more expressions and her little pair of lungs are getting stronger and stronger by the day! The moment we talk to her, she will smile at us too!! Oh my gosh.. I'm sooo enchanted with her!!!

Today is the first time that Godpa carried her and I think she loves it. Clara "talking" to Godpa. She smiles and also coo back at him. Some more so matching lei! Both also in PINK! I jealous lor!!!!

After both babies woke up, they spent some time getting to know each other.Can I safely assume that both Babies like each other enough? They seem to be happy playing with each other. Though Wei Lun Gor Gor seemed abit shy and Clara just seems to be enjoying herself very much!

Of course, the daddy took lots of photos, but Godpa took this of her just before we went on our way while I was carrying her. Just look at the little darling. She's sooooooo cute!!!!
She kept her neck down and then her "bao bao" just seem to swell up and she looked so grumpy! But I can assure you, she is very smiley and playful throughout! Then the more Jer tired to take her photos, the more grumpy she became.

SOOOOOOOOO cute!!!!

Jer said she looks like a little hamster, one that stores up all the food in the cheeks... hahahahah... To me, she's just soo adorable and cute!

How not to fall in love and go gaga over her, you tell me!

A pic

Of our darling God daughter and me!

Taken at TCC in Millenia Walk last Friday.

My little darling is so cute and chubby now! And when I talk to her, she will coo, make noises back and smile at me!

SOO Clever! =)

I'm a proud Godma! =D

I don't know why I'm posting this...

Honestly, it never cross my mind to post this on multiply though I already have a few entries of it on my Blogs.

I want to forget about this whole incident and move on and if you can see this post, it means I trust you enough to not broadcast this further as I've set this post to only be restricted to individuals.

After reading the recent post(s) from Haze mostly on the strings of unfortunate events, I thought I just want to share my own experience with her especially and also some of you who we have mutual friends.

For most of you who are not aware, I was on MC for the last 3 weeks and another 2 weeks before that... and the reason why I was on MC for so long and given so much MC was because I was pregnant.

Now, before you get all excited and start to congrulate me / us, I want to highlight the word "was". Ya. I'm no longer pregnant.

I had a missed abortion in the medical terms and in layman's means miscarriage. I was told to rest and not overwork myself because the moment I knew I was pregnant, I was spotting. The frantic calls to various gynaes, to book appts and all the mixed feelings we had with the Baby. Especially when hubby and I are studying, our time, our finances, our energy is zapped by studies, how to manage a newborn, I seriously don't know. I took jabs, pills and rested as much as I can. After spending more than $1K on these visits and pills and medications, still it did not help. Towards the end, I bled even more.

At week 7, my Gynae could not detect any fetal heartbeat of the baby and my blood tests reveal that my HCG level is dropping.

We were told that my baby will not survive and we have to go thru an operation, D&C, similiar to that of the abortion process to remove the tissues and everything in my womb.

Though we were not fully prepared to be parents, on hearing this piece of news, my world came crashing down. I found it hard to accept that I was pregnant, when we finally got round to accepting that we're going to be parents, we were told the Baby is not developing.

It's hard hearing the news. It's even harder preparing for the operation. Preparing to go thru the operation to remove our Baby that we had come to love in a matter of few weeks was about the worse thing that can ever happen to us in our marriage life thus far.

It feels horrible, even though I know that the little one could not have survive, it did not make the operation any easier.

Anyway, to cut the whole thing short, we went thru the operation. Physically, there's not much pain. Emotionally, it hurt. The knowledge that we had removed our Baby (even though there's no chance of surviving) still pains me sometimes. And of course, a big medical bill la. Hence the $1900 credit bill to be settled. =/

But yet, we believe that there is at least a good thing that comes out from this whole episode. At least we know that we are fertile, at least, we know we can have children. At least, I know now what to expect and what to do the next time I'm pregnant. At least, we did not wait till the miscarriage happened on it's own when I'm alone at home, At least, we did not wait till the baby developed more and then it's adnormal. Or wait till the pregnancy went further along and the attachement is stronger...The list is simply endles...

So Haze, what I want to tell you is, despite all the things that's happening to you right now, know that God is always there, always watching, always keeping you safe in the palm of his hands. He will not leave you hanging and alone.

Hubby says, focus on the good things and things will just fall naturally into place with His grace.

I dare not say that I've gotten over the whole episode. But at least, I can talk about it now, when previously, just a mention of it brings me back to a sobbing child. With the grace of God, I'm slowly but surely recovering.

The baby will live in our hearts always and we know that he/she is with God now. So that's the end of it.

Cindy: Thanks for your concerns when you knew I was on MC for a pretty long time. I was not ready to talk about it then much less on a "public platform" where anyone and everyone can see / read it.