At Suntec after Grace Kids

A clown made me a dogie sculpture.

But I stuck many Barney stickers on it---innovative leh!

I gave it eyes too!

Amazing Grace -- Chris Tomlin

Mama fell in love with this song during Sunday service many months ago. She stumbled upon this clip by the original composer and singer. What a powerful projection of the meaning of grace.

Not too sure about the story line, but seemed like a man trying to fight for the freedom of a good friend and grew frustrated as all odds were against him---a lawyer (somewhat like that). Scene of a court and a man in jail. See for yourself and may His grace open your eyes to see indeed, only His grace is more than enough.

A very reassuring verse from the song goes like this..........
The Lord has promised good to me
His Word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

And eventually the jailed man was released, he was happy and grateful. And said, "....I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour.."

Coincidentally, Mama was at the hair salon this morning. A male patron was getting his hair cut too. Having an occupational hazard, Mama is "trained" to listen out to individual conversations going on even in the nosiest environment if she wants to---all thanks to open concept preschools she had been in :P

So she "casually" listened in to this man and his hair stylist talking. The salon was, well, had a multi-religion display of idols, bumper stickers and figurines. There were Buddha, guang ying, guang gong, Mary and Jesus's statues everywhere! It even had bumper stickers like "I trust in God, do you?!" pasted onto the mirror! Ya, you must be wondering what was Mama doing in there, right?! She was there because she wanted to spot cheap and good salon just opposite our house. And something led her in to this one, perhaps, Mama brought me there before to cut my hair and she liked their service. (Indeed, they had very good service. Excellent head, neck and shoulders massage! Cheaper than her usual salon by half which also failed to even match up to that kinda of massage, not even near it.)

But the shop was decently cleaned. Main reason why Mama didn't detest going in too. Anyway, back to the man. So he asked the hair stylist in Cantonese (just nice, Mama could understand Canto), "Wah, your shop like temple, like church. You believe in so many gods ah?!"

Then the hair stylist replied, "No lah. I am a Catholic, my husband's a Buddhist. So like that lor." The man continued, "I see. Good hor. Can compromise no need to fight. I also. When I was younger I go church. My daughter asked me to go, I go lah. Then my wife asked me to go temple to pray with her, I also go lah. Pray to many gods won't lose anything what. The more the merrier! All gods are the same. All teach you to be good. In the end, all go heaven what. So I anything, chin chay one."

Mama almost wanted to burst out laughing, but she controlled herself. She thought she would only hear this at Chinese services as one of pastor's example of the thoughts of Chinese non-believers typically. To hear it for herself, she found it a little amusing, yet sad.

Then the man went on. "What I don't like to hear in church is some pastor said, "all sinners can go heaven as long as they say sinner's prayer." Wah, like that I go kill people, set fire, abuse my mother, then just say prayer, go heaven last minute before I die lah! Where got such thing!? How can say such thing!"

Mama sat there and thought what words can a christian say to convince this man that indeed, all sinner saved by God's grace can go heaven, yes, even in his last breath. She knew he made a valid point. He was looking from a righteous point of view. For a long moment, Mama was stumped.

But this song reminded her that it is not by man's word that converts a soul, but by His spirit. When words don't seem to speak through, it is all the holy spirit's work within a man. So she said a silent prayer that they will find within them an emptiness first. So empty and vacant that they will one day go in desperate search for truth. For someone to fill this gap, yes, even in the last minute of their tiny life. And they will find that only Jesus is the only way.

Oceans will part

In life's so many uncertainties; retrenchment, meeting daily needs, joblessness, coping with rising living costs, sicknesses, pay cut and the list goes on. One can't seem to know for sure what lies ahead. I can plan; plan for my child's start of new school, plan to bring her out on this particular day, plan for maybe a bigger car to accommodate 2 kids one day, plan for maybe a helper to cope with work and chores,or plan to be a stay home mum and devote my time and attention to my kids. Plan, plan, plan...but when one crisis strikes, no one expected that in the plan and the planning has to be aborted.

I have, yet again, been reminded that God is still sovereign and above all; I am none the wiser. It'll be good to just take a peep at God's master plan. In layman's term---don't waste time planning something that eventually will definitely not work. Makes sense, even logical. But hard truth is that God doesn't work that way.

He doesn't want to rob us of the chance to grow in our faith and trust in Him. To enjoy that close relationship with Him, if that only means one step at a time. I know God is faithful, He has shown that to me countless times. I was reminded by a game my daughter plays with my husband.

He will ask Lia to hold him by his neck with both her hands and he will let go of his hands when he is carrying her. She will then hang in there tightly with her dear life. She finds it a thrill, yet she will scream for help and plead with her father, "Papa, Papa!" But whole time, it is a fun game and she will request to play this again and again.

I could tell she was afraid to fall. But she still wants to play this game with her father repeatedly. Trust. She knows her father will not let her fall. He will never intentionally hurt his child. Just like God will not intentionally inflict pain on us.

So even if times are gloomy, I know it's "thrilling" to know that at the end of the "hanging on game" my God will catch me if I'm falling. And that is the moment of comfort---to know and understand that God is always there. There is hope. For a child it's very reassuring, for me, it's the same.

So, in my life, in my family, God, let Your will be done.

Teddy bear and dancing with Superstar Kelly

I laid the blanket on the floor and put teddy bear on it. Then I laid myself down with it too.

But as I was about to go to dreamland with my Teddy, I heard Kelly, the Singapore idol superstar singing on TV. And of course, I couldn't resist dancing and imitating her singing as usual. Poh Poh once said perhaps I could be a singer next time. (Ya, and beat Stephanie Sun.) Mama thinks she should save hard for me to learn a musical skill or vocal well. So that even if I don't like books, I can still be a music teacher!

Wei! No manners! Who says talented musicians cannot study and be smart too huh!!! Stereotype! Mama know of many friends who are musically talented and smart in school too hor!

By the way, my parents noticed I have been using my left hand alot. I use it to draw, feed myself and hold things with it. Mama wanted to test if it was only by chance. So she tried to pass spoon to my right hand during meal time. But when I used my right hand, I couldn't grip the spoon well enough to feed myself. So I quickly switched it to the left hand.

Papa is thrilled. He has always wanted to be a left hander. Duh?! According to him, left handers are so cool and unique. Quite true, Mama read in a research paper (very long ago, maybe statistics have changed) that left handers are only 1% of the world's population. So they are rare.

Papa recalled when he was young, Yeye kept telling him to use his right hand instead of left. He's wondering if he was left alone to use his left hand, will he be a left hander too? That remains a mystery. But he told Mama that his side of the relatives has many left handers.

Well, we'll wait and see. We should know better when I turn 3 or 4.

Happy bit me

A few weeks ago, my best pal, Happy (Gugu's dog) bit me on my arm. I was always quite rough with him and would chase that poor fellow around the house, pull his tail, hit his head or squeeze him really tight till I irritate him.

That day, as usual, I "played" with him. Despite Happy trying to always shun away from me (clever, dogs really can tell "danger is coming") I managed to catch up with him. I hit his head and I guess that was the last straw that broke the "dog's" back. He retaliated by biting my arm.

That should teach me a lesson to play gentler with him. My grams and parents do hope so too. After that episode, I told a few people this story, like my Poh Poh, "Happy, beat, bite (showing biting action on arm), "made crying sound" and action, and Happy angry."

Good thing Happy is a gentle dog. He didn't bit that hard and the wound soon healed in 2 days. Just a scratch. Mama used a phone therapy on me that weekend. She wanted me to really learnt that I started it and did something to cause Happy to bite me. She didn't want me to think that it was only Happy's fault.

So she took my favourite handphone and pretended to call Happy. She said, "Hello, is this Happy? Did Xuan Xuan beat you and made you angry. And that was why you bit her arm? Ok, I'll tell her not to beat you again. But you cannot bite her too, ok? She will say sorry to you" Immediately, Mama passed me the phone and I said, "Happy, sorry." Hopefully, I can learn to be gentler with Happy, and also other kids, for that matter. :P

I was lost, but now am found.....

The past month had been tough for everyone at home. Mama had been vomiting non stop and couldn't eat or drink well. She lost 6kg in a month but with me, she only lost 3kg which she had morning sickness for 2 1/2 months. Nothing stayed in her stomach, not even water. She almost fainted at home alone a few times too because of lack of energy. Thank God for being there to watch over her.

Mama said, her morning sicknesses had always been on the higher end of the horrible spectrum and only a woman who had gone through it would truly understand the agony.

She was very stressed because now she had to worry about me (caregiving and wellbeing) and tiring out Papa. They had to postpone my school enrolment plan for fear that I might not be able to cope emotionally, which turned out to be true. She also couldn't rest well and in peace like when she had me. Poor Mama. I must tell my Sai Lo or Sai Nui to be really good next time.

Papa had to do ALL the chores at home; cleaning, cooking, marketing, take care of me...etc. He is zonked out too.

Worse when I had stomach flu 2 weeks ago. I vomited and had diarrhea that spread to Papa and Yeye. We were praying hard that Nai Nai would withstand the virus because if not, no one could look after me since Mama was down. Thank God, Nai Nai is fine! God is good!

But during my sickness, I started to cry when I had to go home from Wednesday to Saturday nights to sleep. I cried miserably for Nai Nai. Mama said I must be feeling lost and insecured because life with my parents were not the same for the past 1 month. We didn't go out during weekends, we couldn't. Papa was always like a busy buzzing bee at home doing chores after chores and Mama was held captive to her morning (more like all-day) sickness. So for a sociable and active toddler like me, I quickly felt the change and difference.

Guess only at my grams', I could feel everything was "normal"--so I felt more secured. Going to sleep for the past 2 weeks was also buzzard for my parents. I would whine and cry in the middle of the nights for countless times due to my insecurity. You could imagine Papa crumbling as he needed to work the next mornings. My poor Papa. I will tell him I love him!

But thank God, yesterday, Mama felt so much better. She could eat and didn't vomit! I pray that she will be back to normal again and play with me soon. God is always good!

CNY pics from Papa's camera

CNY--1st day (From Yeye's camera)

Reunion Dinner at Yeye's

Long overdue pics of some CNY pics. My reunion dinner at Yeye's house, taken by Yeye.

Aiyah!

I have recently learnt a new language. My parents still can't figure out who I caught this from because just anyone may use this language of expression in Singapore, "Aiyah!"

One weekend, my doting poh poh came to visit us. I was playing with the new umbrella that Yeye bought me from the zoo when she told me to wash up. So I placed it on the floor, in the middle of the way. Poh Poh thought it would be wiser to place it on the TV console instead and went to do it. I saw it and immediately took it back and returned it to the floor. We repeated this again and again as both felt right about the location we wanted. Poh Poh said putting it on the floor would trip someone. Hmmm....maybe she gave me the idea! Maybe I would want to see how "trip" was like?? :P

Anyways, after a few more times, I finally said in exasperation, "Aiyah! Put here!" Papa, Poh Poh and Mama all burst into laughter. Well, Papa also told me not to say that to Poh Poh because it was kinda rude. But Mama thought I sounded like an adult, an irritated adult. Honestly, you would have said the same, right?!

So since that day, whenever I wanted something to be done my way and if anyone tries to change my plan, I'll say, "Aiyah....."