Trust without reservation

I couldn't believe what I heard when I received an email regarding a fellow sister's miscarriage. It striked me like a hammer. As a mother, I truly can feel her pain, there's nothing more important than welcoming a healthy baby into our world. But I also believe that when God takes away something, He has a reason, and He will definitely grant us something better at the right timing. My faith has never been very strong. I have doubts sometimes, not that I don't believe in Him, I just don't understand why He lets tragedies happen when He and only Himself can avoid them. I guess I'm not deep enough to understand God's plan, but again, everything is built on the foundation of faith.

This incidence reminds me how precious and blessed it is to be able to bring baby Caitlyn into my world, and that I should love her even more and cherish our every moments together.

Under the weather

It's time of the year, and I thought I can escape the virus this year since most of my time is spent at home...but still, I caught the flu, and it just striked me all of a sudden. For the past few days, my nose went missing, I had to breathe with my mouth. Fortunately, Caitlyn is OK (keep my fingers crossed). Being ill made me realized how good it is to live happy and healthy. Lessons to learn: I should always value my health and should not take my body for granted.

ToyBox Studio Pic con't...

Finally, after 2 weeks of waiting, Caitlyn's 1st official studio picture is here. I would give a "yes" to it, but not sure about Ray, since he always 'pours cold water' on me. I'll see what he has to say in his coming blog entry. As an extra bonus, the studio made a mistake with the size of the wall hanging picture. Rather than giving us our 20x24, they printed a 24x30. They asked if it was OK for us. What can we say...of course it's a big YES! But then framing will be another big expense.

Updated March 27:

Thumbs down! we got ripped off with the photo CD. I thought the file size is at least 3 MB (I never expected they would give us the original size), but what we found were a bunch of craps...1 MB pictures!!! wow...I can't believe what I saw! Now I'm positive that Ray's new toy is doing a much better job.

300

A bunch of sexy men swinging swords, bloodbath, violence...are these what people want to see nowadays? Why are most of the reviews positive? Am I being lame when I choose not to watch it? Should I go with the flow? Despite all the positive comments from the critics, I personally think it's not worth my 2 hours. Why would I spend a ticket on something I cannot see myself enjoying...sigh...

Amazing Grace

Becoming a mother is such a powerful and life-changing experience. Being a mother means working around the clock with no breaks or paid, walking the floor at 3:00am every night trying to put the baby back to sleep, putting my baby's needs before my own, and dealing with frustrations while keeping myself positive. Caring for Caitlyn has become my most important job, a job that gives me challenges and satisfaction, a job that shaped me into a more responsible and independent person, and a job so tough that I sometimes want to quit. And my biggest rewards are, of course, an innocent smile and a big tight hug. From feeling that little kick to watching the helpless little bundle turning into an independent baby crawling around is such an amazing experience, an experience given to me from our God to shape me into a better person.

Caitlyn's crawl

Caitlyn is learning to crawl...go...Caitlyn...go!!!

Bible Talk

A new pastor moved into town and went out one Saturday to visit his parishioners. All went well until he came to one house. It was obvious that someone was home, but no one came to the door even after he had knocked several times. Finally, he took out his card, wrote on the back "Revelation 3:20 " and stuck it in the door.
The next day, as he was counting the offering he found his card in the collection plate. Below his message was notation "Genesis 3:10".

Revelation 3:20 reads:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me."

Genesis 3:10 reads:
"And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked."

Chinese Calligraphy - A lost art?

When I was asked to write a chinese poem using "Di Shu", an official writing style, I was in shock. I learned and participated in alot of writing contests when I was in elementary school. I was like....errr...OK...I'll give it a try, but don't set too high expectations...

Today, for the first time after this many years, I picked up the brush and started to write...it was like picking up a skill that I almost completely forget. Then things started to come back after an hour of practicing.

I don't know how many young kids nowadays have the interests in learning this chinese writing, since everything can be typed on the computer, and there're hundreds of fonts to choose from...why bother? I wonder if it is going to be a lost art...

ToyBox Studio

This is the first time ever that Caitlyn got her photo shoot at a studio. It was a new experience for her, so she was a bit nervous at the very beginning, especially when she had to sit on a stone for posing. But she was all good after we removed the stone and let her sit on a flat surface. Caitlyn was dressed in a cute white dress and had a flower band on her head. After snapping over 70 shots, we managed to pick out a cute pose. We won't be able to view the finished masterpiece until 3 weeks from now, so hopefully it'll turn out good.

I don't know why men have different thoughts than women when it comes to spending money. Can't they just be less practical? Ray kept complaining the photos are not worth the price and said he could do better with his digital camera. I thought they're very nice, the backgrounds are beautiful, and the best part is, we're giving Caitlyn and ourselves a nice memory. I think that's why men are from Mars, women are from Venus.

We had our first official cell group gathering today. It wasn't that bad, at least not as intense as I thought it would be. We had a nice time sharing, and of course, we had our prayers.