Another Christmas Tradition

On Christmas day, we normally see what goodies we have in our stocking.  Then, we read the story of Jesus' birth.  After that, we usually dress up as wisemen to play Find Baby Jesus.  Since we were all tired from all the staying up late.  We slept in and didn't pay the game.  But the boys kept asking about it, so perhaps we will have to make up for it.  In the afternoon, the boys and I baked and decorated cookies.  We made 26 plus cookies and I thought for sure we have to give some away.  How can we finish?  When they were hot out of the oven 6 were gone before the batch of cookies even had time to cool.  Now, it is only two days after Christmas and all the cookies are gone.  Sugar cookies with all the butter are super yummy.

Christmas 2012

Christmas is one of my favorite time of the year, so I like to make a big deal out of it.  We have so many fun traditions to help us remember why we celebrate Chrismas.  Instead of counting down with an advent calendar, one of our tradition is counting down to Christmas using the Advent Jesse tree devotion.  The Jesse tree is the family tree of Jesus.  There are 25 stories from the Bible to go along with each day in December until Christmas.  It begins with creation and goes through the old testament until the birth of Christ following the genelogy of Jesus.  Everyday we read a devotional and then hang up the coordinating ornament.  The kids love to dig through and find the ornament that coordinate with the story.  When we skip a day for any reason, we must make it up because they want to hang up all the ornaments. 

My family usually have our feast on Christmas Eve.  This year we had hot pot because the weather has been sooo cold.  And I love baking in the winter.  Now that I have time, I tried to make our family's favorite apple pie.  I love warm apple pie with cold vanilla ice cream.  My pie was a hit with the boys, H, and my extended family.  I must make it again.   But sad to say, my pie did not meet Master Chef's standards.  I didn't have enough apples, the apple was slightly over cooked, and the crust cracked, but the taste was right on.  I am usually my worst critic.  Since this is my first time, I can make a better one next week.  My sister is out of the country and not with us this year.  C said that Christmas is not the same without Yiyi.  We miss ya Yiyi!

The Many Transitions

After alittle over a year of having a nanny who cooks for us, she moved on because Mui is ready for Pre-school.  Due to my job situation, we have not enrolled in a pre-school yet.  So she is now going to day care.  We were spoiled by not having to cook for so long.  Now we are cooking again and we spend our nights cutting and prepping food for the next day.   We are thankful that my mom and dad have been bring us soup and food.  After graduation, I thought I would have more time to do nothing or craft things.  Haven't had time to do those things yet.

My job have been stressful and emotionally painful, so I have been wanting to quit for some time now.  I pray for God's guidance and it seems that leaving is the best thing for the family.  The time has finally come for me to submit my resignation.  Monday will be a new chapter in my career when I resign.  I don't have another job yet, so I am a little anxious about what the future holds. But lately, in my time with the Lord, my spirit is comforted that He, the maker of the universe, will take care of me and has my best interest in mind.  I have to have faith and trust in His faithfulness.  I have been applying for jobs on Craigslist since August, but no respond.  The hard part is that I am looking for a part time job and not a full time job.  Everyday as I look at job postings, I get more and more discouraged.  I can't believe that with all my education, no one wants to give me a part time job.  Reading the book Crazy Love, has reminded me that my God is a BIG and POWERFUL GOD.  I believe in a God that created the universe, from the small speck of dust to the galaxy.  He made the caterpillar that turns into a butterfly and our bodies that heal itself.  So how can getting me a job that fits into my family life be a difficult thing for Him?  Recently, I had two interviews.  One didn't go so well and may not be a good match and the other went well.  The second one told me that I had an impressive resume and that I had the skills people want.  Although I don't have an official offer yet, what a confident booster that is!  God knew that I needed that and He knew just went to give it to me.  I truly believe that it is NOT my education or my skills that are impressive, but it God's blessings upon me.  I know by my own merit, I cannot achieve anything.  It is through His grace and mercy that have what I have.

First day of school

First day of school is hard for me emotionally.  A small part of me is glad for the schedule and routine.  But mostly, I am sad that summer is over and that academically my kids are one year older.  C is now in 3rd grade, J is 1st grade, and K is 2.5 years old and can start Pre-school.  Where has the time gone?  Every year it has been hard, but since I was also in school the past 4 years, I just push those emotions aside because I don't have time for them.  But now, I have time to feel and think.  And the tears began to flow.  I've made so many mistakes in the past 8 years as a mom, what if my mistakes caused a permanent scar or worst yet, I didn't give them what they need to thrive?  What if I didn't prepare them adequately academically, spiritually, and emotionally?  What if, in the cut throat world, they are not equipped? 

I realized that I dread the first day of school because the time I have with my kids are decreasing.  I fear that I don't have enough time to teach and mold them.  Fears can paralyze a person and bring about guilt.  For me, my fears remind me that I need to trust in God's faithfulness.  Time and time again the scriptures tell me that God is good and faithful to those who obeys.


Deut 7:9 says that "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments."  

Deut 11:13 - 15 says,  "So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul — ¹⁴ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. "

John 15:5 says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

All I need to do is depend on Him.  He wants me to come to Him for parenting advice and when I don't know what to do.  He wants me to be dependent on Him for everything, not to take matters into my own hands.  I need to trust in His perfect plan for my children and do my best in obedience to Him. 
 

Master of Business Administration

After so many years of hard work, my graduation day finally arrived.  I can’t believe I made it!  It seems like it took me forever.  I praise God for giving me the strength, stamina, and perseverance to endure this process.  I am good with numbers, but writing is neither my strength nor passion.  The MBA program requires writing countless papers and presentations.  God took me through them all one at a time.  Not only did He give me the time and energy to write, but He also gave me the wisdom to have good content.  Writing is an arduous process, but through it, I acquired better skills and confidence.  Even so, writing is still not my favorite thing to do.  All the praises be to God because despite my weaknesses, I not only survived, but thrived and received high honors.  I hope that through my example, my kids will learn that with hard work, dedication, and faith in God, they can overcome their weaknesses and deficiencies and reach for the stars.  

Another thing I am thankful for is that while I pursue my master degree, I never had to put any aspect of life on hold.  I still served at church, actively managed the boys’ activities, volunteered at the boys’ school, went on vacations, and so much more.  I could have chosen a more prestigious program, but the reason I choose Golden Gate University is because it causes the least amount of disruption to my family and our kids’ lives.  I thank God for all the following events and activities that I didn’t have to miss in the past four years.

·         Celebrated holidays such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter with special activities.

·         Organized birthday parties for my kids and attending their friend’s parties.

·         Attended numerous weddings of good friends.

·         Volunteered at school and chaperoned fieldtrips.

·         Went on vacations with family and friends to Disneyland, Mexico, snow trip, camping, Legoland, etc…

·         Grieved the lost of my grandfather.

·         C and J started Kindergarten.

·         Moved to our current house.

·         Gutted the kitchen and remodeled the house.

·         Finalized K’s adoption and traveled to China to bring her home.

·         Both my sons accepted Christ.

·         Boys learned to ride a bike.

·         Boys started Awana and I also taught there.

Wow, God is more than gracious in allowing me such precious time with my family in the midst of school and work.  Many people often asked me how I balanced it all.  Of course, it’s by God’s grace.  Also, I learned not to expect things to be perfect.  Besides those, I want to thank my wonderful husband for being so supportive and helpful.  I couldn’t have done it without him.  In the past four years, I have only done a couple loads of laundry.  He willingly took that over and also does most of the cleaning.  Although most of the time I have to remind him, none-the-less, it was done.  I still had to cook and manage the boys’ activities and academics, so I had to be super organized and planned ahead to make sure that I meet all deadlines at the boys’ school, my school, and work.

Since my sister and I are 8 years apart, this is the first time we are graduating together

Awana Grand Prix

Our boys go to Awana every Wednesday, and this past Saturday, they had a special event where kids (or more like their parents) make little wooden race cars to race down a metal ramp. It is a competition to see who can make either the fastest or the prettiest car. We all start with a plain block of wood, four axles, and four plastic tires. I was a little hesitant to enter the race, as I am not very good with wood working. Luckily, they had a special wood shop day where they have people who knows how to use a band saw help you cut your car to shape. The boys chose a shape that they liked based on some templates they have. Now that we have the basic shape, we can paint the cars and try to do different things to make them race faster. There are certain rules that we all had to adhere to: the car cannot be over 5 oz, it must be 7" or shorter, we must use the stock axles and wheels, etc.. Since this is our first time racing, I told the boys there's a good chance we will not win, but I will try my best to make the cars as fast as possible.

The day of the big race came. We arrived to Awana at 8:30am and we saw a lot of different cars in different sizes, colors, and shapes. They divided the race into three different "divisions": K to 1st grade, 2nd to 3rd, and 4th to 5th. Each division probably had around 20 cars, and out of those cars, they will pick a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner for speed, and a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner on design. Each car will race four times, each time in a different lane (so to prevent any lane advantage), and the four finish times will be averaged out to some final score. The odds were against us, as ours was definitely not the prettiest, and I only did a few things that I know to make our cars fast. Again, I told the boys that even if we don't win, it's OK, because we're having fun watching the race.

They started with the K to 1st grade division, and J. got called to the tracks. We placed the car on top of the ramp and waited for the other three cars to do the same. When everyone was ready, they pulled the level, and whoosh! Our car crossed the finish line the quickest! Wow!! Well, that was just one race. We need to do it three more times, and there are 20 other cars to compete against, so let's not get too excited here. A few other races came and went, and then it's our turn again. Whoosh! We're first again! That was pretty cool. Let's see what happens with the third and fourth race. Whoosh, whoosh!! First again!! At the end of each race, I noted our speed, which was read to us after the cars crossed the finish line. Our top speed was 197.6 MPH! Holy smokes! They calculated all the scores for this division, and they announced the winners. First place: Joshua Mak!! Wow, we won, we won!! We couldn't believe it! It was quite amazing!




Now, the next division was up, which was 1st and 2nd grade, in which C. was a part of. The parents in this division were more experienced, so it might be a harder race. We raced Caleb's car down the first time, and whoosh! First place! Second time, first place again! We finished the third and fourth race, and we won first place in those as well, but we're not all cleared yet. There was this one other car that raced in between our races and I noted his speed was about the same as ours. In fact, one of his runs was actually faster than any four of our runs. This was going to be a close call. I prepared Caleb by telling him that it's OK if we won second, because we'll still get a trophy. They tallied up all the scores. And the first place winner was... Caleb Mak!! We cannot believe it!! We won first place in both divisions!! Amazing! All three boys were ecstatic! We definitely want to race again next year, and there are a few more tricks that I think we can do to make our cars even faster. (Sorry, can't share the secrets here, as our competition might be reading this now!)

A True Desire to Live out God's Word

For awhile now, C have been having some problems with friends at school.  He said that two girls always tease him, play with him and touch him.  He doesn't like the way they interact with him.  So I coached him to respond in kindness.  But his problems continued and it got so bad that he didn't want to go to school.  One of the girl even told me that he is her enemy.  Obviously, there are lot of annamosity between them.  So I finally talked to his teachers.  Everyday C has to interact with them because he has to stand between them in line in alphabetical order.  He complaints that they tried to keep him out of line and get him in trouble.  Long story short, they said that he hits them and say gross things.  He said that they did it first.  Anyways, after a long talk, C understands that a gentleman does not hit or touch girls.  We explained to him that God wants us to love people even though they might be hard to love.  After the teacher stepped in, things are good again.

C's birthday is coming up but we can't have a big party for him because we are having a party for Mui.  So I allowed him to invite 10 friends to bowling to celebrate with him.  He has been working on his guest list.  Last Wednesday at Awana, the story was about Elisha in II King 6.  The Isrealites army was to fight the Aramean army, but the enemy was strong.  Elisha asked God to make the Aramean blind and it happened.  Elisha then lead the enemy to the Isrealites.  After capturing the enemy, people asked to kill the Arameans. But Elisha said, "No, let's feed them."  C learned that God wants us to love our enemies and feed them.  Two days later, C began to tell me who he wanted to invite to his party.  He said he wanted invite the two girls.  My first thought was WHY?  He only has 10 spaces, why waste two on people he doesn't like?  Of course I withheld my thoughts and asked him why he wants to invite them.  He said, "At Awana I learned that we should love our enemies."  WOW!!!!!!!!!!  My mouth dropped open.  I didn't know he was listening.  And even if he was, I didn't think he would actually take it to heart and put it to practice.  I am so proud of him for desiring to obey God even though it means doing something he doesn't like to do.  I feel ashamed that most of the time, I let things that I learned to go in one ear and out the other.  Or I say that I will obey, but will push it to another time.  Personally, I don't want him to invite them because I saw how they give him mean looks sometimes.  But I must set a good example to my boy, who truly desire to live out God's word.  So I allowed him to invite 12 people instead.