summary of the month - July

July was a supper long month:
the first two weeks -
the boys were at DC when someone signed the contract for our house; we loaded our eight year worth of earthly possession into a twenty foot container in two hours;
followed by countless goodbye meals, and the surprise farewell party...leaving the States for good.

the remaining two weeks -
we landed on this sunny island and were put up in an apartment that was very convenient to get food!
an old friend lend us his car for our first two weeks here of which we were very grateful.
a kind lady whom we had never met before offered us this present apartment rent free for the next six months!

sunrise in the city

last night we moved in to our "home" for the next six months -yes, right in the heart of this City State!
looking out from the living room was this morning sunrise. How we ended up here was God's amazing provision!

under the same sky

i can never comprehend
how often God thinks of me
*for His thoughts are innumerable
they outnumber the grains of sand
and now
under the same sky
i'm thinking of you
and i miss you so

*psalms 139:17

summary of the week

just one word to sum up our first week here: YUMMY FOOD!
and for the ever hungry teenagers, it's food paradise here.
as you can tell, my seventeen year old can eat his favorite food all day, the picture shown the best wanton mee he had so far!
as for my fourteen year old, he is yet to taste the best of chicken rice - of what he had recently, he said, "The rice do not have enough flavor."

we have to stop my little one from ordering another plate of Chinese carrot cake
- grandma said "no nutrition value", so he settleld for fish ball noodle.
so far their favorite dessert is ice kachang: topped with durian/mango sauce!

it's such a joy to see my boys tucked into their food heartily!
the weather has been breezy and comfortable through out the week and we have gotten over the jetflag, yeah!

we had breakfast out today -
nasi lemak for me and wonton mee for the boys.
my little one can not decide which he like best: Chinese carrot cake or fish ball noodle.
my seventeen year old only stick to wonton mee while his fourteen year old brother tried something else now that he had a few serving of his favorite chicken rice since our return.
a friend dropped off their TV for us and bought longans over too - this fruit in Chinese mean "dragon's eye" but is "cat's eye" in Malay (mata kucing)
my better half bought some star fruit last night - pretty and have a refreshing taste!

view from the apartment

sunrise this morning











view from the kitchen











looking out to the left from the living room








looking out to the right








the front door

upon arrival (1:30am)
we were taken to a makan place for supper...the boys slept most of the journey and did not eat on the plane so they were starving! they ordered their favorite drink - winter melon tea and 100 plus, we had fried flat rice noodle, wings and chinese carrot cake and tahu goreng - fried tofu with peanut topping.

i was pleasantly surprise with all the cats at the food court and i love them!!! (they hang out at most open food court here)

we miss you all

thank you all for the surprise party and the send off, it sort of lessen the impact of leaving all our beloved friends behind and we were very much comforted by your presence and the overwhelming love we received from everyone...

upon arrival while waiting in line at the immigration gate,
my fourteen year old asked, "Why are we here?"
to that i answered, "We are home."
He said, "This is not my home."
"Son, you were born here." I said matter a factly.
"Home is where your heart is." My seventeen year old said to his brother and my fourteen year old agreed with that.
i certainly hope that they all will find their hearts at home with The father above with all the challenges ahead of us.
someone is crying Lord, kumbaya
as soon as the plane took off this morning
as soon as one lay his head down in a strange place,
someone cried into his baseball cap the first half of the plane ride
someone cried into his pillow at the wee hour
and wonder if one can survive 'till we see you all again

goodbye and see you later

we said our final goodbye to our beloved Jack ...he retired to a small cottage by the lake, moved into the master bedroom with the Yehs.... ah, what a dog's life!