Family Visit

After 2 weeks of breathing Teluk Intan air, we were finally back to Subang for a 4-days break.  We came back on Monday evening and went home on Friday early morning – just in time for Andrew to rush to work.

The main reason for us to go back to Subang is because my mom and sisters flew from JB and stayed in Sunway for 3 days.  Initially they wanted to visit the lagoon but my niece and nephew were not feeling well, so they just stayed in the hotel and shop around the mall most of the time.

Well, good thing about sunway pyramid is they are awarded for the most children friendly shopping complex.  Though my niece and nephew couldn’t visit the park, they could still play with a lot of children rides for those 3 days.  Elyse on the other hand, was benefited as well.  Normally we only allowed her to play 3 to 5 rides the most (with my parents in law), this time she played for 10 rides on the first day itself, and 4 rides on the second day.  On the 3^rd ride, she lost interest on the rides and wanted to go to the bookstore instead.

Though we did not have much quiet time talking to each other (thanks to the kids for keeping us really occupied), it was a wonderful time spent.  I truely appreciate my sis' effort for making this trip.  Elyse is also finally allowing my niece (1 year older) to hold her hands.  She also acted like a big sister, calling my niece and nephew back to the hotel room when they wondered around the corridor (found out later that this was instructed by Andrew).

Sis has also arranged for her maid to follow me back to TI for 3 weeks, helping me to settle down.  Her maid is indeed a very hardworking and helpful assistant.  Without giving her orders or instructions, she wipes all the windows, clean Elyse's toys, iron all our clothes and etc.   The list of chores that I expected to instruct her during her duration of stay is almost completed, leaving Andrew and I in awe.

We really thank God for all His provision.  Indeed, God is watching over us and leading us step by step.

Baby Friendly Church

It has always been a mysterious to me how the other parents take care of their toddlers and babies while listening to sermon or worship God during service.

Back in TMC there's a cry room in the sanctuary for the parents and their children.  Very often the parents will leave their children with the maids in the cry room while they sit with the others in the sanctuary.  Of course they enjoy peace and quiet while listening to the sermon.  There are others who stay with their children together, both husband and wife.  My heart goes out to those parents who stay in the cry room alone with their children.  I can fully understand how difficult it is for them to attend service that way.

My in laws attend the same service together with me most of the time.  They try their best helping me to take care of Elyse.  Most of the time my father in law would be with her during the Praise & Worship.  I'll take over after that so that they may listen to the sermon.  Only at rare occasions I get to listen to the entire sermon.  And yes, those moments are very precious to me.

Where is my husband, Andrew?  Well, he is the pastor of the church.  Thus, he's never able to be there with us during service.

I read Andrew's sermon almost every week before he preaches.  The shorter version because I'm preparing his power point slides.  However, it is different when we listen to it.  The delivery plays a big part, and of course the anointing that comes along with it.

I have learned not to depend on pastor to feed my spirit man on Sunday.  Reading spiritual books help me to stay connected to God all these while.  However, I'm still longing for the day where I can be totally free to worship and listen to the sermon again.  When will that be?  I guess it's a long long way to go....

Some churches conduct Sunday School or Children Church simultaneously with the service.  Though their main purpose is not baby sitting, in a way it does help the parents to concentrate during service.  In Teluk Intan, the church has their Sunday School after the service.  I can't stop wondering how am I going to take care of an active toddler while carrying a newborn in my arms when the time comes.

The good news is there's a creche right at the back of the hall.  However, in many churches people pay very little attention to it.

Andrew and I have the privilege to visit some churches in Klang Valley when we stayed there.  It has always been my desire to see how other churches conducted their worship service.  I do not intend to be a church hopper, but to broaden my knowledge and to gain some experience worshipping in other churches.

However, I notice that a lot of churches do not pay much attention to the baby room. Since I have a toddler with me, I do pay attention to such details and I am grateful to those churches that are baby friendly.

Some baby rooms are at one corner of the church, that immediately makes you feel that you are an outcast. Perhaps the church identifies babies and toddlers as noisy creatures, but I believe it can be overcome by having a sound proof room. This is rather important because having a baby has already taken much attention away from the parent, if the baby room is not located at strategic places, the parents may lose interest in paying extra attention on the worship and sermon.

Baby and toddlers are in a different stage of life. By combining the two of them, the results are disastrous. Baby sleeps most of the time. They only require your attention when it’s time to feed them milk or to cuddle them to sleep or to change their nappies. On the other hand, toddlers are attention seeker. You need to occupy them with activities, if not they will be running around, screaming or shouting or crying. Therefore, it’s advisable to have 2 separate rooms for these two categories. Of all the churches I’ve been to, only one church does it this way.

The baby room should have curtain that enable the mothers to milk their babies. The sound amplifier does not need to be tuned up to maximum. It helps when the mothers are trying to cuddle their babies to sleep. One or two changing tables will be good for parents to change their babies’ diapers. Sink, a flask with hot water, tissues are essential items for babies.

Whereas the toddler room needs to have toys that can keep the young ones occupied while parents try to listen to sermon. The volume of the speaker needs to be tuned up a little higher compare to baby room. Space is needed for toddlers to move around.

Children are important in the kingdom of God. We should not neglect them. It is very crucial especially for young parents who are trying to juggle between their little ones and stay connected in their spiritual walk with God.

As a pastor's wife, I hope I will be able to set a good example and not bringing shame and disgrace to my husband.  However, I do wish that church members will be more gracious and compassionate rather than judgemental as I try my best to worship God and take care of my young one during the service.

Moving to Teluk Intan - Part 3

Andrew is the chief master in this house moving.  He gives the intructions while the rest of us follow.  Well, of course, his wife nags at him here and there privately.

Thanks to his engineering background, Andrew is pretty good at doing some re-wiring for the house.  He does all the hammering and piping, too.  He also acts as a tour guide, bringing us around the town to find food.

My father in law hurt his back recently, thus unable to bent down and carries heavy stuff.  But he tries his best to help us anyway.  Assisting Andrew and my mom in law whenever they need an extra hand, doing all the laundry, and playing with Elyse.  He is also our driver when Andrew is at work.  After all, he has a better sense of direction than me though I know how to drive.

My mom in law does most of the cleaning and painting in the house.  Not to mention taking care of Elyse and cooking.

Since I'm into my 29 weeks of pregnancy, I only managed to do most of the unpacking.  Even with that small amount of work, I experienced leg cramp on the first day and back aching most of the time. 

Up till today, the house is almost done except for a few boxes around that awaits me to unpack (yes, I'm the most inefficient person here). 

Surprisingly, we do not spot any cockroaches around though their smell and their droppings are found in the cupboard.  Another piece of good news is, there's no flies.  We can safely leave our food and drinks uncovered.

One of the few things that irritates us is mosquitoes are everywhere.  A church member told us that there is a saying in Teluk Intan: 6 mosquitoes can carry a person away.  Although the entire house is covered with mosquitoes netting, Elyse remains a victim to these vicious blood sucking insects. 

A few church members visited us during the past week.  One elderly couple who stays nearby even invited to their home to tea.  Another 3 ladies offered their help to bring us around for marketing if the need arises.  Indeed, the people in the small town are more hospitable and friendlier.

We pray that God will continue to grant us His grace as we adjust to the new lifestyle in this town.  It is our prayer that Andrew will be a blessing to the church and I will play a supporting role to his ministry as well as a good mother to Elyse and the newborn.

Moving to Teluk Intan - Part 2

We thanked God for a sunny day as the lorry brought all our belonging to Teluk Intan.  We have gone to the parsonage and did some cleaning prior to that.  There were quite a number of furniture in the parsonage.  Since we ourselves also have some, Andrew has decided to move a few shelves to the church office to keep his books.  We set aside those shelves at the entrance.  Andrew would then request the lorry to move them to the office after unloading our stuff in the parsonage.

The lorry went to the apartment to load all our belonging before detour to my in law's house to bring more stuff.  A night before that all 3 of us stayed with my in law.  The next morning, Andrew went to the apartment first.  After Elyse has awaken, my father in law fetched all the rest of us to the apartment as well.  Our intention was to show Elyse that the apartment now is empty, and we are moving to Teluk Intan.  She seemed a bit lost and requested to go away from the empty lot after staying there for only 5 minutes.  I, too, was feeling a bit sad as we left the apartment.  Though we only stayed in this apartment for a year, I missed this place onced we called it home.

The 5-tonne lorry turned out to be 'not as big' after all.  We were thinking of a 16 wheelers.  In fact, if it was a 3-tonne lorry, it would have some difficulty of loading all our stuff in nicely.  We were surprised with the huge amount of things we owned.  Andrew and I were comparing who has the most items.  Later we found out that most of them belong to our little girl - her toys, and Andrew, his books.  We lost count on how many boxes altogether.  But it could be easily 50 and more.

Andrew drove his car to Teluk Intan with 2 helpers.  Besides the lorry driver, there were another 2 helpers in the lorry.  So there were 5 helpers altogether.  They were quite efficient in loading and unloading, however, I would appreciate it more if they were a little more gentle in handling some of our stuff.  Thanks to David and Regina from TMC PJ, they gave us a huge roll of bubble wrap and clear wrap for the moving.  Andrew used it to wrap the washing machine and the dryer, the glass table and mattresses, and I used old newspaper to wrap all our plates and cups - all of them were still in one piece upon arrival.

The living room of the parsonage was full of boxes and furniture, Andrew couldn't even turn on the switch at night.  Ooops!  He stayed alone in the house for the weekend.  It was a kind gestures when 2 ladies from TI church came to offer help.  However, as I have mentioned earlier, there were some shelves that Andrew intended to move to the church office, thus he graciously declined them and followed the lorry to the office.

Later when Andrew was back home, another 4 ladies from TI church came with packed food.  We have no idea how did they find out but TI is certainly a small town, with many friendly people around.  The ladies cooked a few dishes and expecting to see Andrew and his family.  To their disappointment, I was not there.  Hence, Andrew offered all of them to stay behind and have dinner together.  The ladies tried to help Andrew to unpack but there were just too many stuff, so they swept and mopped the floor.  We truly appreciate their hospitality.

Andrew came back to Subang Jaya after the weekend and brought all of us to TI on Tuesday, March 1st.  Hence, we began our new phase of life.

Moving to Teluk Intan - Part 1

When we found out that Andrew would be posted to Teluk Intan end of November last year, we started packing for the moved.  Since our apartment in USJ did not have a store room, we left some of our stuff at my in law's house as well.  That means, we have to pack not only the USJ house, but also pack things from my in law's house.

We visited the parsonage in Teluk Intan one Sunday in December.  It was a total mess!  The previous pastor who stayed there is a bachelor.  He certainly is not one who takes pleasure in cleaning and tidying the house.  Within a short 5 minutes visit, I was bitten by the mosquitoes in 5 different parts of my body.  Hence, Andrew requested to put up mosquitoes netting for the entire house for the sake of our little princess.

The leadership graciously accepted that request and did some minor repairs to the parsonage before we moved in.  However, they may only do so after the previous pastor moved away at the end of December.  Thus, our moving was delayed.

Andrew travelled to and fro every week.  He took a bus instead of driving.  The bus fare itself is only RM17 per trip.  But to drive up to TI, just to pay the toll fee is already costing him RM17 per trip.  He certainly does not enjoy travelling by bus.  The bumpy road plus the reckless driver contributed to his headache and body aching.

Since the moving was delayed, I took my sweet time in packing while enjoying our remaining time in our sweet cozy apartment.

In the meantime, we were struggling with the decision to give birth in PJ or in Teluk Intan.  After much thought and consideration, putting forward all the pros and cons, finally we've decided to give birth to our baby boy in Assunta, the same hospital where Andrew was born.

We heard that the leadership had tried to employ a cleaner to clean up the parsonage.  But things did not go well.  He only managed to clean up a small portion of the house and decided to quit.  Then, a church member together with his friend in the cleaning business took up the challenge.  2 of them with another 2 helpers came in and did a transformation to the parsonage.  It took them 4 days to finish up the work.  The church member told us later that one night they stayed up until 10pm, another night 11pm, in order to see to its completion.  Such was the condition of the parsonage.

Then the contractor came in.  The total cost was 7k including fixing a burst pipe, repair the bottom of the shelves and cabinets, fixed up all the mosquitoes netting and etc.  All these was done just one week before CNY.  Then another round of cleaning.

After the office informing us that the parsonage is ready, Andrew and I took 2 full days to pack up all our remaining stuff.  Since the parsonage is a 5-room semi D, we have decided to bring more stuff than we intended to.  After all, our original plan to hiring a 3-tonne lorry turned out to be a 5-tonne lorry.  Andrew contacted the leader at the Burning Bush - a Christian organisation who helps to do odd jobs.  The leader told Andrew that the price for a 5-tonne lorry is the same as the 3-tonne lorry.  So, he advised us to take the 5-tonne lorry instead.

Finally, everything was ready for the moved.  We pray that God will help us to adjust to the new environment and the new house.

Children TV program

A long long time ago a girl fell in love with Barney.  She repeatedly watched the same CD even as we tried to introduce new CD to her.  Well, though she enjoyed it so much, the adults were pretty bored after watching it umpteen times.

At first she only watched for the first few songs.  As time passed, it captured her attention till she finished the whole CD.  She loved to watch the umbrella song and the silly hat song. 

Then came a time she was getting a little bored with it, we started to change to new CD.  We were certainly grateful for that change.

As she grows older, we introduced Sesame Street to her.  Personally I find it boring.  A friend gave us a soft toy - Big Bird.  It is quite big, bigger than the girl!  And it's quite heavy.  She loves the Big Bird.  She hugs and kisses him.  The latest trick is playing pretend by washing the Big Bird's backside after he has poo.

However, when we brought her a jigsaw puzzle with Doraemon, she instantly switched it to this Japanese cat like robot.  Unfortunately we couldn't find one with English or Mandarin speaking.  It's either Cantonese or Japanese! 

Next came the Little People CD from Fisher&Price.  She watched it happily and asked questions on why this and why that.

She also love Thomas & Friends CD.  The talking train has since then won her heart.  She relates to the story as she plays her toy train.  She even name all her trains followed after the CD.

Then Shrek came into picture.  She loves the ugly ogre, the beautiful princess Fiona, the donkey and the meow meow cat.  Nowadays, whenever we showers her, she will also bath her toy Shrek and Fiona.  She watched the CD so many times until mummy also knows by heart every line for each scene.

Her latest crush is the Disney Pixar Cars.  We happened to watch this movie when we went for a church retreat and it was on TV one particular night.  Daddy decided to buy the CD for her and she has been watching it since then.  However, one needs to be patience as she bombarded you with lots and lots of questions that leave you speechless.

I do not promote watching TV.  But Andrew is an living example of how he learned lots of stuff and picked  up new vocabulary from TV program.  My mom in law is a witness to that.  I tried to limit our princess to 2 times a day before I was pregnant.  But nowadays she watches more as I needed the rest.  She is not a TV addict though.  She does not demand for it.

And guess who is this little girl?  Who else could it be?

CNY 2011

Chinese New Year is just another public holiday for us.  We didn't plan to go back to JB, my hometown.  After all, my sis n mom won't be around.  So, just stay put in Subang, together with my in laws.

2nd day of CNY, one of my in law's neighbour has invited a lion dance team to his house.  When I heard the drum rolling, my father in law and I brought Elyse to experience this traditional chinese culture.  To our surprised, she enjoys it!  I was a little worried that the drum may be too loud for her tiny ear, yet it turned out fine for my darling.

She stared in awe as she watched the 2 lions jumping up and down, moving from side to side.  After that, she went back and played with her toy lions, doing exactly what she just saw.  Since her toy drum is in our house but we were in our in law's house that morning, she used a box as her drum.  My father in law gave her a pair of chopstick and that becomes her drumstick.

Few days later we brought her to Subang Parade for dinner.  Coincidentally there was a lion dance performance there.  Elyse was excited!  She watched with undivided attention as the lion moved around.  She even took a photo with the lion!

Since then, she has been asking to watch lion dance.  But to her disappointment, I think that would be the last one before the next CNY.

Besides the lions, Elyse enjoys playing with the fireworks.  She holds it in his hands n waves it around.  Her beautiful eyes follow those sparkles and fire as she waves it in the air.

GongXi GongXi is the new vocabulary she learns this CNY.  She heard the songs all over the mall and she picks this one up all by herself.

Just before CNY, I brought her a new cheongsam.  It fits her well though it's a little bigger.  We hope to keep it till next CNY since the previous one only lasted for a few months.

A little set back is when our little princess fall sick.  She has slight running nose.  We brought her to see the doctor and she's now recovering.  This reminds me of her first CNY she was also down with flu.  First time in her life she fell sick.  That was also the time we've decided to brought her to our present doctor and are happy to be with him till now.

This is the story of our little princess.  She is the centre of our lives.