AN's Field Trip

This girl's excitement at her first field trip to Arizona Friends of Chamber Music Youth Concert

My Imperfect Children

AN has this bad habit. Despite being told that a playdate has to end there and then. She would get upset and express it such that it makes me wonder why I would even arrange for a play date in the first place....

Over the weekend, it happened twice.

I got to a point where i broke down. So did they. Both of them. Even though ER was innocent, he suffered my anger more than she did. Because she had the luxury of a study table in her room to work on. ER, not yet.

ER is my peace.... Even though I flared up at him that much, he persisted in lifting my mood up.

Finally it was time for dinner on Sat evening and I got them to put all their work aside.

We sat down for dinner.

They apologised. I broke down and wondered aloud why they (specifically AN) has to, without fail, show her displeasure at the end of every play date. She's 11! She should be the matured one!

I was having my meal halfway through and couldn't continue when I started sharing my pain with the kids.

ER hugged me tight. After analysing the situation and feeling confident it was safe for a family hug, he pulled AN close to us and initiated that we speak to God.

"Mummy Let's pray."

And for the first time, my boy prayed for me. For us. He had his arms around AN and I. And he prayed a matured prayer

"Dear Lord Jesus, please help mummy feel better. Please bless our family and help us not to be upset with each other. Help jie jie to not make mummy angry anymore."

He stopped. We usually continue each other's prayer. But that day, his prayer was more than enough for me. For us.

Our God listens to the little ones. I see how the Lord works on AN's faith. The Lord will be ER's peace too.

My boy then picked up my fork and started feeding me without a second word. His other arm was still on my back and he was patting me. It was so comforting.

AN was apologetic too. She's such a sweet girl. That's one of the only few issues I have with her.

I love my children. Sometimes it's easy sometimes it's hard. When I find it hard to love them, I see myself being an unlovable mum as well. It works both ways. The kids will always drop me notes.

These are precious. I don't know when these notes will stop. But my prayer is that even when they do, our relationship will continue to grow and take root in the love and safety of our Father's hands.

I pray that the Lord will speak through me. See through me. Think through me. I am His vessel. I want to be a vessel He can use.

On Our Way to Far Far Away. Again

This is the day we had been preparing for. Half a year of uncertainty (not knowing if he'd get picked to go), another half of preparation (throw Ald donate, buy to bring with us). Many things couldn't be done till the last minute (the packing, Marshmallow's paperwork, leasing out our own apartment and leasing an apartment for ourselves etc).

Lishi assured me 10 years ago when we were doing the same: 船到桥头自然直。It's a constant reminder even up till today.

The beautiful sights that accompanied us through the 26 hours (about 6 hours of transit in between)

School Day

Kids are finally in school!

ER was so excited he woke up on his own this morning.

AN waved bye to us when this really warm hearted little girl Kaylee came to greet us and offered to help her get used to class!

Should I still put them in Legacy? Sonoran has only space for AN in Grade 5. Not for ER is Grade 2. It's always hard to keep changing environments for the kids. I pray for good friends for both of them in this school. But that will make iy harder for them to move to another school once they already have friends.

Dear Lord Jesus, lead me on this journey as I plan out the logistics for the kids....

Galeria Del Rio vs Avilla Marana

And so, we chose this really beautiful house while we were still in Singapore. It has 2 levels and a garage. And carpets. And it was merely 4 mins from the school we were looking to enroll them.

But it wasn't all smooth. We didn't have good vibes when we signed the lease. The manager was always not around. And she didn't pick up the many calls we made to arrange to sign the lease. Didn't return call either. It came to a point where we were thinking "just sign the lease and then we won't need them for the next couple of years". She wouldn't show us the house even after we signed the lease.

Thus came the big disappointment when we finally opened the door. Ground level wasn't carpeted. And we weren't informed about it.

They pushed it to us saying that we never mentioned we wanted carpets. But their marketing materials on their website, their show unit and all other information we could only rely on, showed carpets. Like we won't request for a fridge, washer, dryer etc because it's there ion the plans.

We moved into Galeria on 5th Jan 2018. We have checked out of the hotel and there was nowhere for us to stay by then. We had the option to either take it or leave it. They were nice enough to allow us to leave without penalties (paying only prorated rent) but where were we supposed to go??

We checked out Avilla Marana. Desmond Loh and Eileen had been helping us check out These 2 properties months back. They both loved Avilla Marana. Desmond had repeatedly asked why not Avilla. It's walking distance to Target and enjoy endless choices of amenities. Galeria is at such an isolated location and poorly lit.

It was only after all the bad experience that we decided to try see if there was any units left.

THANK GOD THERE WAS ONE. ONLY ONE! God is with us, despite the hiccups. Here at Avilla, they are very professional! They asked for all our documents to proof we are decent people. Not at Galeria. She couldn't be bothered.

The feeling we got when we stepped into Avilla Marana was a total opposite to when we stepped into Galeria. Avilla Marana was also wooden flooring as with Galeria. But we loved out.

Our house at Avilla has wood that was nicely varnished. Rooms were nicely scented with freshly cleaned carpets, nicely and fluffy. Felt clean!

Galeria's wooden flooring looked like they had just been laid and work in progress. It looked and felt raw. Carpets were wet but flat and dull. Didn't seem to have been properly cleaned. And part of their requirements for full deposit back at the end of lease, was to have professional cleaning of the carpets.

At Avilla, all they want to see was clean carpets. No stains. Rug doctor was enough too. That was all.

We have a view at Avilla. None at Galeria where every window looks into the window of our neighbor from front back left and right..

Even the garage was too small for the Sienna we got. It was exact fit for the 7 seater. Can't open the back door to off load grocery with the garage door shut. That defeats the purpose of us having a garage where we could offload our purchase in the safety of our enclosed garage..

Moving into Avilla as the best decision we made right from when we arrived. Everyone is happy including Marshmallow. He now sniffles with us on the bed. Shiok to the max..

Off to Tucson We Go Again

Been a hectic few months. Quick summary to recap main events.

Boxes were collected on 19th December 2017. We ended up with 55 boxes and including odd sized items, our final inventory reached a figure of 70 plus.

House was to be handed over on 22nd Dec 2017 so we all went to stay at my parents' place again. Kids had a wonderful time bonding with my parents. I was very certain separation will be painful. And it was indeed when we left for the airport on 1st Jan 2018.

Settled Marshmallow's exportation matters. Engaged Pampered Pets to get the paperwork done. Could have done it myself. Wasn't that hard actually 😒

Met up with friends. Didn't manage to meet up with others. Weeks leading to our departure were packed with having to get some last minute stuff done.

1 Jan 2017
The day we left. The ministry came. My BFFs came. Our families came. There were tears. Sometimes I wonder when people say, spend as much time with your loved ones before a separation so we won't regret later on. But it feels like the more time we spend with each other, the more painful the separation becomes later on.

We are loved. Very loved and very blessed. There are so many people who love us so deep. In comparison, what's this pain of separation in exchange for quality time with those who love us so much.

2 Jan 2018
Our flight took 24 hours to reach our destination. Smooth for the human. Not for the cat. We were instructed to drop Marshmallow at the baggage drop. Instructions were very clear over the phone when I called UA.

On the actual day though, no one could tell us exactly where to drop Marshmallow. Or rather, we were told by the counter that we had to bring him to cargo, which we didn't believe. Because it was what the customer service person instructed over the phone. We queued for baggage drop assistance. Went to baggage self drop. No one was interested to help. They would only go "no it's not here."

Thank God we had 5 hours of transit. We spent 2 hours trying to find out exactly where to drop Marshmallow. It was indeed at the cargo area which is 5 mins drive from the terminal. And we are USD$40 poorer, just to drop him at a location that's 5 mins drive away.....

But all was good.

Kids were well and excited when we arrived. Marshmallow was overwhelmed but well too. We had many people come pick us. And then we headed over to La Quinta for the night. We were to spend the next 3 nights there.

On Higher Grounds

Funny cat is realising our dining table isn't the highest point in the house!