Father's Journal: A little accident, a big lesson

Dear Son,

Yesterday, we went to "yum cha" with you and your grandma after church. We were amazed by your "friendliness" shown toward total strangers: waving arms, smiling, laughing, and saying a whole bunch of things that Mom and I would probably never understand (BTW, we recorded some...see if you could explain to us what those mean once you get older). Weather was gorgeous but a bit windy, and we planned to go to park with you after a little shopping.

While I was pushing you in your stroller in Ross, all of a sudden, your Mom screamed! When I took a look, I was stunned for a moment: you vomited your entire lunch plus the additional bottle of milk out, all over your clothes! Despite the mess and stinks, I've checked and made sure you didn't have a fever, then began the mission to find out the cause. It turned out, by the grace of our Lord, that you attempted to swallow a piece of clothing and ended up trigger you to vomit it out along with everything you ate and drink earlier. Your Mom and I have been very careful not to allow you to reach/grab anything, and yet, this tiny piece of cloth somehow ended up in your hands, then your mouth, and finally backed on your clothes. Had you actually swallowed it "successfully", we would probably keep scratching our heads trying to figure out why you got sick all of a sudden...it's all by God's mercy. Praise the Lord!

Because of your situation, we terminated all plans and immediately brought you home for a warm bath and get changed into a new set of clothes. Your Mom was a little sad because she's been wanting to bring you to the park, but it's either bad weather or busy schedule that didn't allow us to do so. But God's hand was at work. We ran a quick errand after settling you down with grandma, and it became fiercely windy all of a sudden. We did go to the park that we intended, and you know what? The surrounding was (and still is) under construction. The wind brought some dirt in our faces, and we literally ran back to our car to escape from the "muddy wind". Can't imagine if we actually brought you here and if we would be able to cover you up in time. It's another proof that God's plan is way better than our plans. That's why Jesus taught us to pray like this:

"¹⁰Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven."

May we all learn to treasure God's will as it's way better than anything we could possibly come up with!

In Christ w/ Love, Your Dad

Father’s Journal: My Son’s first “Ba Ba”

Dear Son,

February 26, 2010 at 7:15 AM, when I was beside your crib trying to lift you up, I whispered to you ‘Say “Ba Ba”!’, just as I did for countless times before. Only this time, I could clearly hear that you actually said “Ba Ba” back to me!!! I was so overjoyed that I literally jumped up and down, and within minutes, I’ve brought you to your Mom and told her the good news. And since then, I’ve been hearing you saying “Ba Ba” every day, and you probably would not know how sweet this phrase is until you yourself become a father someday…

As you’ve grown from “baby” to “toddler”, it’s about time to recollect what a wonderful and miraculous journey Mom and I have shared with you prior to your birth…

December 13, 2009 at around 7:00 AM, your Mom woke me up and told me there’s something wrong. After a brief discussion, we’ve called the OB (Mom’s doctor) and was asked to head to the emergency room ASAP. Little did we know that this trip marked the beginning of a 12-week journey with you, our precious son…

The OB confirmed that Mom's water broke and would need to be immediately hospitalized until she gave birth. There’s a 50% that you would be born within 48 hours; 49.99% within 14 days; a very remote chance that the membrane would seal up and the pregnancy could continue.

You were only 26 weeks and 5 days old. At that stage, many major organs including brain, lungs and intestines were not fully developed. If you were indeed born this early, you would likely be admitted into Newborn ICU at birth for at least 8 - 10 weeks, with tons of complications/surgeries as we’ve seen in some of your buddies in NICU later on.

By His Grace, the hospital has sent many specialists our way to keep us informed on the entire situation and the caring provided from the nurse team was top notch. All doctors and nurses alike were very helpful and sensitive to address our concerns.

I’ve requested your Christian uncles and aunties from our church to pray for us, but my feelings were so complicated that I really didn't know how to use words to describe. I’ve decided to humble myself and lay down all my worries in prayers, and trusted that you and your Mom’s lives are all in the hands of Our Father in heaven, and that He would use this journey to mold us into better children of His. God has proven His faithfulness and love over and over again in this journey…

In Christ w/ Love, Your Dad

The Gift of God's Smile - my reflection

From Max Lucado "In the Eye of the Storm":

"We do not ask these things because we are good; instead, we ask because of your mercy."
(Daniel 9:18)

If only, when God smiles and says we are saved, we'd salute Him, thank Him, and live like those who have just received a gift from the Commander in Chief.

We seldom do that, though. We prefer to get salvation the old-fashioned way: We earn it. To accept grace is to admit failure, a step we are hesitant to take. We opt to impress God with how good we are rather than confessing how great He is. We dizzy ourselves with doctrine. Burden ourselves with rules. Think that God will smile on our efforts.

He doesn't.

God's smile is not for the healthy hiker who boasts that he made the journey alone. It is, instead, for the crippled leper who begs God for a back on which to ride.

Dear Father, I don't remember since when I fell from your mercy to think that only my achievements would make You and others around me smile. It's my sins that have blinded me to think less about You and more on what I could/should accomplish. The striking news you brought forth tonight is a wake up call for my spiritual life. It's essential to be a good husband, father, employee, friend...but out of all these, only one is the most important and vital: I'm Your child, not by my works/performance, but completely by Your grace. Forgive me God! May You have the Holy Spirit constantly remind me this truth and help me to love You more! In Jesus' Name I prayed, Amen.

God's hidden blessings

If I tell you, "poop is better than gold!", you must think I am either drunk or crazy. But yet, this is really how I feel ever since my son is born...

My son is only 2.5 months old and he's been having constipation ever since he came home. We've been following our pediatrician's "prune juice therapy" a little loosely because we worried that it may affect his digestive system even though we've been reassured time after time that this therapy is much more natural and have no side effect.

So this past Wednesday night my son had a "big one" and we kind of let our guard down a bit on Thursday. Then my son's condition progressively got worse: he could not sleep, and he would spit up and scream and cry like crazy in the middle of a feeding. This has never happened before. Yesterday, he started to lose his appetite and was eating maybe less than 50% of what he would normally take in. We finally brought our son to the pediatrician. Her diagnosis was that most likely it's because of constipation as it would greatly affect the reflux or could even cause acid reflux. That would explain why my son stayed up for 12+ hours on Friday because the discomfort, and would scream and cry during the middle of a feeding.

The pediatrician then performed the necessary procedures but yielded no results. Then she gave us some guidelines of what to do after we brought him back home. I remembered at least prayed for my son a few times during that afternoon that he could "poop". Then finally at around 10:00 PM the "poop" finally came. My wife and I were praising and thanking God while we cleaned up the mess. Yes, the scene was pretty disgusting to us(what could you expect?) but yet we saw that God was able to bring out the dirt from our son so he could become healthy again.

Likewise, how are we handling disappointments, betrayals, tragedies, hardships, difficulties that come our way? Are we able to see God's hidden blessings behind these "dirt" and be able to thank Him and give Him praises?

Romans 12:1-2

¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

God is Faithful and He Reigns!!!

In case if you didn't notice, I've been worrying a lot lately. The fact is, my company isn't doing as well as it should, and I've been feeling pretty uneasy with my career. On the other hand, Amy is facing the same situation. We've been praying for each other on this issue, and frankly, it becomes very hard for us to obey the command in

Philippians 4:4

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Just a few minutes ago, Amy was sorting out the mails and there comes the INS notice. My Green Card Application has been approved! Consider that we first submitted our application at the beginning of April 2007, this is something very extraordinary--at least against all the Green Card stories we've ever heard. God once again demonstrated His Almighty Power and that we could really "Rejoice in the Lord always!". We could always be rejoicing no matter what the situation is. May God's name be glorified throughout the earth!!! Hallelujah!!!

Praise the Lord!!!

We prayed pretty hard for today's Green Card Interview and God just showed His abundant grace upon us once again!!! We almost missed the appointment due to the traffic jam, and arrived only 20 minutes before the appointment. And we've spent last night to be as fully prepared as possible. It turns out that the appointment only took a little less than 15 minutes. No embarassing or hard questions! God is so trustworthy! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!!!

The only thing that's pending now is the FBI background check. Please continue to pray for us so this would also go smoothly by His grace!

A Few Thoughts To Share...

I've been reading "Angel Heart Monthly", a Hong Kong Christian magazine that's primary aim is to share Jesus Christ with Hong Kong people. Every issue so far is a real blessing. The articles are very contemporary and to the point, and I'm also amazed at how good it could be for God to pull His Children together to create such a great magazine that appeals both to believers and non-believers. It also comes with a free VCD, which contains some very good Christian material for us to enjoy, and possibly a tool to share the Gospel with our families. May God continue to bless and use this wonderful ministry!

To learn more about "Angel Heart Monthly", you can go to:

http://www.media.org.hk/magazine/

Tomorrow morning is a big day, as it's my Green Card Interview. Please pray that everything would go according to His will and guidance. I'll update you with the latest.

Let's not forget that this Sunday it's our "Graduation Potluck Luncheon" for all graduating middle school, high school and college students. Please make sure you bring some food/drinks etc. to share with others in this reunion. For the graduating students, please prepare a two-minute sharing of your thanksgiving and your future plans for your new stage in life.

Solomon Fellowship, please pardon me and Chester for not being to make it this Saturday. Chester would be attending the UC Santa Cruz's graduation ceremonty, while Amy and I would be attending a wedding. I'll try my best to make it back to Sunday School preparation.

Need to get back to work...leave me some comments and let me know how you feel (nothing inappropriate, please!)