DUST STORM IN SYDNEY (UPDATE 2)

Thank you to friends and family who have been praying with me for the dust storm in Sydney.  Marcel is finally back to Sydney from Hunter Valley.  He said that the sky's clear.  He stayed inside the office till 4AM to wrap up for the launch which is coming up in 4 days.  No breathing problem anymore.

Though his team will be working over the weekend (rain or shine), I am just as excited as they are about the launch.  I'm sure the hard work will pay off.  I really have never seen a team as excited about working hard as Marcel's current team.  Amazing!!!

It's weeks left before our vacation/launch celebration.  I'm excited!!! Hurry home, Cel.

DUST STORM IN SYDNEY (UPDATE 1)

While waiting for Marcel's update, I checked out the news to find out that Australia is experiencing the worst Dust Storm in the past 70 years.  Ten very dry years is blamed for this Dust Storm.  Many people have been experiencing breathing problem because of this.

Almost 24 hours after Marcel's last email to me, he finally called.  He told me that he's OK and apologized for not contacting me sooner because the reception and email connection are not too good in Hunter Valley.  He said that the Dust Storm isn't as bad in Hunter Valley as that in Sydney.  It's almost 4 in the morning; and he's still up from his jet lag.  My poor Baby!

Marcel will stay in Hunter Valley for the next 2 days.  Hopefully when he returns to Sydney, the sky has cleared out a lot.  My prayer goes out to all the people in Australia and Marcel's teammates.  All the very best for your team, Cel, on the launch of your new product.

Hurry home!!!

DUST STORM IN SYDNEY

It's Wednesday (Sept. 23) in Sydney.  Marcel emailed me about him waking up to the orangish sky this morning.  He told me that many people were saying, "It looks like Armageddon."

He didn't know what's going on with the red orange glow in the skylight.  As he rushed from the hotel to the office, he found out that Sydney is experiencing one major Dust Storm.

Marcel is scheduled to leave Sydney for Hunter Valley today.  I haven't talked to him nor received updates from him since he boarded the bus to Hunter Valley.  I called to reach his voicemail.  I emailed to receive no reply from him.  I've checked my Google Latitude to find him already outside of Sydney.  I hope he will contact me soon to tell me that he is OK.

KEEPING MY MARRIAGE ... ALIVE

I love being married to my wonderful husband, Marcel. Yes, it was not an easy start for both of us to start living together as a married couple considering we had spent 4 out of our 6 years together in a long distance relationship (AZ and TX). Though I don't have any regrets about living in a distance for the most part of our courtship, I am forever grateful that I can wake up and sleep to someone to cuddle every day now.

Marcel and I just celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this past July. If our relationship is a growing baby, it must be going through the Terrible Two period. Hahaha. But anyway, what I was going to say was that every relationship has its own struggles and accomplishments. I personally believe that understanding the uniqueness of these two people united in the marriage is very important in keeping the marriage alive. Solve the struggles together and through prayer. And don't forget to celebrate even a little accomplishment and offer your thanksgiving to God!

Every year, Marcel and I do different projects to keep this marriage alive. Thanks to our beloved friends who keep us posted on wonderful marriage resources out there. With that, I just want to pass on the blessing to you all who are reading this blog.

Click here to read about our first year resource.
Click here to read about our second year resource.
Click here to read about our third year resource.

Have more marriage projects? Share them with me!!!

May this be a blessing to you!

MY THIRD YEAR OF MARRIAGE

This is going to be our third year of marriage. This time, Marcel and I are doing a project on "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman.

Elisse and Ko Akiong introduced me to this book in mid 2008. I borrowed the book from the Church library couple months ago. The book covers 5 different ways someone will feel loved:

1) Words of Affirmation
2) Quality Time
3) Receiving Gifts
4) Acts of Service
5) Physical Touch

After reading the book, I knew right away that I'm a bilingual on Words of Affirmation and Quality Time. I just didn't know which one is my primary. I also took a guess that Marcel's primary love language is Quality Time.

Marcel's new project has been pretty demanding since they are going to launch the new product to the public on September 30, 2009. So Marcel hasn't had a chance to read the book yet. I felt really blessed from reading the book that I bought a copy to give to my sister and her husband. The book that I purchased for my sister is the latest edition of "The Five Love Languages." At the end of the book, there's 2 questionnaires to find out about our love language(s) -- one for the husband and the other for the wife.

There are 30 questions in each questionnaire. Our results were interesting:

• I was correct about being bilingual. My first is Words of Affirmation (10 out of 30). My second is Quality Time (9 out of 30).
• Marcel is also a bilingual. His first is Receiving Gifts (11 out of 30). His second is Quality Time (9 out of 30).

You see how we both share the Quality Time right? It's to no surprise because when we are vacationing together, we could really relax and enjoy each other company. We would really have a blast!

However, on a day to day basis, sometimes we do get irritated at each other. And I'm glad that we finally figured out why. Well, as I scored high on Words of Affirmation, Marcel scored zero on it. Words of Affirmation isn't something he needs to feel accomplished nor is this something he feels comfortable of doing. On the other hand, as Marcel scored high on Gifts, I scored 2 out of 30 only on Gifts. I am very careful with my spending. So naturally, gifts is the least thing I would think about to spoil someone.

We were stunned as we discovered our love languages. And we are committed to make the effort to speak the other's primary language. I just have to learn to be smart in getting gifts for Marcel. I know it doesn't have to always cost me $$$$ to get him a nice gift. KFC was proven to work well in the past :-). It might be a little harder for Marcel to affirm me verbally since this is not very tangible. But I'm sure, if there's a will, there's a way!!!

Stay tuned for our progress this year. How exciting!!!

May this be a blessing to you!

Click here to see what we did for our first year of marriage.
Click here to see what we did for our second year of marriage.

MY SECOND YEAR OF MARRIAGE

For my second year of marriage, I did something differently than what Marcel and I did in our first year. This year, I do the project by myself and for Marcel. I kept this a secret from him to date.

Earlier this year, I went to "For Women Only" Conference. Kathi Lipp was one of the speakers that day. After the Conference, I got myself a copy of her The Husband Project. It's basically a book for every woman who desires to bring more joy into her marriage. The book provides some guides to set plans into actions for loving the husband in the next 21 days.

I customized my Project Plan to span for 40 days instead of 21 days. I started in June and closed it on our second anniversary celebration.

When I was about to launch the project, I prayed that God will help me discover more about Marcel: his dislikes and likes. Having been together for almost 8 years, I just needed a refresher. I feel so comfortable with Marcel that sometimes I take things for granted.

Since Marcel did all the planning for our first year anniversary celebration to San Diego, this year, I told him that it's all on me. He did not need to prepare any gifts or plan anything for the celebration.

I really enjoyed this project. God did answer my prayer requests about discovering things Marcel likes and dislikes. Some highlights from my project:

• One day I told Marcel that I would do his household chores. His most favorite chore is vacuuming the carpet. That weekend, I did the vacuuming for him. After I was done, I found Marcel redoing the vacuum. I was partly sad and mad to see that. After we discussed why he needed to redo it, I found out that Marcel loves to see his post-vacuumed carpet to have equal vacuum marks. This is one of the examples of the clean me vs. the neat Marcel. For me, it doesn't matter if the marks don't have the same width as long as all the area has been vacuumed. For Marcel, messy marks will distract his concentration. He just wants to fix those marks so that he can continue working peacefully. We're glad we solved the misunderstanding and didn't allow this to grow into resentment.
• One week, my ministries at Church were taking most of my time that I didn't have time to cook Marcel dinner. I decided to get him a KFC meal on the way home. I had left for my Small Group before Marcel went home. I didn't see him until 3 hours later. When I opened the front door, I found Marcel with the widest and brightest smile, "Thank you for the KFC, Yanny." HAHAHA. It was 3 hours after his dinner. And he still had the smile. Now I know that KFC is his comfort food.
• One day Marcel was going to mountain biking with Jackie. I prepared for him a breakfast in bed. When I took the food to the bedroom, he was so pleased to see his favorite sausages and scramble egg on the plate. But he doesn't like the smell to fill up our bedroom. So he asked, "Can I just eat it outside?" HAHAHA. I learned that Marcel would still appreciate a quick breakfast I fix for him as long as the food stays in the dining room.
• It does not matter if I would be asleep or awake, Marcel would love to have me stay by his side while he's watching a guy-flick movie I rented from RedBox for him. The thought that really counts for him.

I think I will do this secret project again in the future. Maybe I would do it with a different goal now that I already know his likes and dislikes.

May this be a blessing to you!

Click here to see what we did for our first year of marriage.
Click here to see what we are doing for our third year of marriage.

MY FIRST YEAR OF MARRIAGE

Five months into our wedding, Marcel and I were still living apart. I was in Dallas, TX. Marcel was in San Jose, CA. It was December 2007 when I finally joined Marcel here in California. We started the new life together after being in a long distance relationship for 4 1/2 years.

Later that month, our beloved married-couple mentors (Ko Chris & Ci Kiki) let us borrow their 5-disc DVD's on Love and Respect by Emerson E. Eggerichs. The whole message was based on Ephesians 5:33.

"... each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

The core message is that while a husband longs for respect from his wife, a wife longs for love from her husband.

Having watched the series, Marcel and I decided to practice this Biblical command into our marriage. At the time, we were still trying to set our feet on the marriage's ground. So we knew that practicing this command will do us better than worse in building our marriage foundation.

At the end, it sure was an eye opening experience. I think I struggled more to respect Marcel than Marcel to love me. I must admit I have a great issue with submission. I grew up in a family where women (my mom, my aunts, my cousins, my sisters and my grandma) are more dominant than the men. It's "my way or no way" kind of principle I grew up with.

During the Love & Respect challenge, I learned to discern my role as Marcel's wife. While he is the head of the family, I have been learning to be the neck of the family to support him and facilitate his movement so that he can be a better and wiser head/leader. It's really not easy for me to start without a good role model around me. But I'm glad my God is greater than my problem.

So let me share with you some lessons learned from our Love & Respect application:

• He knew I'd love for him to try to cook so that we can take turn. I knew he doesn't like the messy part of the cooking and mixing. We compromise by letting him do the cutting and I do the cooking. I feel loved because he's there to help me prepare the meal. He feels respected because I don't force him to do what he does not enjoy doing. Plus, he is very organized. So, all ingredients are placed neatly in the prep bowls/plates (unlike my prep which may end up with more bowls/plates to wash at the end).
  
• Marcel's pretty tall. Thus, helping me wash the dishes will cause him back pain (from bending over). We compromise by letting him wipe the dining table and store away the clean dishes while I wash the dirty dishes. I got all my kitchen gadgets cleaned the way I want to. He got all his items placed where he wants to.
• Marcel loves biking. I used to have trauma from falling off the bike when I was little. He knew riding a bike for hours would really hurt my "behind." So he got me a pair of biking pants that come with the gel padding for my birthday. As a result, we get to spend healthy and quality time exercising together on the weekend after my birthday. And we still do every weekend when the weather permits. Now, Marcel doesn't have to come home with a cranky wife. I, on the other hand, have started to develop my hate for biking to love for biking. No more sore "behind." Biking is our favorite family sport now.
  

To date, I'm not a meek wife yet. I'm still full of flaws. I'm sure Marcel will agree with me on this one. But stay tuned, my friends, because my God is still in the process of making the meek me. My way will never always be the right way. Compromising is another way to quietly obey your husband. :-)

May this be a blessing to you!

Click here to see what we did for our second year of marriage.
Click here to see what we are doing for our third year of marriage.

KANGAROO SHOTS

In preparation for my Indonesia and Australia trip this Fall, I got myself some immunization shots. Since it's been almost 7 years since the last time I visited Indonesia, it would be good if I prepare enough physically for the trip so that I don't get sick and can enjoy the vacation to the fullest.

Two days ago, Glen and Ifti told me about this Kangaroo shot that Deb S. had to take prior to her Australian trip recently. They recommended that I take the Kangaroo shot as well for my trip. Somehow, I wasn't convinced. They smirked while they talked. I was certain that the Kangaroo shot's a joke.

For these past 2 days, Glen and Ifti went all out to persuade Ed, Huey, Deb S, and Jonathan to convince me about the shot. It was not until yesterday that I finally got convinced that maybe the Kangaroo shot does exist. Ed was telling me about his friends who live in Australia told him about it and how the the disease would spread if you eat the Kangaroo meat or be near to Kangaroos.

So this morning, I went to the hospital to get my immunizations. Marcel went with me. As the nurse was investigating my health history and determining the immunizations I needed to take, I braved myself out and asked her, "Nurse, do I need to get my Kangaroo shot as well?"

She looked shocked!!! She was like, "Kangaroo shot? I have never heard of such things. Where did you hear that from?"

I said, "From my boss. He's been telling me about it since 2 days ago. He said that I would get it from eating the Kangaroo meat or being near Kangaroos."

Nurse said, "Alright, well, just to give you some peace, let's look for it."

Marcel, who was sitting by me, was shocked too with my question. He's been making several business trips to Australia and never had to take the Kangaroo shot. So he asked me, "And you didn't ask me about it before you bravely asked the Nurse about it?"

The Nurse smiled of course. And I started to feel dumb for asking that question. However, in our search for the truth, we searched through the CDC website, Australian Embassy website, Nurse's Reference Guide, as well as her Library. What did we find? NONE.

The nice person that she is, the Nurse said that she would give me the Typhoid shot instead since from what she heard I might get infected if I consume the Kangaroo meat. Another advice she gave me was to stay away from the Kangaroos. Before I left, she said, "and please make sure you tell your boss that there is no Kangaroo shot!!!!"

I went back to the office and rushed to find Glen and Ifti. Once I found them I said, "YOU LIED!!!!!!"

Both of them had the biggest smirk and said, "What lie??"

I said, "There's no such thing called the Kangaroo shot! I was so embarassed to even ask the question to the Nurse. We went all out to find the truth. We search the websites and the library too!!!"

Of course they laughed even harder. I couldn't resist myself but to laugh at myself too. Why did I buy their lie?

Glen, "Gosh Yanny, you were so hard to convince. I had to go to Ed (our VP) level just to convince you!!"

Ifti, "Prank of the year!!! Yanny's Kangaroo shot!!"

Yanny, "Yeah, nice one. I got pranked, you guys!!!"

So .. Kangaroo shots do not exist, people! It's something Glen and Ifti made up. Phewwwww.

May this put a smile on your face!! Happy Friday!

OMTL - DAY 1 - LIVING THE DASH

It's the start of our One Month to Live challenge. I learned that my life comes down to the 2 dates and 1 dash. The dates are my birth date and death date. While I have no control over the family I was born into, the race, the gender, and the day of my death, I know I have a full control over of how I live my life -- which is represented by the dash. Have I spent my time on things that matter? Or is my movement only to fill the hours of my days?

If I know I only have one month to live, my priorities will shift. As I prepared for the Day 1 study, I was reminded of the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee illustration I got awhile back. It is a kind reminder that I'm glad I get to read it again.

One thing about me is that I can't say "No." In the past, this habit has led me to over committing myself to secondary goals and taken my time away from my family. Marcel, on the other hand, is a very efficient person. Everything is black or white (important and not-so-important) in his world.

Understanding that both Marcel and I are sharing Quality Time as our secondary love language, I have learned to cautiously select my involvements outside of home. The most recent decisions I made in the past week were to quit my other Small Group and to limit my Worship Leading schedule. It has been a very challenging thing to do because I love to be resourceful to other people as much as I can. Right now, I am just enjoying my extra time to spend with Marcel, especially since he will be away for work for 2 weeks.

While saying "No" to secondary goals will be an ongoing practice I need to remember doing, I added another action to my list as part of my One Month to Live challenge. Yesterday, I have decided to be happier at work. As much as I don't have control over the workload and people I work with, I know I have the control to treat my coworkers nicer -- without any exception. Today is day one to apply my challenge. It has been good so far. I haven't experienced the "happier" part yet. But I'm glad God allows me to proactively be nice to this one coworker in particular. :-)

Everyone dies but not everyone lives!

May this be a blessing to you!

ONE MONTH TO LIVE SMALL GROUP

After our 3-month Summer Fun Program, my Small Group finally started our regular study tonight. This time, we are using One Month to Live as our Study Guide.

I heard about this book when I went to the Small Group Leader Conference at Saddleback in 2008. Our Prayer Meeting Ministry has been using this book as their supplemental reading since early this year. Now it's our turn to experience the challenge ourselves. :-)

The book contains 30 chapters -- one for each day of our live. Since our Small Group meets weekly, we plan to do 2 chapters each week. That said, we definitely will go beyond 30 days. Nonetheless, we are very thrilled about the challenge.

If we only have one month to live, how will we live differently? The concept of One Month to Live is universal. However, the application is unique to each person. To refine our focus and apply the concept of One Month to Live, each one of us made a decision to start doing 1 thing differently this week. And the challenge starts today :-)

I am very glad that everyone in my Small Group takes this challenge very seriously. Even Nahing starts a blog to journal her experience. Seems like the first day of the challenge is going pretty well for everyone.

I believe that as we walk in His ways and be dependent on His grace, we will enjoy the fruit of our labor (Psalm 128:2). This One Month to Live challenge is definitely worth investment of our time. I look forward to the days ahead.

Everyone dies but not everyone lives!

May this be a blessing to you!