So I started to do daily reading and one of the readings was Genesis 22. No big deal… I’ve heard the story before… Abraham, the forefather of Israel and us, was promised a son and received him at the age of 100, only to be challenged by God to sacrifice his own son! The killer is that knowing that he had to sacrifice his very own son back to God. If that wasn’t painful enough of a sacrifice, I don’t know what is… But I’ve known this part of his faith all my life. However, God was gracious enough to point out a new part of Abraham. I point to verse 5. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” The words that stuck out to me were the last few… “… then we will come back to you.” I boldfaced the keyword ‘we’. Why? In knowing God asked for his own son, Abraham still went up believing in God that provided Isaac to begin with, and though God had asked him to give up the very dear life of himself, Abraham trusted and knew that God would somehow make all things right. To be able to say that “we will come back to you” required amount of faith only a true Christian could have. Having faith and trust in the one God, I now see another side of Abraham that I had failed to see all this time. I can only dare to pray and ask for such faith.
Man down!!
So I got home from work… and after dinner, I played with them for a bit. As we played, we started to talk about what JJ liked to play with. I nailed it down. Cars, trains, planes, and boats and such. Guess what Anna says… she starts with dolls and then… she shouts out… “I like new clothes!!” 
And then… they re-discovered the green bucket we got from Wal-Mart while back… so I decided to be the “green bucket monster” by putting it over my head. So I was chasing them down… not much of a chase really… as I couldn’t see jack for anything! After chasing, I got to the doorway of my kids’ room. I felt the hallway ending and slowly felt my way into the room. Then, BAM!! Anna shuts the door on me and my two fingers (mid and 4th) get squashed!! 
I was in pain…. bit of swelling and my bones may have been in pain… man down. Oh well… it was all still worth it though… 
Martin Luther King Jr. and His Legacy
Well, it’s MLK Jr.’s B-Day today…
In such memory of the man, I want to say, let us promote peace more… and unity. 
And my dear brother now the professor was on SDSU’s article… It’s great to know that we still ponder on the great minds of the past today…
Catching up with the times: Skype and Webcams
While we were in New Jersey, my father had brought up a request wanting for video telephone capability. I asked why and he said that since they only get to see us once a year, he wanted to see the kids’ faces more frequently so that my kids wouldn’t forget what the grandparents looked like… 
So pleasantly surprised, we had talked about Skype and its video capability for FREE! 
So I have been keeping an eye out for a webcam that would meet our requirements and keep it relatively cheap. Lo’ and behold, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that today’s Woot had Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX for $19.99!! It sports 640×480 video capture and 1.3 MP stills! So I quickly grabbed two and we will be giving it a go real soon!! And by the way, this webcam supports Skype as well… Hee… So this one’s for you, dad!
Making the most out of… the lemons…
So Soojin got the flu… 
She called me at work from home after 1 pm. Work has been getting very busy as of late but she has to get rest…. So I headed home and she had fever just over 100 F. So after dishes and such, I decided to take the kids outside since that would be the best way for Soojin to get rest. So I decided to make the most out of it by taking them to Bay Area Park and pick up a pizza from Papa John’s on the way back.
I was partially(?) sick but I wanted to make the most out of this “situation” and the kids had a blast at the playground… and after about an hour and half of running around, swinging, and chasing, we headed to the lake… and just… watched. Sat by the “shore” on a bench and watched the birds… counted how many were sitting on a tree…
We walked back holding hands… and then tried to race together… WHILE holding hands! And then picked up the pizza but since JJ was falling asleep in the car, I offered him a deal .. “blue juice” aka. Gatorade Frost! 
Anna and JJ also discovered how much they love Papa John’s (good-for-nothing) garlic butter. At least, despite our being sick, they had a blast. Soojin is now on the good ol’ TheraFlu.
Stuff that makes God cry…
What makes me furious is that this has been going on for years and (poor) people have been complaining only to the police’s ignorance. That is just too sad… may God give all those poor kids rest and peace for their afflicted souls… and peace to the families…
Jin, where the heck are you in these matters?!! Jin Chung works at International Justice Mission so I hope something can be done to push for some actions to protect the poor and the children.
The Texas Comeback
So… we are back… whew! After packing and driving through NYC again to get to JFK airport, we checked in our bags and got ready to get on… well, I forgot what it was like to fly with kids (though it has only been 4 months!)…
Oh, and props to JetBlue for providing complimentary free WiFi spot at JFK so the kids could watch TV ??? ??? ?.
You see, Soojin got sick… she has digestion problems easily and was just feeling terrible. So I had to feed these rowdy and demanding kids. We managed to get some edamame before we got on the plane. Well, I had to peel them all one by one only to be eaten real fast by the hungry kids! I just couldn’t peel them fast enough. After that, they went through couple of cups of OJ and water. Then I had to make sure they were well rested and eventually, they fell asleep… but JJ required me holding him to fall asleep. He likes being held. But I had to stand up in the aisle to comfort him and calm him down during the flight. JJ and Anna had to pee after all that binge drinking too!! All this time, Soojin was just feeling like throwing up…
And she did. When we finally landed. And JJ just had to pee again while people were de-boarding! Ah ya… After we got our luggage, I took the kids with me while Soojin watched our bags (since she still didn’t feel well) to pick up our car at the Sunpark. Well, now, I forgot to bring the keys with me! So we came back… After the key pickup, we went back, came back to pick her up with the luggage.
When we got home, Soojin wanted me to vacuum the place since we hadn’t been home in two weeks. So they waited in the car while I vacuumed and opened up the windows to circulate the air! And since Soojin wasn’t feeling well, my dinner had to be Jin Ramen with tofu in it! Oh well… in the end, two things are clear…
1. It’s tough traveling with kids.
2. It’s good to be back home.
PS. All the time we were in New Jersey, Anna kept on asking when we were going back home. And she was worried that someone would take our cars and our place! Cute… 