Category: Personal

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Visiting people at their home

Soojin has had an opportunity to get closer to someone lately at our church. Usually, she’s somewhat reserved as she’s a bit … afraid of what others’ perception is of her. However, Soojin told me that this sister doesn’t seem to possess any negative feelings towards Soojin. In fact, I know she doesn’t. So Soojin has been more open towards her each time she saw her and encouraged her. For the first time, Soojin called her this week.

I don’t know what they talked about but she was then very determined to make a meal for her and wanted me to deliver it. You don’t know or understand how determined she can be if and when she sets her mind on it. So she made her recent new recipe of version of Mapo Tofu. It’s got loads of tofu and mushrooms. Let’s not forget that she’s a health freak. So she finishes it and wanted me to deliver it to her but then it turns out that our Wednesday meeting wasn’t at Formosan Church like it has been but instead it was at our church. Upon hearing this, the sister tells me to just give it to some other people that she sees regularly and they can give it to her. I agree and relay that to Soojin.

Remember how I mentioned that she can be very determined?! She was insistent on my delivering it to her personally. That same night. Even after church as we hung out at Teahouse to pre-celebrate Eric’s b-day , others (incl. PS) tried to convince me to just give it to them to have it delivered. However, I saw Soojin’s side of things and understood (at least better than others) why she so insisted on delivering it. Korean Christians are old school when it comes to visiting people. There’s even a Korean word (shim-bang, ie. visitation) for it. One of the many things that I believe Korean Christians have been doing right is visiting people personally, as in face to face time. They go to where the person(s) lives, and at their home, they pray for the person(s).

Sure in Korea, distance is shorter, but I feel that as we yield to the excuse of “long distance”, that personal touch of visitation and praying for each other in person has been lost. That I think is an awesome Christian art. So for me, it wasn’t an ordeal for me to drive out further, to see where the sister lives, and to pray for her there, at her home. We need to bring that back.

American culture may seem nice at first, keeping the distance, but at the heart of it, it only asks for one thing: alienation. Christ told us to meet together, and where two or more are gathered in His name, there He is with us. So despite others’ thinking that it’s waste of time and resources (mainly gas), Soojin and I think otherwise.

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Perks of working for large company as an underpaid engineer

Though I b*tch and complain about being underpaid and under-appreciated at work, there are some good perks that I cannot ignore or forget.  First is the health benefits.  That alone has saved us a load of money… just having our kids saved us easily $40K! 

But the 2nd (and bigger) perk is the flexibility in the work schedule.  As most of you know by now, Soojin’s ankle has made me take more time out of work to do things that are necessary.  For example, today’s schedule went like this…

7:45 Take Anna to school
8:15 Come back home
8:45 Take Soojin and JJ to UBC for mothers’ Bible study
9:15 Get into work
10:15 Leave for my doctor’s appointment
11:45 Come back to work
2:45 Leave to pick up Anna from school
3:30 Stop by court to pickup application for Soojin’s temporary disabled parking permit
3:45 Drop off my prescription
4:15 Back at work
5:45 Leave for home

Tomorrow, I have to pick up JJ from pre-school at noon, drop him off at home, come back to work, and go pick up Anna again at 3 pm.  These kind of flexibility work schedule could not be possible if I worked at smaller companies or bigger responsibilities with more pay.  I thanked God today for my job.    I don’t want to leave transporting my precious kids to someone I hardly know!

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Sweet moment…

Well, Anna loves sleeping with mommy…  I’m a “backup” as in “I’m ok if you put us to sleep when mommy isn’t here”.  I normally take Anna to school and Soojin picks her up after.  However, with Soojin’s right ankle out of commission, I’ve had to drop her off AND pick her up after school.

The kicker is this.  Anna looooves it when I drop her off and pick her up!!  How do I know?  She tells me so!!    She gleams on the way to school… and while I hold her hand to school (I park the car) and drop her off… and when I pick her up, she yells “Daddy!”  Gotta love those moments… gotta enjoy these moments until she grows up to be a teen and asks me to drop her off… a mile off from school so her friends can’t see her daddy!!    Oh well…

Sweet moment indeed… to the max.

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Please pray for Soojin… and us…

Well, as some of you may know (those who were at Wednesday joint Bible study), past few weeks have been just very discouraging to say the least… way too many things, both big and small, have been happening in my life…

Biggest is my father’s tumor in his prostate… not sure still as he still hasn’t gotten around to the biopsy… and Soojin’s mom’s health deteriorating due to liver functioning worse and worse…  Kids broke the mirror sliding door to the closet that cost $150 to replace… Soojin’s car needed brakes done … over $400… my car’s flooding did another $400 damage…

Tomorrow, we were going to attend a wedding of a very precious dongseng, Deborah Ahn, in Dallas… but near lunch time, I learned that Soojin sprained her ankle… if not worse.  She can’t move at all… Had to get her pair of crutches but no one carries the right size!!    When it rains, it pours…

I was still planning to go to the wedding with the kids maybe… but now Anna has fever.    So I have to stay and help out… shucks…  I guess God is trying to get my attention… I’m ready God…

My sinus pain behind my eyes are killing me… allergy season’s back.  Spent way too many hours fixing my computer after my video card died on me… There are whole lot more that are too many to list and some are too personal to share… but I strive on… as we had learned in Ethiopia… of positive living… and as Christine Ha had reminded me of it again today…   Life is hard… but God is stronger…

Need rest… I just hope and pray that Soojin’s ankle is not fractured. 

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Nightmare on Peter’s Street

In my life, I had two terrible nightmares.

My very first nightmare was very weird.  I was on an old-school Korean bus traveling in Korea with my parents on it.  Soon, we got to this small town/village that was near a creek with a stone bridge that went over it.  I got off and my parents were gone.  I was at the one of the bridge that may have been at most about 50 yards long.  I saw a fairy at the other end so to get to it, I start crossing.

Next thing I know, she turns into a witch and blasts the bridge and I fall down into the creek with like 50 people!    And then out of nowhere I see sharks in the creek and people are screaming trying to run away from them and same with me.  I run along the banks and try to climb up… kinda like that recent Korean scifi monster flick “The Host” and … sweating, I woke up. 

I was very much shaken for several days due to that nightmare… anyone else with a nightmare to share?

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How do you work so late??!

For the personal record, I had to work 10.5 hours today! 😮 For some, it’s not that unusual. But see, for me, that’s very very very rare. How rare? Very rare. Like my steak, it’s rare. 😛 Why? Even from my high school years, I decided that I would not be a workaholic and not spend most of my time at work, and lose the time with the precious family.

So for the past 9+ years of working, I have avoided jobs that require too long of hours, too much effort, and responsibility. Don’t misunderstand me. I do my job and give it my best. But I deliberately didn’t want to (and still don’t) be a manager. Way too much politics aside, management not only requires much time and effort, but also much ass-kissing. Yeah, you read that right here. 😛

However, raising kids is expensive. 🙁 So one needs to make more money. Cars are not functioning well either. So one tries to get a better paying job (trust me, rocket scientists definitely don’t get paid). But seeing how I got home close to 8 pm, I barely had an hour with the kids. My cousin used to put in 100+ hours a week and slept at work! 😮 How does one put in so much?! Is it worth all that money?

My kids are already 3 and 5. Anna goes to Kindergarten this fall. JJ is so cute and so energetic. Time flies too quickly. I swore to myself that I would not be a workaholic or too focused on money. I still remember when JJ was a baby… that moment passed so fast!

I don’t want to miss my kids’ growing up. It’s been hard and busy at work. But I can’t see myself working this late for the most of my life! Even four to five hours a day with my family isn’t enough! But one?! Shiiiiiiteeee! I think I will just keep on driving my jalopy and and keep on living in our apartment. 😀 (Please no comments about how it’s a waste of money and should invest in a house. That’s another post!)