2008 - A year of peace, faith and grief for our family

Dear all at LC300,

Today is the eve of Christmas 2008. Recalling back this year of 2008, it has been a year of peace, faith and grief for our little family...

We start the year with passing of my beloved mum on the 14 Jan this year...I can still remember very clearly all the events that unfold leading up to her last heart beat and to her funeral and eventual cremation in Mandai Crematorium Hall 3...I experience extreme grief for a couple of months during which I draw strength from my faith in God...hence it has drawn me closer to God and able to know Him better through saints like St Therese, St Bernedette and St Faustina Kowalska. These 3 saints has certainly broght me a step closer to God. I thank them for the diaries, autobiographies that was painfully written by them...thru the writings I find great peace and calm in my life and hence in our little family...Tiffany PSLE was stressfull for all of us this year in the family but in the end God has given us all that is being hope for: To enable her to continue her education in her Catholic School (just like what my mum has hope for me when she was enrolling me in school in Malaysia.)

To my mum it is not important whether a school performs well academically..she is not interested in enrolling me in "Raffles Institution-type" of school or schools where you will mingle with the royalties (sultans). To her,she has just got one single objective and that is to sent her children to a Catholic School (never mind if the Catholic school is an Ah Beng school..that is not important)...hence this tradition was passed down to me.. and I emulate it.

2008 is also a year that saw improvement in my running speed and endurance..the 2 marathons (SAFRA and StandChart) showed an improvement in timing, something which I never expected...my legs too..the pain on the knee joints were gone and I am able to run continuously 10km without stopping..something which I never expected and I thank the good Lord for it..

2008 ended the same as it started for us...my close colleague James was earlier diagnosed with gastric cancer, passed away at the age of 33 on 19 Dec, leaving behind his wife and 2 young sons aged 3 years old and 7 months old. I attended his funeral on the 22 Dec at the Church of St Francis Xavier and Fr John Bosco said the mass and when I was at the Mandai Crematorium, everything that took place there on 17 Jan during my mum's cremation flashes back to my mind. I grieve with the passing on of my wonderful colleague and friend, James.

This morning I happen to be in his office where he shares it with 2 other of his colleagues. I still cannot believe that he is gone and will never be back.

We stayed home most of time for this year and I took every opportunity to sleep well at home..(our PUB bill has gone up due to the longer hours of our aircon in operation); we did not travel to anywhere this year. Just a short trip to Sentosa at the Shangrila Rasa Sentosa. With the current gloom economic outlook, where else is better than home, anyway?

All in all, we experience peace, faith and grief in this year of 2008 AD.

To end this entry, our little family would like to wish you and your families a blessed Christmas filled with peace, joy, faith and many graces from God.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

Albert, Theresa, Tiffany and Felicia + Santa

Felicia's 1st Christmas Performance

Dear All

We attended Felicia's very first "public" Christmas Performance with the adult choir at Holy Trinity. The children's choir is very very small...max 19 kids...at the Sat and Sun performances, only 12 and 11 kids respectively. Although the children were "used" as intermission for the adults to change for part 2 of the performance, they were darn cute and good...considering the wee number of voices compared to the adults' at least 50 members! Being a proud mum here, I may be bias lah! But she was so cute, looking at the conductor and at the same time, her eyes were roving around, making her look a bit squinty...like a little Harry Potter.

Needless to say, the adult's choir, under the conductor of good musical background (they made an album and evangelised through singing in Malaysis recently), they really brought the true meaning of christmas back. 2 songs were original compositions by the conductor and the lyrics and music was so touching, I cried a little. Tiffy was naughty and looked around and commented why everyone was teary...and when she saw me, she commented I had tear mists in my lashes..cheeky!

Felicia would be practising next for the children's pageant and mass this 24 Dec. She says she's enjoying herself and having fun as everyone is very nice. It's great to be instrumental in channeling and moulding a little soul in the path of what I believe, God would be pleased with. It's tough being parents, but when our kids smile at us and give us cheeky grins or make cheeky remarks, we feel somewhat gratified.

Love Theresa

After going thru the sacrament of reconciliation

Last nite went for the penitential service at the Holy Trinity. It was a wonderful feeling having to know realise that all your sins have been purged from your soul and you are reborn again (temporary, though...) as we will sin again some point in time in our lives..but never mind about that...for now, I want to kill sin so that I can be with God and that is the spirit that we have to adopt.

I was thinking this morning, should I drop dead this morning, I should be able to go straight to heaven as I am now purged from all sins...well, this is just a thought.

I thank God for giving me this chance of reconciliation... for I am what my colleague used to say "...the lowest lifeform"....in heaven and on earth and shouldn't deserve God's great mercy.

You have a nice day!

AlbertY

Fun at Changi Airport for Christmas

Dear All

You won't believe it (neither did Tiffy nor me!) that we had fun at Changi Airport T3 yesterday! When you spent at least $50 at any shop there, you'll get to go to Candy House where you get to fill a mug (which isn't fancyful or anything) with any sweets you wish from the Candy House till it's full. But you can only fill it such that you can fit the mug's lid tightly back on it. You get to keep the mug and the sweets. Every $50 gets you 1 tix for 2 pax to enter the Candy House and for 2 pax to sit the Choo choo train. This Choo choo train travels along a small stretch of the T3 (level3). It's quite fun for Felicia but Tiffy didn't like the train ride (made her wanna throw up). I found it fun, like being a kid again, but it was quite embarrassing when I sat down behind and the kids in front were so light, the carriage kinda creaked under my weight :(

Best part is, the shops there absorbed GST, so there was 7% discount on the price tag! Isn't that great? I didn't intend to spend so much, but with the novelty of the candy picking, who could resist? Surprisingly, Tiffy enjoyed picking sweets in the Candy House. When I was inside the Candy House, I felt like a kid again, goggle-eyed at the colourful goodies all around us, and I got to look at things and became a kid again for a while with the gals, especially through the eyes of Felicia, who believes christmas is the time to get lots of goodies and presents just because there is a Santa. 

Merry Christmas everyone and May God bless you and your families with peace, health and happiness this Christmas and the New Year 2009!!

Love Albert and Theresa, Felicia & Tiffany

Help Pray for my Friend's twin sons

Dear All

My friend, whose now migrated to Australia, has twin sons who are born with physical abnormalties. One has this problem of his skull bones fused at birth (the other less severe) and recently (about in June 08) had undergone major surgery to crack open the skull bones so give him space for his brain to grow. It seemed to have been a successful op.

Now for the next op. Both boys are born with their urinary tract ending at the base of their penis instead of the tip. Hence they need to undergo surgery...Joseph on this Fri (5 Dec) and Jonathan (the one with the major skull op) this Sat (6 Dec). My friend, Dawn Quintal, requests for prayers. It has been very very tramatic for them for the major surgery. This would be comparatively "minor" but it's still a delicate surgery as their penises are tiny...(they are about 2+ or 3 years now).

Thanks in advance for your prayers.

Love Theresa

Come Support Felicia and New Divine Mercy Church!

Dear All

Felicia is in the children's choir in Holy Trinity. She'll be singing with the children's choir and the adult's Seraphim choir at 2 sessions of the Christmas concert so as to raise funds for the new Divine Mercy Church in Pasir Ris. Details are:

Date: 13 Dec 08 (Sat)

Time: 7:30 - 8:30pm

Date: 14 Dec 08 (Sun)

Time: 12:30 - 1:45pm

Tickets are $2 pax (very very cheap!! Tiffy wonders how they will raise funds at cheap prices!)

Anyway, if you can, come give her your support.

We will be attending Sun 11am Mass so we'll have time after that to immediately attend Felicia's concert. She is so very thrilled with all this christmassy things and to be singing with the grown-ups, Pageant as well as the children's Mass on Christmas Eve. For us, we'll be busy fetching her up and down 2 - 3 x a week, but we are not complaining as it is a worthy cause.

Love Theresa & Albert

Bad times these days...even churches are not spared

Hi folks,

It has been quite a while since I last blogged...has been busy lately so no time to blog ...anyway these times are bad so we staying put here in singapore and particularly at home...resorting to doing things like playing board games like "Settlers of Catan" nice game for 4 four...

Read on the Cnn and these days churches also faces closure in US.
http://www.wjactv.com/news/18188011/detail.html

The year is coming to an end..how fast indeed is one year and we thank God for this year with much peace in our little lives and though the economic situation is bad but we are coping and the children knows it... we spent most of time chilling out at home. This year, the furthest we went is Sentosa, spent about 2 nights there and lazing around.

Recently. gotten news that my colleague James who is in the beginnning of this year was diagnosed with Stage 3 stomach cancer and now heard that his cancer has begin to spread to his liver although his stomach has been operated out and removed. Please pray for him as he is only in his mid 30s and he has 2 young children aged 4 and the other a few months old; moreover his wife is not working...

Well, see you all at LC300 Christmas party..Take care and God Bless!

AlbertY