ThanksGiving for 2007

Time flies. I bet everyone agrees with me.

Year 2007 didn't start good for me. A very bad shocking news hit me early of the year and left me in darkness helplessly for almost a month. I prayed and prayed, and with that, I grew closer with God. I prayed hard and studied hard on His words to find strength in my life to be able to rejoice and live joyfully again. Joshua 1:9 says "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go". I was enlightened. The words gave a boost into my life and my heart and somehow, I could smile and laugh again.

There's a chinese saying that says "A year's plan start with Spring". We always believe things will be good if we start it well. A negative thought hit me when I thought that Year 2007 started bad for me, and hence it will be a bad year for me. I shook it off and live on. Today, on the last day of the year, when I looked back to year 2007, I had a fuzzy feeling in my heart. It was just... Great! I couldn't stop giving thanks to God for all the blessings in 2007.

EG and I have been planning for our wedding for the whole 2007. It was HELL HECTIC. We were running around almost every weekends. We used all our free time to prepare for our wedding - meeting up vendors, preparing power points, wedding agendas, and etc etc. As usual, everyone has a dream - be it big or small - for their weddings, so as EG and I. With financial constraint, we have to be careful with everything that we're going to spend. Again, we see God's blessing in all our plannings. We managed to get all the things that we wanted within our budget - they came WITH GREAT DISCOUNTS!! I just couldn't put all of them in words. For both of us are not from Penang, we really have no contact for the vendors, but rather we depend on our own surveys and friends' reccommendations. With that, we're really blessed that we could get good offers for almost everything.

I remembered while we were planning for our bridal studio package, I told EG I wanted to have a video on how we took the bridal pics. Due to budget, I had to let my small little dream off. Little do I know, 1 month later our bridal shoot, we won a competition by Whizarts & WeddingStory. We got extra photos and video session - FOR FREE!! What can we complain some more when it's free?! And they were great!

Another recent incident, I was quite stressed up with wine supplier for my wedding. We have been driving pass Roo's Cellar near Crystal Point and
few times it was closed. I was desperate and went to find another wine suppliers - but their price were rather high. One weekend, we went back to Roo's Cellar again, and it was open this time. As usual, the price shocked me. But somehow, we stayed back and learnt a little bit on wine tasting and story on red wine and white wine. And guess what, the sales rep told us later that they're closing down and all their wines are going at 40% off! And the price dropped to EXACTLY what both EG and I had in mind! What if we found our wine suppliers at other places? What if we signed up with them much earlier before December? EG said, "Got so ngam (co-incident) or not? When we go they are having stock clearance!". I said, it's God's blessing. I don't believe there can be so many coincidents throughout our whole wedding preparation.

Other than wedding preparations, other good things that happened in 2007:

• Settled in EPCC as my church
• Had my family trip to China for sight seeing during Chinese New Year and experienced winter with less than 10 degress for the first time
• Travelled to Philippines two times and met a lot of new friends from the other side of the globe
• Travelled to US and visited one of the Wonders of the World & did a lot a lot A LOT of shoppings!
• Won my first lucky draw in my life
• Signed up so many many courses in Jourdeness - without going bankrupt :P
• Bought sofa, air-conditioners, and setup our home for a better place after marriage
• Had my first manicure and pedicure in my life and found out that actually I also can have nice nails...
• Went back Miri two times - with 30 cents ticket for the first trip
• Broke my life record by working in the same company for >2 years!!
• Changed a new phone after 4 years
• Signed up gym @ Priority Fitness
• Completed EPCC pre-marital counselling and nursery duty 1 month before wedding
• Had a great wedding ceremony in Miri

I will be lying if I tell you I have no dream for 2008. In fact, I have so many many dreams - big and small. In 2008, I wish to:

• Have a blessed wedding together with my friends and family in Penang
• Have a wonderful honeymoon in Bali
• Plan for a holiday trip with EG
• Curl my hair again
• To pick up my piano skill again
• Serve in my church - EPCC

I am anxious for the arrival of Year 2008. I want to see God unfolding His blessings for me and see Him making my big dreams as well as my small dreams come true.

Time flies. It's time to bid goodbye to 2007, and say HELLO to 2008!!

For my friends, a very happy 2008 to all of you also. I hope all of us had a great year in 2007 and will have a even greater year in 2008!

Happy new year DUDES!!