New Posts: Daily Blessings - Kk's admission to school

It's been awhile since I posted anything new; I've been working on some things but not quite ready to post however, due to recent events, I wanted to start posting a new section on what God has been doing daily in our lives.  Two main reasons why in doing so: 1.  To give an account of God's goodness and to give Him all the glory, and 2. To show that there is a God and that He does care for His children.

If you would have asked me a year ago about private schools, it would not have been an option for us, mainly for the cost.  But because Mike works for a private school and he is given one tuition free, we thought it be best to send our daughter to his school.  We actually attended an open house a couple of months ago at his school and boy was I impressed.  I wanted to attend school there.  The class sizes are about 15 students per teacher and not only are they exposed to the basic english, math, science courses, pre-K and kindergarten classes have their own computer labs (which would rival a college computer lab), and are taught a different language/culture every year.

So today we turned in her application for admissions and by this afternoon, we received an email that she will have an interview/assessment this Saturday.  The added blessing in this email, we were told that the admission fee was waived.  How gracious is our God!

"We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that He has done" (Psalm 78:4)

Late Post: New Years Eve Chaos

Better late then never; wanted to comment on how Hawaii celebrates New Year's - two words: Organized Chaos.  Yeah, that seems like an oxymoron BUT if you ever witnessed the events that day, you would agree with me.

I have to admit that we were warned but until I saw it with my very own eyes, I was still skeptical.   I should have known when a month earlier, we first had a glimpse of what was to come.  We were sitting at home during the evening when we heard and FELT a big explosion; the shock wave was so powerful that it set off all the car alarms in our neighborhood.  Thinking that it was a bomb or fire explosion, we ran out to our lanai to find out what was going on; we didn't see nothing, we didn't hear fire trucks, we didn't see people running in hysteria - the scene outside was uneventful.  The about a week later, we hear another explosion; by this time, our 4-year-old daughter was not amused - more terrified to be exact.  This one was stronger and actually rattled our windows.  What in the world was going on.  That weekend I mentioned it to a dear sister who's been here for more than a year and she simply explained, "Oh those are fireworks."  WHAT!!  FIREWORKS!!  Needless to say, the whole month of December were filled with surprising, random acts of explosion.

So fast forward to New Years Eve, we woke up in the morning to fire crackers, not as loud as the explosions BUT these lasted a good minute or so.  Nice.  And yes, you guessed it, they lasted all day.  Our plans for the evening was to hang out at the Espiritus; we left our cozy town around 6 pm and made the 20 minute drive to Central Oahu.  That 20 minute drive gave me a glimpse of what it would be like to drive thru a war zone.  This was a whole new experience for us as we are from CA and fireworks have been banned for several years now; but these fireworks were beyond the sparklers and bottle rocks I remember in my youth - we're talking about the big ones launched at an amusement park or sports stadiums - but these ones were launched in random neighborhoods as we made our way to Mililani.  It was definitely a site to see.

As we arrived to the house, I can tell the dads and the kids were ready to launch their own pyrotechnic display of chaos and with no further ado:

Unfortunately I tried to post a video of the chaos but blogspot isn't allowing me to at this moment.

One thing that was different was that we normally watched the countdown to the new year via TV, for example watch the ball being dropped in New York.  This year, we were outside and launched our fireworks at countdown.  Overall this experience has been amazing, crazy, and definitely memorable! Happy New Year (belated!)

Books I'm Currently Enjoying

For the new year, I've picked up two new books and I must say I'm enjoying both of them; at times, I'm torn as to which I want to read.  The first book is called Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney and the second one The Book on Leadership by John MacArthur.

I'm reading Feminine Appeal for our women's bible study at IGC; the first time I read it, I read 3 chapters and would have gone further had I not reminded myself that we're only going to discuss the first chapter in our meeting this month.

The second book, The Book on Leadership, is more for leisure however, it's become more than that.  As I read it for the first time, yesterday, I found myself engulf in the story about Paul and Nehemiah and the qualities they possessed as godly leaders.  I'll elaborate more on these books at a later posting.  If you have a chance and in search of new books to read, I would definitely recommend these two books.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I

Sleep seem to escape me these past few nights and as a result, my mind has been scattered and my heart faint.  I know, in these times, I need to run to the Word of God, less I allow my mind to wonder and set on things that are neither profitable for me nor encouraging.  I suspect several things that have burdened my heart - a husband fighting an infection, a good friend battling with cancer, dear and close friends moving away, not to mention the daily battles of sin and sanctification.  Such things can easily overwhelm me and I MUST, I NEED to cling to "the rock that is higher than I" (and might I add, higher than any situation that may come my way.)

So I run to an ever familiar verse in times such as this:

"Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer.  From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.  For You have been a refuge for me, A tower of strength against the enemy.  Let me dwell in Your tent forever; let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings."  Psalm 61:1-4