Sabbath Day...32nd monthsary

A day of rest and celebration for God's faithfulness throughout the week.

Ben and I had blessed 32nd monthsary. Ben's parents, Ben, James (his bro) and I just returned from an amazing one-day trip to KL yesterday. The occasion? Well... part of our preparations for marriage in exactly 4 months time, Ben's parents who hadn't met my dad before yesterday thought that it would be a good time to introduce themselves to my dad. Dad himself initially thought that he would go up to Penang in February/March to visit my in-laws - but it looks like... Ben's parents beat him to it! LOL.

We drove down to KL armed with a large gift-hamper, which my in-laws had thoughtfully insisted on getting - to bless my dad on their first visit to my home...and a love-gift from the family of the bridegroom to the dad of the bride (Ye-a-ah, it felt a bit weird - that I was visiting my own dad together with my in-laws... you get my drift? This is totally not your typical upacara meminang, whereby the parents of the bridegroom visit the family members of the bride - and discuss wedding plans. This time, the bride is visiting her own father with the parents of the bridegroom! Hehe...) Dad and his two older siblings met us at Gao Ren Guan restaurant in SS15 for lunch. After lunch, we all headed home for the 'discussion' I had much dreaded. Hehe.

Turned out, it wasn't at all dreadful - as I had expected (moral of the story: don't watch too many TVB/Korean/Singaporean dramas or take everything people tell you for granted - and so scare yourself). I had tortured myself all the way back to KL, imagining the worst case scenario - what if: everyone ends up shouting at the top of their voices, arguing about the dowry... then a crazy relative of the bride dislikes the bridegroom, and decides to make things extra difficult for him to marry the bride by demanding a costly dowry... etcetera. Subsequently, what happens if the bridegroom decides that the bride is not worth all that trouble - and changes his mind... Slamming his fist on the table, he says, "Suan le ba..."

Of course, it was my melancholic nature playing up and conveniently allowing my brain to run loose with messed up, bizarre imagination! As you would have probably guessed, I had been pretty stressed out about this trip in the first place.

My relatives and dad were so hospitable to my in-laws and the conversation that took place between both 'parties' so gracious - that I became skeptical myself. LOL.

There was not even a single mention of who-should-pay-for-this-and-that. The parents on both sides just agreed that they would help us as much as they can (if we needed) to get ready for our holy matrimony. And lovingly accept us as part of the family.

Thought that my eyes and ears were playing bad tricks on me.

When we finally left my home and waved goodbye to Dad and my relatives, I let go of the breath I didn't realize that I had been holding. Heaved a sigh of relief... and thanked God profusely from the bottom of my heart for His gift of grace and great faithfulness to Ben and I.

We wound up at IKEA for some furniture-shopping and a sumptuous meal before we drove back to Penang.

Thank you to the few of you (you know who you are!) who have been praying for us and the trip.