1 more day...

What a mix of emotions that is flooding my heart! From nerves to excitement to anxiety to joy to eagerness to fear to etc, etc, etc...

We did a rehearsal in church last night. Ben and I blushed and giggled while Pastor Woo led us through our vows. I hope I won't be geeky on that day. Decos will start tonight. A few of my close seminary girlfriends are giving me a bridal shower. But yes, I still have to be at school till lunch time.

BTW, I'll be starting a new blog pretty soon, after I am married. The blog address is yet to be revealed, coz I have not completed the profile part yet. Haha. My sister, Zoey, designed the face of it, so I am very excited to be blogging there - in the coming new chapter/season of my life. I'm not sure if I will be still keeping to Grace Points. What do you think? :)

Packing for my sleepover tomorrow.

2 more days...

...before we make our wedding vows before God and our honored guests.

Honestly, I would take off my hat to any couple who has gone through the major stresses of preparing for their own wedding... and GOSH, wedding coordinators as well. It is really no child's play.

When Dr. Matahari said marriage is one of the top potential sources of psychological stress any person could go through, I laughed and didn't believe him. But I lift my hands in surrender now.

Furthermore, my wedding is supposed to be quite simple and straightforward - I cannot imagine myself in the shoes of those who have to prepare for lavish dinner receptions. I'd have to take a week off before my wedding to relax... or something.

Getting married on the first day of your school holiday was supposed to be cool. But I guess, I conveniently ignored the fact that I'd be stressed out rushing for deadlines at the end of term. Hee hee. Anyway, praise God... that part is over. I've triumphed!:)

Now, I've to figure out how not to look haggard on my big day.

5 more days...

...and our last weekend as singles is truly over.

Just a recap of the weekend:

1. We signed our legal papers
2. Had lunch with Tairven and Wee Lyn
3. Attended our wedding helpers' briefing session
4. I nearly fried my brain working on the 1 Corinthians 8-10 Contextualization Paper (obviously it was much harder than I had expected it to be... =_=)
5. Went to church
6. Received a new 2-seater, black beauty of a sofa into our marriage nest-to-be.
7. Celebrated Mother's Day with Ben's mum

11 more days...

To beginning a new journey....*Gullllp*

I am just back from KL. The amount of anticipation, stress and deadlines is almost unbelievable. In the next 12 days, I will have to finish my 1 Cor contextualization project, prepare for a presentation, prepare for the wedding day and make sure I look good on my wedding day!

Only by the grace of God... I tell ya.

But one great thing out of the challenge - we have come much closer to God again. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him! :) God is for us and with us.

After the weekend (and M.I.A)...

BLOOD TEST RESULTS

Collected my body check-up and blood test results on Saturday. Everything is well, my weight's still perfect (although I know I could tone up a little with strength-training)... but as for my cholesterol levels, they are elevated. *boohoo*

I think it is not my fault. Or my parents' fault. Haha. (Coz none of them have hypercholesterolaemia!) Apparently many people in the seminary have had their cholesterol levels raised too... So perhaps, it's got something to do with the food in the seminary. Or the stress levels we so unitedly face!

Ben's mum immediately started me on a course of fish-oil capsules for the Omega-3, EPA and DHA... On my part, I will perhaps start eating oats religiously... and eat less deep-fried food.

WEDDING PREP

Went to the Bridal Fair at Queensbay Mall over the weekend. We finally signed up for a bridal package after weeks and weeks of research. LOL. Subsequently, Ben and I spent most of Sunday discussing who should we put on the wedding committee. It was quite brain-draining I must say *groan*... more importantly, FUN! *grins* I know I might freak out nearer to the wedding day itself... but at least now, I am still OK. We've got awesome friends involved in our plans... That puts me at ease.

Chilled out with a good swimming session down at the RH pool.

NEW CHALLENGES AHEAD

Firstly - I am about to be a Mandarin-English translator in chapel on Wednesday. Fung Hain and I are going to do a presentation to the school on our Poland M.T. Since our chapel services are bi-lingual, she will be speaking in Mandarin and myself in English. After that, I am giving a testimony of some of my highlights in Poland. I covet your prayers... especially because I am a banana-Chinese (i.e I am yellow on the outside and kinda white on the inside) and there was no time to write out a script because both of us were so overwhelmingly busy -so I'll have to do it spontaneously. @_@'

Secondly, my assignments. Words cannot describe how stressed I am over all of them.

Thirdly, I am going on a new mission from this week onwards. I will be giving English tuition to a Korean girl twice a week... so do keep me in prayers with regards to time management, provisions, language barriers and such.

Lastly, I had a thought over the weekend ~ I don't only want to hear people telling me, "Wow! God loves you so much..." - I want to always experience His love, and therefore say, "WOW!!! God loves me so much", myself. I need to work on my spiritual walk with God more consistently.

The phobia...

Actually... one of my greatest dreads/fears related to getting married...

...jeng, jeng, jeng...

....is the mother-in-law part - thanks to the many TVB dramas I've watched as a kid (as well as the sad stories I've heard from the people around me). Back then, every time I thought about getting married... my heart would sink... coz I could so picture myself playing the part of Cinderella... bullied, pushed around, etc...because I am not a very 'fast' person...

I am your typical melancholic-phlegmatic girl... who moves around very slowly... takes my own sweet time...observes, contemplates, analyses (sometimes over the top), is very concerned about aesthetics, is super emo, is a perfectionist and doesn't deal very well with emergencies or adapt to sudden changes (yeah, balanced combination of my mel- and phleg- characteristics)... I can be expressionless - even though I am being faced with emotionally-challenging situations... (you can ask my sister - she used to complain when we watched funny scenes on movies, "How come, so funny...and your face still so serious???") The truth is, even when I feel extremely tickled inside... sometimes, I am just too lazy to laugh...or my brain forgets to command my facial muscles to lift up the corners of my mouth!!! :P Also, I tend to react slower to jokes... Ben often teases me that I '...laugh one second later'...

Choleric people may get impatient working with me... While, I am better now than before (transformation not completed yet), I've always feared getting on the nerves of a choleric and over-controlling mother-in-law...

Nowadays, I still watch Singaporean mandarin dramas which depict such tension in the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship.

I brought this fear up to some of my seminary friends recently... and they gave me very good and practical advice. However, it was Ee Ling mei-mei, who helped me the most and put my fears at ease - when I met up with her for brunch on Saturday morning...

Her conviction: Godly, Christian mothers-in-law who love Jesus are really different.

My conviction (after reflecting on the godly, Christian women I know... who have daughters-in-law): Ee Ling mei is right!

I also came to see that I've been feeling 'not good enough', because of the too high expectations I put on myself.

Anyway...

I felt very touched today... that even though Ben is away, Ben's parents came to take me out for dinner this evening after 3rd service at church was over. The five of us - Uncle and Aunty Wong, James and Xu Wen (James' beautiful gf) - made an eating trip to Love Lane... Indeed, I felt so loved :)

My point is this...

God has been really good and gracious to first, give me a wonderful husband (of course, not without his imperfections)... and then, give me an amazing mother-in-law (of course the rest of the family too :P) - I can't remember if I ever prayed about the mother-in-law part (I could have, seeing that it was a big "phobia" for me!) - but also perhaps, God already knew that I wouldn't be able to take any bullying and harshness, because I'd cry easily :P and get very disheartened that I might even fail to function in the marriage. Aunty Wong was already amazing even before she invited Jesus into her heart... but now that she's a prayerful woman who loves God, she really is a mother (and housewife) whom I'd emulate... of course, apart from my very own.

I really hope that I'd be a good daughter-in-law someday... :P

Week 1 of my 'engaged' life...

Quite a challenging week I must say...

It happens to be week 1 of school, week 1 of wrestling through my assignments due this few months and week 1 of Ben-in-the-States. I am sure glad that I am still coping OK... even it tends to be a little lonely around the weekends. (I am also not sure how my CG-leading will go this Saturday - coz I am replacing Ben.) I am always excited for our Skype sessions even though the connection in my house is bad half of the time...the speakers sometimes make his voice sound raspy and his breathing sound like Darth Vader from the Star Wars... =S *scary*

We try to limit the phone-calls... because while they are luxurious (and we can talk to one another properly without saying, "Huh? Pardon?" all the time), they cost a bomb. The other day I called him in his hotel room, and we chatted for a good half-an-hour before he went to work. Today, he gave me a pleasant surprise... I received a call from him while I was doing my community duty in school. Short one, but nevertheless precious. I miss you, dear!

Praise God for all joy, grace and strength.

To my lil' sister, thank you, Zoey... for keeping me company (on Skype-chat) sometimes, when I am oh, so lonely. I look forward to our short sisters-trip in August to one 'Enid Blyton' place when I meet you in England!

We've started discussing on wedding preps. Nothing has been firmed down yet... So please do keep us in prayer.

Day 1 of my 'engaged' life...

He flew off to the States! :( ~ I praise God that I came back from KL just in time to personally send him off... We also prayed together before he left.

I'm really gonna miss him...Let's hope these 2 months fly past (for me at least), what with all the intensive studying and assignments galore coming up...

*Boohoohoohoo....*

It's really weird to think that court-ship is over....and that we are progressing further toward marriage...

It's really so weird to think of Ben as my fiancé...

It's really so weird to think of myself as his fiancée... Or rather he called me that today... and I grinned. Lydia says that I only have a year to have this 'status'... so I've gotta treasure its 'glam'. Hehe...

I am also not used to wearing a ring...

I am paiseh to wear it in front of Ben's family, my friends... and I'll be paiseh wearing it to school. I still have a phobia of someone chopping my finger off for the ring... so I try not to wear it to dodgy places. Because I am afraid of losing it (I am absent-minded) and because I truly appreciate all Ben's efforts in looking for a nice ring, selecting it, buying it and presenting it to me as a token of his love, I'd rather wear it on my finger all the time, instead of stowing it away...or just wearing it out to functions... (It reminds me of him too) And since I am now keeping it on my finger - I have scratched myself a few times with it. LOL. I also scratched Ben when he tried to hold my hand today. I just hope that I'll keep from scratching my face in my sleep! ~_~

I need to learn to care for my engagement ring. I am paranoid that I might bump it on something...so hard...that the diamond falls out of its setting. @_@'

Apart from all that, we are as always... Ben and Grace.