Special People, Special Day

I'm so sleepy right now! But just to jot down words of thanks for what has happened thus far for my bday today!

wee hours of the day: chatted with Tere till almost 2am at her house! man i miss late nite chats with girlfriends.. i had a great time. thanks tere, for indulging me.. it's an awesome way to start off my bday

3am: On my bed, i saw an envelope addressed to me. it was from amanda! there was a lovely card with words that meant alot to me.. the sweetest part was three very special words "i love you" at the bottom of the card where she's suppose to sign off (actually she din write her name in the end) made me smile and tear abit it

8.30am:  When i woke up, i found next to my bedside was a red packet and a deck of chocolate bars! the red packet is from my aunt (dad's sister) and the chocolate bars (all sugar free for some reason) were from my maid, cho ma! so sweet!! *tear*

Then when i went out to get breakfast, i realised cho ma had bought me a cake from BreadTalk, specially just for my breakfast on my birthday!! breadtalk cakes are just not cheap, definitely not for her.. so i'm very blessed by her token of affection. I understand now why in the Bible, Jesus commended the widow for giving of her two small copper coins,coz  i can start to feel how much it meant to Him when she gave of it. I felt special because she gave out of what little she had, i'm super grateful!

morning: stayed home and worked on my laptop on project lovebox stuff

afternoon: spent time with JL and howie at this cool cafe in AMK Hub called NEBO! We sat on these REALLY COOL swings that were made of acrylic plastic and concave in shape. THe cool thing is if you lean back inside, when you speak even softly, the other party on the other concave seat can hear you CRYSTAL Clear!! it like a surround ssound system. It's like our childhood game of using a string and 2 plastic cups to play telephone, except this is on a larger scale.

late afternoon: came back to the office and was pleasantly surprised to see a big bouquet of beautiful orchids on my table! very pretty! :)

evening: had a yummy buffet dinner  with my family at this place called Melt, the world cafe at Oriental Hotel. it WAS DELICIOUS! the ambience was FANTASTIC!! I recommend it ANYTIME. it is not as expensive as Ritz Carlton, but the food is much nicer and the ambience much better!

My step mum presented me with a beautiful watch and my brother gave me a pair of earrings from SK Jewellery! Wah.. dun play play ok!! haha.. there were diamonds involved!! of course it's not giant sized diamonds, and thank GOD they weren't coz i think big diamonds are gaudy, but they were beautifully set in the silver earrings.

BUT THE BEST THING WAS at the restaurant.. I BUMPED iNTO my Physics Teacher from VJC that i owed my A in Physics in "A" levels to !! This was the amazing teacher that resurrected my grades because he believed in me and told me so. I was about to drop my Physics at "A"levels coz no matter how hard i studied, i only got an "O'level pass and an "E" for my first year. When i told Mr Lee Siew Lin that i wanted to drop Physics, he asked to look at my other grades (which weren't that great either.. Cs or smthg), he looked at me and he said "you know what, i think you can do it". I remember feeling stunned that my teacher - subject expert, believed that i could actually do it in spite of clear cirumstantial evidence (my terrible Physics grades for the whole of year 1). Well the miracle of it was, without being tested in Year 2, i got an "A" in the end for my physics at the actual "A" levels. Now that's what i call a miracle in the power of words! I never got to thank him coz he'd left VJC until abt 7 years later, i found him on the MOE database and wrote him an email to thank him. and now, 3 more years later, i get to meet him and thank him in person!

So what did i do?? i took a pic with him..!! hahaha! His friends must have tot i was some crazed student fan or smthg.. But i am grateful to him. Even though i never pursued physics (coz it's really not my passion), i will never forget the impact he had on me , on my class. He inspired many of us and made us believe in ourselves that we could do smthg we thought was impossible. I am grateful that he is still teaching Physics at Innova JC! IJC, u are so blessed!! treasure our teacher!! we need more teachers like Mr Lee!!

after dinner: Gary and I went to Campus Crusade Media!! and we went on a book buying craze!!  CCM had a sale of 30% untill midnite so I was very happy buying books :)  I saw this really really cute bob the tomato bible cover!! but then, it's too big for my bible anyway.Just so sad that they weren't selling any veggietales DVD!! :(

home at las: chatted abit with amanda and then i told her "i love you too". It's a breakthrough for me. i don't think i've ever said that to anyone before. i might have said "love you" to pp before or mabbe smsed, mabbe. but not verbally said it to a person face to face. these were the words that  were hardest to come out of my mouth coz it just sounds so .."mushy" and "unreal" especially having come from a chinese, free thinker background . but maybe coz i have finally heard and experienced it enough of it from God to me, that it's no longer "unreal".. so it's not hard to really tell someone now, especially when its true. I wished i got a chance to do that when my mummy was alive.

Hence, ended my really fruitful day i felt, but i m looking forward to a greater year ahead with God. I am so thankful for where He has placed me and all that He has given me.. and of all that He has given me, i am most thankful that He rescued me from myself and sin and gave me freedom!

I am grateful for the new eyes He's given me to see myself and the world, to see the beauty He made. He made me look beautiful and feel beautiful about myself, and in the process see and feel how beautiful the world is, in spite of the pain that daily surrounds us, and having restored me, allows me to be a channel to see the same restored in others. These are gifts that no one can ever purchase or counsel you into having, these are God-given gifts.

I am immensely grateful. For the Christ that has loved me and turned my upside-down life, right side up, and changed my life forever.