one year in Pittsburgh liao...

We haven't been posting much lately. Too much going on...

Anyway, we just realized that we have been in Pgh for exactly one year. One year say long not long, say short not short (说长不长，说短不短). Thank God for His daily presence and blessings. For His faithfulness. For how He has seen us through the last 365 days (+/-).

Looking forward to the next 365 days.

Fourth of July - Independence Day

Fourth of July commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. More info at wiki.

To add some mood into our home, we bought a Pepperridge Farm 3-layer cake that comes in the colors of the US flag - Red, White, and Blue.

Taken from USFlag.org:
"The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice."

Strawberries!

Went strawberry hunting on a really hot Spring/Summer afternoon...

Where are they???


Let's take a closer look...


Daddy, Mummy, look what I found!


Mmm... let's give you a closer look...


Got a few in my basket. I'll go hunt for more...


Our harvest for the day... it's hard work... now we know why they charge us so much for a little bag of strawberries... haa


Can't wait to bring them home to eat them... strawberry smoothie, strawberry jam, strawberries with ice cream...

Horsey...

That's the pony that Charis picked to go for a ride on when we were at the strawberry farm carnival. Isn't he handsome? Make a guess, did she make it???

VBS

So glad that there's a church that takes young preschoolers for Vacation Bible School! Our church caters for children 5 and up... so we drove many miles over 45 minutes to take Charis to a Chinese church for it today. It's all worth it! She gets to learn about God, enjoy an evening of Bible stories and craft, and interact with Chinese boys and girls... all at the same time :)

Totally unrelated, but here's a nice pic of her and her 2 Singaporean friends before they left Pittsburgh to return to Singapore for good. Never saw her play more wildly... got all sweaty and "tomato-faced"... ha...

Facing the Giants

Waiting is such a difficult thing to do... and it's been a lot of what we've been doing the last few months, waiting for the reply from a company to give TK the go-ahead for his research. We've been living on the hope that things will work out so long as the door is not shut. But our human frailties cause us to fret as time inches towards the research paper deadline.

However, we were reminded last night as we watched the movie, Facing the Giants, to put our trust in the Lord who so loves us... all 100% of our trust... that must also be reflected in our actions. Do we prepare our fields for the rain when we pray for rain to water the crops? Do we praise His name in all circumstances, good or bad, because we know that He is in control? When something seems so hard to do, do we remember that with God, all things are possible?

Maybe I'm not speaking for both of us... and I'm glad that TK is more assured of God's hands in all that he's doing and never gave up on it. Today, he finally received an email to tell him that he can start the survey in early July!

Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." One of my favourite verses that has been repeated many times over in our apartment as Steve Green leads the children in singing this memory verse tune. We're so bless to have God pave the way :)

2 visits from home...

LOTS of fun times... and LOTS of photographs!

Thanks, Shawn and Feng Jun, for the fellowship in Him... you've been a blessing to us. This is our only group photo with them...


Here's the link to more photos... hope you have the time to look through all of them ;p