A prayer of thanks

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the last 365 days of my life. Exactly a year ago at this time, I was waiting in the hospital for my operation to begin. I was excited to see the two little precious princesses who were squirming in my belly. A year has passed and my little girls are now nearly walking and talking. They are getting so smart, so playful. They love to eat, play, and go on outings. It's incredible how You have blessed me. Before this one year, I would never have thought this life was possible, it had existed merely as a hazy dream that I could see but not touch.

Thank you so much for giving me this year. It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions and experiences, and will definitely continue to do so. But I am happy, and grateful.

In Your holy name.

Amen.

One year!

It's incredible that I have not put in a blog entry in the last 6 months! I have been mighty busy with work and the babies. Sometime after the 6-month mark, they became super demanding, usurping all my time. I could not step away from them without them screaming and crying like the world's gonna end. They had their toys and each other, but it seemed like an adult had to be around to make them feel safe and secure.

In any case, here I am now, hoping to pen my thoughts down. The kids are asleep, mostly through the night, lucky us(!), and I shall spare a few moments to share my experience of crossing the one year mark.


First off, I must remark it has indeed been very fast. In the beginning when the babies just slept, drank milk and pooped all day, I felt tired and bored and time seemed to go very slow. I never believed, or dared to imagine, when some other parent told me how time goes faster with kids. And then when they started trying to talk, and crawl, and walk, and eat solids, etc, the days just whizzed by at breakneck speed. At one moment, I was looking forward to Christmas, or Chinese New Year, or their first holiday... the next moment, their first birthday party is over already. The girls had a swell time I think. I did, though I wished I had more time to chat with anyone for more than 2 minutes! Amelie didn't even want to sleep and had to be coaxed to after 2 hours of playing. Astelle took a 30 minute snooze and got up to say hello to the many guests, and meet the other little babies her age.

Also, babies learn very fast and soak up information like a sponge. It was interesting to see that you just needed to tell them certain things a few times and they'd get it. For example, they clipped their fingers on the drawers a few times and after that, learned to be cautious. They also learned words of their favourite toys like ball or bear pretty fast. However, it does not work when you scold them many times over and over again, not to touch the fan or play with electrical sockets. Arghh!


It's been an amazing journey this past one year. I recently visited a friend who just gave birth, and her baby seemed so small and fragile. It made me think back to the year before when my babies came out all skinny and shrivelled, small but precious. They could only lie down and not do anything, and couldn't use their hands to pick up things. *Sigh* time flies indeed... very soon, they will be 21 and graduating from school...