I sent my wife to the hospital 45 minutes drive away from our apartment in the morning and we reached there around 12:05 pm.

In the evening she called and asked me to leave the house around 12:30 am to fetch her. My son and I went to sleep around 8 pm. By the time I woke up there was light snow and I  have to scrape the snow from our car as it was parked in open space car park. Due to the delay, I left the house around 1:20 am.

I did not need the GPS as I knew the way there. I took the usual route of Interstate-80 going west and changing to I-55 going south. It was snowing lightly and the ground was wet and slushy. I went at around 55 to 60 mph, dared not to go any faster for fear of the car slipping. Towards the end of the journey on I-55, I exited on the left of the expressway to the next part of the journey. It is actually an odd exit as in this part of the world, we keep right if we are slow.

The trip took to the rural area as there was roughly another 20 miles to go. The road was actually very dark in this part of the trip. No street lamps and I could only see light coming from the reflector at the center of the road. Without the reflectors, I could hardly tell  where is the left boundary on the road. As I peered at the rear view mirror, it was complete darkness. Some of these rural areas are hunting ground and there is the occasional stretch of houses as the car whizzed by. By the time I reached the hospital, it was 2:10 am.

My wife was hungry and we wanted  to buy a burger for her at the McDonald’s in the town center. But it was closed. Anyway, I cooked rice for her at home and she just have to bear with the hunger for a while. We took another route home using the GPS. The trip home was longer and there were a lot of turning here and there. Compared to the usual route that I take, there are more stretches of minor road and less miles on the expressways. Also, most parts of the road were in complete darkness and the driving condition was worst than the route we took to the hospital.  There were parts when we were just following the previous wheel tracks left on the ground amid the dry snow.  It took us 1 hour 15 minutes to get home. All of us were hungry when we reached home and by the time we got to bed, it was 4 am in the morning.

And my son had school in the morning.

Husbands should live with their wives. Simple enough. Taken for granted by most people. I was faced with the idea of living separately with my wife once. That was 2007.

My wife was applying to USA to work as a nurse back then and I was undecided then whether to join her. Back then, there were a lot of uncertainties. Certainly, we did not know whether she could earn enough to support the family if she was working alone and the family joined her. She did not know where she will be dwelling, only told to her that she will be in Chicago. Safety issues plagued my mind also since I know the crime rate would be high in Chicago. The colder weather. The food. Whether I can adapt and get used to taking care of my son. So many things to adjust to should we move there. There’s also the worry about what I can work as after many years of  looking after my son. I was too comfortable in Singapore to want a change.

I needed to seek counsel if I needed to make a decision. I asked my mentor. He said go. I asked some close friends. One of them said I should go if my wife is determined to go. Another said it depends on the situation. I asked a pastor from the Philippines. He shared with me his own family experience whereby his brother had problem with his wife after he worked abroad alone for many years. He said what’s the use of gaining the whole world if one should lose his own soul. Other friends did not give any advice.

At the time that the visa was issued to our family, I was in an job interview which was turning out to be positive. Eventually, I decided not to go further with the interview. I decided to follow my wife to USA. The family should stick together

All the time, I could not find a verse that speaks about my situation. In the absence of that, I relied on Godly counsel from my friends, just go.

On hindsight, here’s the verse that could apply to my situation:

1 Peter 3:7

⁷Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. -kjv

⁷Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. -niv

Both verses point to the same thing: Dwell or live with your wife.

My son stretched both his hands to the sides of his thighs through his pajamas and went further down leaning forward. He fell awkwardly, slamming his front teeth onto the floor and loud cries follow.

I went to look at him, dug out the food that he was eating  from his mouth. He was taking his lunch. Then I took the towel and pad at his front teeth. Blood was flowing profusely at the two front teeth and from the lascerations on his lower lip. I checked his teeth and it seemed that his left front teeth was shaky.  I called my wife to ask her about what to do. She’s trained in health care and she should know better. She told me that as long as the bleeding stops, things will not be so urgent. I was wondering whether to send him to the A&E but things got better and blood is not flowing that much anymore.

It was  near the end of the year and we are switching  from state insurance to private insurance for him. So, I decided to wait for a few more days before we visit the dentist. The incident happened on Wednesday and we waited until the next Monday morning to see the dentist. At least with private insurance, the dentist is more accessible. We were also wondering whether to send him to the primary care doctor to examine his mouth but we decided to send him to the dentist first.

We were worried that there might be some broken teeth stuck in his gums and also about infection. He was in pain. Food has to be sliced into smaller pieces for him to eat. As the days went by, he was crying in pain whenever he took food. Thank God from the X-ray that was taken at the dentist, it showed that there were no broken teeth and that adult teeth was pushing its way out and there was no infection up till then. Thank God for His protection!

Our God is a holy God and hates sin.  He has an absolute and highest standard of holiness that any human attempts to reach it fails. That is because human beings are by nature sinful and can never reach God’s standard of holiness. God hates our sins but loves us as a person. Hence, it is necessary that a christian acknowledges and confesses his/her sins  in Christ name when he/she sin against the Holy one of Israel in thought, speech and action in order to draw closer to God.

The natural reaction to acknowledging and confessing our sins is guilt. If it lingers, it is counter productive to our spiritual growth. We need to be objective and honest to ourselves in order to detect sin in ourselves. But after acknowledging and confessing it, the goodness and grace of God should always come after that to dispel the lingering guilt. The goodness and grace of God displaces the guilt. We can experience the goodness and grace of God only if we put ourselves in Christ’s shoes and feel the pain of the nails that went through his hands and feet. Only when we feel grateful to what Christ did on the cross for us will we understand the length, breadth and depth of God’s love for us and constantly pin our hopes on the goodness and grace of God. And our hopes are not in vain because of the resurrection of Christ where our greatest fears of death are put to rest and we can conquer all circumstances that life throw at us. Where there is no more fear, nothing in this world can shift our loyalty from Christ.

I received a leaflet titled Important Customer Information from our public utility company here. Inside the leaflet are the following statements:

CLAIMS PROCESS FOR CERTAIN POWER INTERRUPTIONS OR FLUCTUATIONS
The illinois Public Utilities Act, Section 16-125(e) and (f), allows customers to receive payment for certain damage resulting from:
- certain continuous power interruptions of four hours or more that affect more than 30,000 customers; and
- certain power surges or other fluctuations that affect more than 30,000 customers.

The company may be exempted from liability for damage when the power interruption, power surge, or other fluctuation is caused by:
- weather events or conditions;
- customer tampering;
- civil or international unrests or animals; or
- an individual who is not a company employee, agent or contractor.

This information is interesting to me. In Singapore, I think the only claim against power surge or interruption happens when you buy an insurance. Not here.

Question:

Luke 3:23-37
excerpt
the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz – niv

Matthew 1: 1-16
excerpt
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, – niv

Both passages are consistent for genealogy before David. Matthew stop at Abraham but Luke went on to Adam. But both passage seems to differ for genealogy after David. There is no mention of Solomon in Luke.

Is there an error here?

Answer from Pastor Brian Ingalls:

There’s a really solid answer for this on the website “gotquestions.org” which makes some good points, like this one:

Some point to these differences as evidence of errors in the Bible. However, the Jews were meticulous record keepers, especially in regard to genealogies. It is inconceivable that Matthew and Luke could build two entirely contradictory genealogies of the same lineage. Again, from David through Jesus, the genealogies are completely different. Even the reference to Shealtiel and Zerubbabel likely refer to different individuals of the same names. Matthew gives Shealtiel’s father as Jeconiah while Luke gives Shealtiel’s father as Neri. It would be normal for a man named Shealtiel to name his son Zerubbabel in light of the famous individuals of those names (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah).

It was probably just a case of Matthew tracing Jesus lineage through Joseph, which would have been the legal, Jewish way of doing things.  Luke on the other hand, probably traced the lineage through Mary which was something the Greeks did occasionally, and more probably because Mary was a real mother, while Joseph (because of the virgin birth) really wasn’t the father.  Both Mary and Joseph were descendants from David, so giving both genealogies was a way to show Jesus’ heritage could not be challenged either way.

Here’s how gotquestions explained it:

…most conservative Bible scholars assume Luke is recording Mary’s genealogy and Matthew is recording Joseph’s. Matthew is following the line of Joseph (Jesus’ legal father), through David’s son Solomon, while Luke is following the line of Mary (Jesus’ blood relative), though David’s son Nathan. There was no Greek word for “son-in-law,” and Joseph would have been considered a son of Heli through marrying Heli’s daughter Mary. Through either line, Jesus is a descendant of David and therefore eligible to be the Messiah. Tracing a genealogy through the mother’s side is unusual, but so was the virgin birth. Luke’s explanation is that Jesus was the son of Joseph, “so it was thought” (Luke 3:23).

My son is 4 years old now. I have been feeding him personally while he is taking lunch and dinner until recently. He is still developing his fine motor skills and I figure we should give him more exercise of his fine motor skills by letting him feed himself. It is a bit late but better late than never.

The problem of letting him eat himself is the worry that he is not eating enough. At least if I feed him, I control how much food he eats. I guess I can half let him eat himself and half feed him. That way he practice his fine motor skills and I can force him to finish his food if there is still some food left.

I also have problem occupying him meaningfully when he is not going to school. He watches TV most of the time, Nickelodeon and cartoon network. Dora Explorer, Diego, Max and Ruby, Ni Hao Kai Lan etc and He loves watching spongebob. Nowadays, when taking his meals, I will switch off the TV so that he concentrates on his meals. My friends, if you are able to engage your preschool kids off TV, let me know how. I learnt about phonics from a Montessori teacher and is teaching him about the sound each letter makes and he manage to read 4 books from the Fitzroy reader series using this phonics method from Montessori.  These I do when he takes break from TV.

Used to be that I have to appeal to his taste when he was younger because if he does not like the food, he does not eat it. Now, I can force him to try new food and he usually listens to me. At least if he likes the food, he will continue to eat it. The important thing is he tries the food.

His usual staple now includes macaroni and cheese, rice with chicken nuggets and fish sticks, rice with scrambled egg, rice with 2 length of sausages, 4 hard-boiled eggs, 2 or 3 pancakes, bread with butter, instant noodles,  subway soups like broccoli with cheddar cheese, dumpling soup, chicken soup etc, hotdog with bread, spaghetti, pizza, rice with roasted chicken, pretzels. I am trying to let him try more food if possible.

It is a God-given responsibility of mine to feed him, clothe him and take good care of him as he is my son. I learnt from a radio broadcast that just as God the father gave man structure to his environment, parents also need to provide structure to their children in their daily routines. I guess that I need to do that and more. Nurturing my son will be my greater responsibility other than the role of a care giver.

Luke 6

niv:

⁴³“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. ⁴⁴Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

kjv:

⁴³For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.⁴⁴For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.⁴⁵A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Meditations:

1) The heart is the place where a person makes decision, a place where a person fuses thoughts with feelings.  Harbouring those thoughts will sow the seeds of  a person’s speech/actions.  Hence,  a person’s speech/actions come from what is in the heart.

 

The Slow Leak:

For the past few weeks, the low tire pressure warning light came on in my 2009 Toyota Corolla for  a couple of times. After I top up the tire pressure, the warning light will come on  after a few days.  A family friend of ours who is a mechanic inspected the tires for us and found that a screw was embedded in our left rear tire. He told us that there is probably a slow leak in tire pressure.  We asked how it can be repaired. He said it could be repaired by a plug or a patch. A plug will take around half an hour and may come off after continuous and constant driving through difficult terrain. We asked for a quote from a repair shop and they quoted us 12 bucks. A patch will take an hour and is more durable. We asked for  a quote from another repair shop and they say it cost 30 bucks. And they say its a plug patch. So, we went for the plug patch. They took off the wheel from the car and removed the tire from the rim. They took out the screw, make a through hole of the puncture, grind the inside, put some glue on it, and apply a circular patch from the inside and seal the puncture.

The recall:

A few weeks back, I read an article that reported that there was a recall on certain 2009-2010 Corolla and Corolla Matrix relating to the brake system vacuum port.

I just received the recall notice on Monday and made an appointment with the nearest Toyota dealer to have it fixed.

The condition: If the vehicle is operated in extremely low temperatures, there is a possibility that condensed moisture from a positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) port may seep into the brake system vacuum port and freeze. The port is located inside the intake manifold and provides vacuum assist for the brakes. Should this condition continue, ice may slowly accumulate at the port and in the worst case, ultimately plug the port. As a result, power assist to the brakes would gradually decrease (eventually to zero), and the increased pedal pressure required could lead to greater vehicle stopping distances, which may increase the risk of a crash. The Toyota dealer will install a newly designed intake air connector which will relocate the brake system vacuum port at no charge to the vehicle owners.

These words were new to me:

Sucker is lollipop.

Flash light refers to torch light.

Gas refers to petrol.

Americans pronounce diaper as di-per.

Experience with american health insurance:

There was a time when my son and I did not have health insurance in the previous year and my son was running a fever. So, I picked up the phone and called a nearby clinic and asked how much would it cost to treat the sickness without health insurance. The answer: one hundred plus dollars. So, we ended up in a will county health department and ended up paying seventy plus dollars for treatment. Eventually, we bought health insurance for my son and I.

Health insurance is a must in US. Just in case when there is an illness or need for hospitalization, we need health insurance so that we don’t have to fork out a huge sum of money upfront. I heard from the news that there are many americans who go bankrupt because of an illness, even for those with health insurance because their illness was not covered in their health insurance.

We pray that God will grant us good health