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| today i led worship and held a guitar for the first time in almost a year. what was once a weekly responsibility that i fell into is now something i miss a lot.
i started leading worship by accident back in college. i had learned guitar b/c of some people at fellowship but never took it seriously. in my senior year, the person who was supposed to lead worship left the fellowship and i felt i had to take it over since i had brought that person to fellowship and i didn't want to leave people hanging. so the summer before senior year, i compiled songs and practiced hard. i came to enjoy it and even though i'm not a skilled musician, i had a lot of passion and that's what brought me through each time. i would eventually lead and coordinate worship for retreats.
at vision, i joined the team as a vocalist and enjoyed working the sound board. at a worship committee meeting over 7 years ago, i learned i would be put on the fast track to lead worship at sunday service as several of our worship leaders were going to be leaving for california. i still remember the 1st sunday i led... i totally bombed. i did a lot of things wrong and got a lot of "feedback". it would be like this for many years to come until i met a certain someone who inspired me to improve my guitar skills and musical knowledge. 
i also realized i needed to take voice lessons so i could lead more effectively without worrying if i'd hit the right note. i learned how to use my voice as my main instrument.
then i worked on my guitar playing but would not lead with guitar till much later.
this week, ernie had such a long week that he didn't get a chance to prep for worship. we were on our way home yesterday and i offered to help w/ the set. then i asked if i should just lead and while he cares for the baby during service which is what happened today.
i really enjoyed leading today. i have no idea if people were following or how it went but i enjoyed it and i sang with all my heart to God. i wasn't stressed which i had often felt in the past and i got to play guitar which i couldn't do when i was pregnant. today brought back lots of memories. 
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| ... for 7 days (leaving later this week) got lots of family and friends to see AND it's van van's first plane ride  
let's see how he fares with the plane ride and jetlag | | |
| this coming sunday we're celebrating our church's 10yr anniversary and i was there on day one.
it's been interesting to see the newer peeps gather random trivia from some of the older peeps.
there are so many who've never even stepped foot onto the 2nd fl. fellowship hall @ ocm where this all began.
or knew about that crazy big mixer that we used to roll around and that dusty snake that we had to coil a certain way to get it to fit inside.
or when we used to have chinatown bakery goods for all those congregational meetings rather than dunkin donuts (and at one point, krispy kreme).
or when we had a pastor who didn't have frosted tips.
or when we didn't even have a name.. just the "afternoon service"
or when we had to fold up the chairs (OCM) or stack the chairs (Ceremonial hall) after service
the list goes on and on...
a bunch of us were asked to go through our old photos of vision peeps/events for the anniversary dinner. as i looked back on each one, all these memories came back. i think the hardest for me was seeing the many people who have come and gone through our church.. all for various reasons. in fact, yesterday 2 of them came by for a visit and for a brief moment, it felt like old times. i miss M.Y.'s worship leading with guitar, sometimes piano... all with a heart for God. i miss L.Y's wisdom and leadership. i guess i never told them this while they were here.
i was asked what i'd like to see in 10years for this church. - well, this is what i'd really like to see - the old faces (come back!), the current faces (who we've come to know and love) and new faces who will be used by God to bless this church and bring it through to the next stage.
good times... good times
i never thought i'd commit to anything for this long AND still have a heart to commit for longer
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| fun fun...
on 6/3, Donovan turned 6 months! i can't believe this little guy has been in our lives for half a year! it has been awesome watching him develop. he started out just laying there. now he's on his playmat, grabbing the duck chime and sucking his thumb. we take so much for granted and it's easy to forget that we had to learn how to do all these things.
the rest of the week was filled with wedding related stuff for c-1 and c-2 including a dinner meeting of the parents and the rehearsal dinner. then came friday when the Lai family added to it's number with carol. all the time ernie put into practicing guitar (that bach piece was not easy!) and best man speech paid off. i just hope donovan didn't steal too much of the thunder :)
then came Erniecon 2007 on saturday. we weren't sure how much of a showing we'd get since the wedding was the night before and people were probably tired from all the activity. but non-wedding people were invited to come too. so it was great to see so many people weave in and out of our apartment! several games were going on in each room except the baby room where jeremy and emma took their naps.
these last 6 months have been filled with lots of highs and some lows.
certainly donovan ranks as the highest high and now we can't imagine life without him.
then our move to queens. when people ask why we moved, we say simply to be closer to family. but this family isn't just comprised of Lai's or Wong's but our church family at Vision too.
then there is the low of job loss. when we got the news, we were
shocked. but then we realized the timing was just right in light of
the baby and the move. while we have yet to see this trial come to an end, we are blessed to have caring family and friends who have been so supportive during this time. a friend of ours shared this - that our marriage and faith will grow stronger as a result and i can see this already.
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| when i went to get the boy sunday morning, he greeted me with a mother's day card!! somehow he managed to climb out of his crib, go down to the store and buy a card for me between the time i put him to bed to the time he woke up. how clever!
we had brunch with my family on saturday and then dinner with ernie's family on sunday. the only bummer was that i didn't have the right coupon for a free sundae @ cold stone creamery for mother's day :( but that's ok - the goodies from our church family more than made up for that thanks to the women's and men's gg, sunday school kids and well wishes from others.
here he is doing some tummy time. the outfit he is wearing is a hand me down of a hand me down... we bought it for my niece 3 years ago and then her little brother wore it until he outgrew it and now it's donovan's. even though donovan is older than his cousin by several days, he's a lot smaller cause he was early :) but that's ok - good things come in small packages (and is a lot easier to carry :P)
i can finally understand all the fuss made for mother's day after having carried and given birth to this silly one
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