Life is unpredictable

Yesterday morning, I got the news that one of our friends passed away losing the fight to cancer. My heart was heavy. She's such a lovely wife and a mother of 4 and had been very optimistic and positive about the illness but after all, she had gone home to be with the Lord.

I'm in such a dilemma, should I be happy or sad? Someone might said,"What's wrong with you? How come you be happy?" People who know the Lord will know what I meant. It's just the physical body that's dead, the soul will ascend to heaven where our Father had prepared a place for us! That's the only place where there's no sickness, sadness, worry... only have love, happiness and joy! So why should we be sad if we know that after death, you will be in such a lovely place! Jesus had suffered death for our sins and only through Him, we can be redeemed and saved. And we can be sure where we would be heading after and eternally!

Life's really unpredictable, DH has a old classmate who was diagnosed with last stage cancer when she was getting a pre-martial health check. She didn't have any symptom before and when the news was announced, we were all so shocked. She got married and fought bravely with the illness, however, she had also gone home. We were sad too... she was only 36 and she was so active in children ministry and mission work but I guess she had fulfilled what God has planned for her!

I don't know what will happen tomorrow but I know God has a purpose for all of us in our lives. We should be thankful for who we're and what we've and praising God for His grace and mercies He had given us each day.

Long Weekend...

Labour day falls on a Friday this year. Usually around this time, many ppl will start to travel to enjoy spring. I love springtime... it's getting warmer with the pretty and colourful flowers, it makes me feels happier. Clermont is well-known for it's gloomy weather... skies can be quite grey, so whenever the sun is shinning, I will take opportunties to walk... it's pretty nice!

Talking about travel... we did some travel to Belgium and The Netherland over the long weekend. We drove about 6 to 8 hrs for 3 days visit... it's crazy and tiring but worth the trip. We'd been to The Netherland during the 1st summer here but we didn't manage to visit the Keukenhoff garden (the world most beautiful garden- they claimed it andd I agree too). They are only opened for 2 months annually...what a great blessing to be able to enjoy these!

On the way to Keukenhoff, we drove by Belgium. We decided to visit Bruges and Ghent where many ppl recommended. Indeed, it was beautifully. We took the horse carriage in Bruges and waited 40 mins for the ride. It was a nice experience for Matthew...first time for myself and DH too.

Here are some photos we have taken.... enjoy!

Taken in Bruges and Ghent (Belgium)

Taken at Keukenhoff (Holland)

Easter break...

wow... time really went by so fast.. it's end of April now. We haven't been doing much in the month of April... as DH was in China for 3 weeks and Matthew was on Easter holiday. We did some visit at Annecy, east side of France. It was a pretty town with mountain surrounding a lake. The weather was good and we had a good time. here are some pixs:

Field trip to the pottery workshop

The school had a field trip today. They visited a pottery workshop or rather a museum at the countryside, about 40 mins drive. The teacher and the assistant together with 16 little ones and 5 parents had a fun time at the museum.

The guide explained about the different type of pottery, how they come about, the process of making pottery and some ancient artifacts. All these are done in French. I could understand most of it but those 4 almost 5 years old french kids got plenty of questions for the guide and was talking non-stop. I don't think Matthew can do that...it's pretty interesting.

At the end of the tour, all the children were given a chance to make somethings out of clay... Matthew as usual not into crafts making, simply refuse to do it or perhaps because I was around. He is usually very uncooperative when I'm around which puzzled me!

They did a picnic in school after the trip...(they usually either eat in the canteen or lunch at home)

Here are some picture of the little ones:

8th Wedding Anniversary!

I went for chit-chat group this morning. The topic today was about wedding/marriage. This group of ladies are the mums from Matthew's school with a mixture of mainly French and American with a few others from England, Japan, India, New Zealand and of cos Singapore. I enjoyed this group as they talked about different things/cultures in their countries in French and English. It gives me the opportunity to speak and hear French.

Anyway, back to the topic - wedding. In the group, we shared about the different traditions in the respective countries about how they prepared the wedding, the making of the wedding gown and some brought along their wedding albums. Unlike us, most of them don't have an album like those taken in the studio. They would only have their photos taken on the wedding days itself like in the olden days either in the park, studio or church. I didn't have my album with me but only a few pictures. I love my photos, they looks great and till now... I still have great impression of my big day!

We had just celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary 2 weeks ago at Bordeaux. It seems like we had just gotten married yesterday and now it's into 9th year of marriage. God has been graceful to us. He had great purpose for us in our lives of expatriation ever since we got married. It has been a wonderful experience.

Pictures taken at Bordeaux