Happy New Year everyone! I couldn't resist doing another new year's party since leaving GGCC. I think I was having NYEE withdrawl symptoms. Anyway, this one was much less stressful and super fun! We decided to charge people for tickets. I also did not want to do the whole 3-hour performance deal like the old days so we had ballroom dancing/instruction and Karaoke which was a hit.  

We also have a bomb photographer at our church who brought his professional backdrops and took formal pics of everyone! Too bad I look really stressed out in all the pics of David and myself  so I won't showcase those. However, I do like this one picture of two of our young adult guys (the one on the right is single by the way).

So here's our latest ultrasound. You can kind of see how she's going to look. Look closely at her lips!! Definitely from David. It's pretty amazing to be able to see an unborn baby and hear its heartbeat. I never quite understood when people said that having a baby is like witnessing a miracle. Now I am starting to understand. 

I can feel her kicking or moving or whatever; she is quite active, actually. It feels like little bubbles popping in my stomach. I'm sure in a few months it won't feel like bubbles anymore.

David is away at a AACF San Diego retreat this weekend. I would have gone if I wasn't sick when they invited him, but now I'm kind of glad because he said the plane ride was so turbulent he almost threw up. Although it would have been nice to get out of the rain. Our area had 5 inches of rain today (compared w/the rest of the bay area and San Jose which was only 2-3 inches)! I wish I had a picture of our back yard, it's pretty flooded.

Weekend to Remember

So David and I, along w/some other other couples from our church, attended the Family Life Weekend to Remember Marriage conference in Monterey this past weekend. I had been hearing about it on KFAX for a while and was further inspired by their brochure (above, left) which shows an Asian couple looking happy on the beach. I thought, "that could be David and I," after this conference.

Well not quite, but at least David managed to get me on his back. I'm not so light these days.

So the conference was good, well-organized and professional. The best part of the conference was when she had us split into women's and men's groups. I have to admit, it was pretty conservative (sponsored by Dennis Rainey of Campus Crusade), which I like, but it did bring up a lot of questions for me.

For one thing, it is very pro-take care of your husband and kids first. Basically, a woman's role, as God's design, is to be a "helper" for your husband,  and "caretaker"--for her children. Work/career should always come second, either as a dire necessity or if you don't have kids.

I'm not sure if I will be able to stay sane if I was at home all day with just me and my kid.

Anyway, my mom says i should take care of it myself, at least for the first 2 years, which is funny because she never gives me advice. The last piece of advice she gave me was when i asked her if she wanted me to get married, to which she replied, "everyone should try it at least once." My mom is so wise. Other people have also told me that once you have a kid, nothing else matters. So I'm just waiting.

All this to say, this conference gave me a lot to think about. I want to be open either way, but first and foremost, obedient to what God wants me to do and not let my own agendas and desires cloud my judgement. I am a security-freak and naturally feel that if one can work and make money, they should. So this is a step of faith, that if God wants me at home, He will provide. And if not, He will provide a good babysitter. :)

Vacationing to the farmlands and other news

 Got back from vacation a little over a week ago. David and I went to Connecticut to visit the family who sponsored David's family from Vietnam. He had kept in touch with them over the years and was wanting to visit them since they were getting older. He said I would like them because they're really "godly." It was different for me to be visiting a farm area rather than a city and stay with 60-something year olds that I never met before. But it was a really good time.

First of all, they don't lock their doors at night "in case needy people need a place to stay." They have so many different people stay with them, batterered wives, drug addicts trying to get off drugs, thug kids trying to get their lives back together. When we went grocery shopping, they knew every gangster looking person (and adult) and most of them lived w/the Bartons at one time or another and their demeanor would change from total thug to respectful church member when they saw the Bartons . Every Sunday, they pick up kids from the projects and bring them to church and then to their house for lunch. Sometimes there are 70-80 kids.

Needless to say, I was pretty scared at first knowing that these people knew that the doors were unlocked and David and I were staying there for the week, but i figure if they've been living there for 60-something years with their doors unlocked then i shouldn't be scared. They have 3 kids, 2 who are doctors and one who is an engineer. They don't even talk about their kids being MD's, they don't even care, they just are happy that they know the Lord.

Anyway, it was fun, we spent a lot of time with them since I was sick. David and I picked their brains,joked around with them,  talked about the Lord a lot, and really living out ones faith. They live on a farm so David and I did a lot of food picking and preparing of veggies and fruits and we hung out w/the kids from the projects who came over. We went to some national parks and did some shopping but it was just good to be spiritually refreshed, which I was not expecting.

Speaking of expecting. . .

This is what David and I are expecting in about 6 months!

I found out about 4 weeks into pregnancy by doing a chance test. I was so surprised when I saw the two lines that I took 4 more tests and then 2 more the next morning. When I told David we just hugged each other and laughed like we didn't know what to do, we were so surprised and happy. We had only been officially trying for about 1 month so we were not expecting it at all. In fact, I had been eating a lot of sushi and doing a buch of long-distance running (both are no-no's) as well as drinking a lot of caffeinated teas.

I was expecting to work all the way until I popped, but God has His ways and I was not able to handle it. So David and I (along with my doctor) made the hard decision for me to cut back on my work hours. In my job, there's no such thing as resting so I would not be able to take care of myself. So I've been working only part time if that (more like 5-10 hours a week) doing administrative stuff at the office, training new social workers, and doing one on one therapy with a few clients

I still feel nauseated all day. So I've lost some weight, and look skinnier than i did pre-pregnancy.  my doctor is concerned again but I promised him I didn't need to go on bedrest, that I would just force myself to eat. For once in my life, I can eat as much as I want, and for once in my life, I hate eating. Life is so cruel. ;)

My lifestyle has changed a lot.  I went from running regularly, lots of sushi, late nights with the church and friends, long work hours with intense drug addict girls--now I'm pretty much resting a lot, eating lots of crackers, drinking water, taking 5 different vitamins, reading and writing a lot, I'm also doing a lot more praying and reading the Bible. It's been a sweet time with the Lord even though it's been hard as well.

We're excited about the baby and I cry whenever I see a new ultrasound. the other day, we saw it swimming in my belly. people said it's going to be like David. I am just praying that it's healthy.

so it's been cool reconnecting with my old sf friends lately. viola stayed two nights at our chaotic home (we're remodeling and theres stuff everywhere) and  i took her to Gilroy one day. i forgot how much endurance i have with shopping, and how viola spurs me on. david is usually done/tired in one hour, two at the most. vi and i were going on 5 hours and we could have gone further, it was such a weird feeling and good feeling to shop with someone who was as passionate as i was. i ended up buying all gifts for people--2 baby showers,a wedding, and a birthday.

it's so weird to reflect back on our lives since we met when we were 14. so much has changed and yet i don't really feel that different. we were reminiscing about the days where we both worked at mc donald's and were dating guys whose names were pretty hard to pronounce e.g. hung, chhay, hieu, etc. and now look at me, i'm living in ultimate suburbia, driving a suburbia car, talking about kids and kitchens and taxes, 401K's. 403 Bs, 1031's. etc. sometimes it feels fun but sometimes it feels scary, too.

i guess in the end it's all about trusting God, that He knows the future, that His plan is the best, and that His desire is for us to rest in His good and perfect plan.