THE SIMPLE LIFE

Wow…where to start. This past month has been a whirlwind of events.

Got baptised!
Mom flew in from Beijing and Alex & his parents came down from Waterloo to celebrate with me. Unlike all the baptisms I’ve witnessed in other churches, mine doesn’t require the pastor to do the actual baptism. It’s whoever you’d like. So Liz, Mai, mom & Alex all baptized me. I think Pastor Luke says it best – that baptism is an outward declaration of an inward revelation. It took a while but I’m glad I finally took this step of obedience. There are always more but…one day at a time.

Went to Oklahoma.
Mom & I flew down to Oklahoma to check out their residency program. I really like the small knit community and it’s flexibility to tailor the program to whatever you want. You get a bit of teaching experience, rural optometry, hospital setting and working with the Native population (something I wouldn’t usually get as a Canadian). The down-side is that it’s in a small town of 16,000 people, so the airport is an hour and a half away with only 2 flights to Toronto each day. This makes travelling on weekends more difficult.

Moved to South Dakota.
Yup, I’m officially in 4th year (something I still keep saying wrong) and I’ve started my externships. I’m in Rapid City, a slightly bigger city of 60,000. It’s a perfect little place for retirement. People here are so friendly and EVERYONE drives 5 miles below speed limit (that means 30 miles/hr). Definitely slows things down a bit after living in Chicago for 3 years. Mom and I packed up most of my belongings in the car and took a road trip across the mid-west. It’s quite beautiful here with its rolling hills. I have yet to check out the tourist attractions though. Hopefully I’ll have a chance this summer while still keep my promise to mom about not getting a tan. So glad mom was around to help me get settled - the apartment was all set up and homey by the first night!

8-5 work day.
It’s took a bit of adjusting, to be mentally ‘on’ after being in lectures for so long. I was absolutely exhausted for the first few days. But things are going quite smoothly here. I’ve been getting along w/ my preceptor & the staff. More importantly, I’m getting a good response from my patients. They seem to really appreciate my time & care. The only thing is that I still don’t feel quite confident about my diseases – wish I had opportunities to see more. On the other hand, I’m getting better at contact lens evaluations and starting to know more about different refractive surgeries like LASIK. Guess it’s a give-and-take situation.

I’M ENGAGED!!!
Yup, the last bit of news is that Alex proposed this past weekend. It’s been amazing to see God’s hand in this whole relationship thus far. I wasn’t even suppose to get time off from externship but it ‘just so happened’ that my preceptor and the ophthalmologist he works with were taking the weekend to travel – the only weekend that Alex is finished exams and right before he leaves for Hong Kong. We’ve been talking about getting married in September but I wasn’t expecting him to propose until he got back from Asia in August. (Yeah, I know – that would’ve left only one month to notify everyone…but see, now you know waaay ahead! =P) God also had mom & my Kai Ma with us that weekend to plan the wedding and He’s been so gracious in allowing us to find & book the things we needed on such short notice.

Within 3 days we booked/bought:
-the church
-the reception hall
-the bridal gown
-the shoes
-the decorations/centerpieces
-the flowers/bouquets
-the photographer
-the wedding rings (this one was done prior - at same time as the engagement ring)

We also managed to see some of our own friends too! All in all it was a very efficient and productive weekend. And since neither of us will be back in Canada until August, it is a huge blessing to have fewer details to organize and more time to focus on Him & this upcoming marriage. Like how on earth do I become a Godly wife??? Yikes! Please pray for patience as we learn how to serve one another.
That’s all for now…this update’s done from the airport so I’ll post it when I get back to SD.