Lying Down to Sitting Up

Joram not only can crawl, he is able to sit up from a lying down position, giving him greater mobility. Apart from dealing with safety issues with his newfound abilities, I also have to handle the sudden onset of separation anxiety. This poses many challenges to my homemaking processes. I guess the older children will now have to level up in terms of taking on greater responsibility over their youngest sibling. We are all learning but I believe this is for our growth through the enormous difficulty. 

Glorious Body

I used to tell my friends that having 3 children was just nice for me but having 4 would be a challenge. Apparently, I knew exactly what I was talking about. Pregnancies aside, this year has been the toughest physically in my homemaking journey. I am running a routine that is almost humanly impossible. Joshua and I can really feel our bodies falling apart. 

He has always battled physical ailments such as obesity, IBS and sleep apnea while my body has always been weak against the common flu and cold viruses since young. This year, we have to also battle his worsening eczema throughout his body and my recurring back problems while sustaining a household of 4 young children with little help. Each child has his/her own challenges too. 

This year has been a constant call to God for supernatural strength. I survive each day purely by reciting the mantra that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I would have thrown in the towel if not for the hope that our suffering on earth is only temporal and the crown of glory awaits us. God assures us through His word that there is a purpose for our afflictions. As we watch our bodies deteriorate with age, we can only fix our eyes upon the day we will exchange this rotting body with one that will never experience decay for eternity. 

Many assure us that these days of chronic physical exhaustion of bringing up 4 little kids will soon pass us by. We also try to encourage each other by musing that things will probably be better in two years' time when the youngest will be almost three years of age. Yet, who is to say that there would not be new challenges ahead of us? Wouldn't our bodies face greater degeneration by then? I say, it is foolish to place our hope in this side of heaven. After all, this is not our permanent residence.

Philippians 3:20-21

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."

Starting to Crawl

Joram is very very slowly but surely reaching his next milestone: Crawling. He is later than his siblings to reach his gross motor skills milestones probably because of his size and weight. He is nearly as heavy as his second sister despite being 1.5 years apart! 

This smart little boy knows the difference between the mattress and the floor because he is all ready and eager to go on all fours when I put him on my bed whereas he is extremely cautious while he is on the floor.

I managed to get a clip of the rudimentary beginnings of his crawl by tempting him with my brightly coloured phone. LOL Enjoy!

CNY 2014

Thanks to my youngest cousin, we managed a family picture on the third day of CNY. That was no small feat considering how difficult it was to make sure all the kids looked in the right direction with good expressions. 

This year's CNY has been tremendously difficult. The entire family was down with illness the two weeks previously and we were barely recovering by the eve of Chinese New Year. It coincided too with my monthly agony so I had to endure gnawing gastric pain and severe cramps plus a very bloated stomach throughout all the visitations. I was surprised that no one asked me if I were pregnant with my fifth since my stomach was very distended with gas! 

What was worse is that since my children were all not yet recovered from mucus and phlegm, I was hard pressed to restrict their diet during such a festive season with all those tempting goodies. I bought very expensive Manuka honey sweets for the kids to reduce their feeling of being deprived. I explained very carefully to them why I did not want them to indulge in the snacks while they were nursing their cough. I promised them that I would buy their favorite CNY tidbits after they have all recovered. I brought along lemon and honey to make drinks for them so that they wouldn't need to consume the sweetened packet drinks available everywhere we went.

I must say that I'm enormously proud of them for abiding by my rules despite some relatives being extremely uncooperative and offered them the unhealthy stuff, taunting and tempting them to just ignore what I said. The older two actually replied, "No, thank you." or simply shook their heads. Well done, children!

I'm so grateful for the many friends who prayed for us and I thank God for His miracle of helping us survive all the exertion and traveling despite our physical weaknesses. He is indeed our Sustainer and Strength! Praise the Lord!

My four beautiful children simply looked so adorable in their CNY clothes that I couldn't resist asking them to pose for me whenever I had the chance to. Here are some of my favourite shots. Blessed new year to one and all!!!