HE grants us the desires of our hearts.

There's no school for the kids today. Gugu Carole took leave to bring the kids to IMM for lunch and shopping with mahmah (my mother-in-law) and yipor (my mother-in-law's sister).

The kids were excited.




Here they are. All ready for the outing. As usual, Sophia is happy to pose for the camera. Ranen, er, .....




And Ranen came back with ..........






..... his big pink(his favourite colour) octopus. God has granted him the desires of his heart. He came to the kitchen with his octopus when I was preparing dinner and told me: mummy, I love my octopus. :-D




Even as I am typing this - he is fast asleep with his octopus.






Here's Sophia with some of her loot from IMM. :-D




As the saying goes - it takes a village to raise a child. I know that there's been many "dings-dongs" about this saying. I never read the book but what I want to say here is - it takes more than just the immediate family to raise the children.

We may not have a whole village but we will need at least the immediate family and the extended family.

Ranen and Sophia are very blessed. They have got their grandparents, gugu(s), yipor, ahgu (my brother), yiyi (my sister) and uncle Robin (my brother-in-law). Talking about my brother in law, for a while Ranen was trying to figure out how is Robin related to him. He asked me a few times with this puzzled look on his face.

R: uncle Robin is my uncle right?

Z: Yes, uncle Robin is yiyi's husband so he is your uncle.

R: yiyi and uncle Robin are married right?

Z: yes. :-D




That's uncle Robin. (",)

Anyway,.... Daniel and I can never do it on our own. Ranen & Sophia learn many many things from all of them that Daniel and myself can never impart to them. Precious stuff, life skills, .... about other family members' perspective but more importantly, they learn acceptance. They learn to accept the difference in the different family members and how to live with it. Something money cant buy, institution cant teach.

I am a dinosaur who believe in bringing up my own children together with the input of the extended family. I am most thankful to have all of them who love the kids so much in their own special way. They are my village and together we will raise the children. Praise the Lord!!



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