Jan 2012
January 19th, 2012 by Doris
Wow, just realized that we haven’t updated our blog since March last year! Well, it has been a very busy year.
Mikayla was born on the 14 April 2011. She weighted 3.56kg and 50cm. It was a long day… but a quote came to my mind, “one day of pain give a new life”. Mikayla is now 9 months old, 8.65kg and 71cm. She is healthy and active. During my pregnancy, I was very strict with my diet i.e. low salt, low sugar, low fat. It is definitely worthwhile when I see her so healthy now! What is more important than having a good health? It is very tiring to look after an active baby but it is also so much fun and joy to watch her movements and expressions. She is so clever that she would fake coughing to get our attention. When she refuses to sleep, she would cry out so loud that I am afraid the neighbour would knock on our door, not because she is noisy but to think that she needs help! After she got our attention, she would immediately turn into an angel with an irresistible smile!
Mikayla likes music. When she hears something that she likes, she moves her hands and shake her head. Doesn’t matter how many times I have seen her shaking her head, it is still very enjoyable! She nodes her head with others, “give me 5″, and instead of clapping her own hands, she holds my hands and clap them for me. When I am just about to explode, she gives me kisses. How cunning is that! Babies have their own mind. What we think was not funny, she laughed out loud, even just with a fake hiccup. She likes being taken up and down the stairs with me following from her back. She likes grasping my glasses and throw them on the floor. She intentionally does that everytime I feed her as I have no hand to stop her. How smart is that!
She started to stand up before she turned 6 months and started to walk with support before 9 months. She enjoys walking with the walker as she has a lot of freedom. She now knows the places well and can turn at tricky corners. It is amazing how well and fast babies can learn. However, Mikayla doesn’t like to be on the tummy. She is getting much better than before now and has been moving out from her play zone. I usually just let her play even though she is complaining as that is how she would crawl. If I go to her, the first thing she does it to grasp my hand and stand up.
Today, I opened the rice cracker packet in front of her, she quickly gave me a very sweet smile. Then, I asked her to pick one rice cracker from the package. She looked at me for a little while then put her hands into the bags. Instead of one, she took two and then gave me a very cunning smile again. I don’t know if she did it on purpose or not but it was very funny. I took one away from her and told her she is only allowed one. I had tried 3 times today and she only picked one for the last time. Let’s keep trying and see 
Update till 12 March 2011
March 13th, 2011 by Doris
Once again we experience God’s faithfulness. Since October last year, we have decided to buy an apartment as 1) we need to move to a bigger and nicer place once the baby is born 2) paying the mortgage interest is less than what we would be paying for the rent and 3) for investment. We saw this place in puidoux and we thought it is quite a nice place to settle down – not too isolated but quiet enough. After some calculation and discussion, we have decided to go ahead.
Since then, our lives have become very busy with many meetings with the architect, contractors, finance adviser, etc as we want to make sure that the apartment will be ready by April 2011. To be honest, it wasn’t an easy process at all! Anyway, everything were finally sorted last week and they have finally started building the interior of the apartment. Can we really get the key on the 31st March?
During this whole process, what we really wanted to share is that God is the one who listen to prayers and how supportive the brothers and sisters were. In order to be able to purchase a property in Switzerland, it is a must to have a B permit as a foreigner (which we have since Nov 2008). Every year, we have to renew this permit and usually it is a straight forward process. However, nearly about a year ago, we submitted for a renewal and don’t know who and how, it was messed up! To cut the long story short, we have been waiting for our new permits to arrive for nearly a year! And of course without this permits in hand, problems come with the apartment (and also other issues with doing things in Switzerland).
A couple of weeks ago, we have received an email from the notary saying that new condition will be added to the contract that if we haven’t received the B permit by xxx, the developer will not able to sell the apartment to us! Devastating! We have paid the deposit, and other charges – quite a lot to loose if this doesn’t go through! We were worried and have sent out an email to pastors, brothers and sisters and close friends asking for their prayers! To cut the long story short again, after 3 days, we have received another email from the notary that he has communicated with the commune and approved that it is just a technical problem from the making of the card and hence omitted the “special condition”. Problem solved! Thank God for answering our prayers!
29 January 2011
January 31st, 2011 by Doris
We rented a car on Saturday as we needed to pick up the pram we ordered a few weeks ago. It was the first time for Leo to drive the left sided car! We were both very nervous about it, haha! We also hire a GPS and without it, we would have been very lost! First we wanted to go to Ikea for lunch (Sweden meat ball) and some shopping. So, we set our destination with the address I copied from Ikea website – it was wrong! Ok, then we tried the train station and it worked. Next question – do you want to avoid toll road? What is it? We understood it as the road where we have to pay fees like in other country… Ok, so no! When we reached Morges, we realized that toll road probably meant motorway! No wonder it was taking much longer than we thought! So, we reset the system and finally got on the motorway and reached our first destination in 10 minutes!
Second destination – Happy Baby in Crissier where we bought the pram. We were lost a little bit even with the GPS …hahha! Ok, picked up the pram and dropped by Media mart nearby, got a few things and drove back to Lausanne. It was an exciting day afterall! hahah
Update 19 January 2011
January 31st, 2011 by Doris
Time sure go by fast especially when we are busy. We are overwhelmed with many things happening in our lives since end of 2010. I am now 28 weeks pregnant and yes with a huge tummy! I am feeling extremely exhausted especially after a full day of work. Being a mum is sure not an easy task but special! The baby is an active one, kicking quite frequently and sometimes so much that I couldn’t rest. However, I noticed that she is usually quiet with music and hence I asked Leo to sing to her before bed time .
We have reserve a terrace since end of last year and since then, we were busy meeting with the architect, contractors, finance adviser, etc. Some of them are not efficient at all (perhaps they are truly busy that things have to be delayed …). We are finally meeting the lawyer next Monday to discuss the notary – time to pay the deposit to secure our new place! We were hoping to get the key on the 1st April but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a delay with how things are progressing … Anyway, I am sure God will prepare the best for us.
B permit – testing our faith and patient! we have submitted our form to renew our permit since April 2010 and still we have not received it! We really need this to sort out many important legal affairs including signing the notary, life insurance, mortgage, baby insurance, etc. The latest news – should receive in 2 weeks!
A few updates
August 21st, 2010 by Doris
Just realized that we haven’t written anything on our blog for a while … We arrived at Lausanne, Switzerland on the 15 November 2008 and here we are on 20 August 2010. How much longer will we stay here? I have no idea – guess we will wait for God’s guidance. How is the life here? It didn’t take us long to settle down although there were many differences between Switzerland and New Zealand. The language was one of the most difficult thing and it is still is. Even though it is enough to go by everyday with our very limited French, it would be essential to pick it up properly if we intend to stay here for long term.
Churches are not well established here and hence lack of church life – no direction, no fellowship, no spiritual growth. First we were committed in a Chinese church – although the cultural background is very different but we believe that as long as we have the same direction with God’s guidance, then there is nothing we cannot do. However, it was extremely disappointed that it turned out we were never been trusted! All that we have done, we focused on God as we know we gathered to serve God not man. We never pointed at anyone with personal feeling but for God’s kingdom. Unfortunately, we were accused of things we didn’t do, abused with things we didn’t say or mean. In this case – why stay and being treated badly? This is the most unhappy thing or the only regret we have in our life since we moved to Switzerland!
We are now attending an international English church which has been great! It is a very special church as there are many nationalities gathered to worship God. The leaders of the church seems to have a good idea of the importance in a church that is God’s teaching, God’s love and God’s fellowship (at least to our seeing). We were attracted by the well organized and relevant sermons by Rev. Ellice Potter and the bible teaching class which is also host by him. We feel that our relationship with God has been closer since we joined this church. May the Lord continue to bless and guide us!
The working environment is obviously different here. For me – there is no one like Richard, my previous mentor and boss. It is comparatively more stressful here due to the nature of my job and my boss’s background. For Leo – the nature of the job is not stressful but he happened to meet the worst boss one could ever have!
However, life is still full of God’s blessing! Leo has recently found a new job at Medtronic – better company, better career, better future and better salary! There will be a few exciting changes in our lives in the near future! – more to share next time. Despite the lonely feeling from missing families and friends back in New Zealand / Australia, we are blessed with a few good friends here in Lausanne.
May the Lord continue to keep us here in Switzerland and bless those we miss back home.