Live your love, Love your life

Her name is Jasmine, just like Princess Jasmine from Alladin story. She was born on September 6th, 2007 along with the other 5 brothers and sisters. We adopted her from a family in Marble Falls, about 1.5 hour driving from our house. Our cute Jasmine has very good personalities, and pretty smart too!

On the first night in our house, one of our big dog, Blackdog, tried to attack her. It really shocked and scared her. Our other big dog, Whitedog, was fine with this new addition. Even though she still would not let Jasmine be too close to her. Especially, when Jasmine tries to 'examine' Whitedog's tail. Whitedog will give that weird-never-heard-before-voice. It sounds more like she sucks air in.

Jasmine is now getting along fine with our other dogs. She knows how to use the doggie door within only 1 hour! She learns to poo and pee on the papers in the kitchen. She will scratch our bedroom door if she wants to go poo. Well, sometimes she did have 'pee accidents'. But that is alright. She is just 10 weeks old. She now knows how to sit, off, and fetch. She understands the words, no, no bite, go, give, take. There were times when she got so excited after I came back from work and then she started to jump on me and bit me. She didn't mean it, though.

She loves to play fetch. But, sometimes when she got tired of playing she would not let her toy bone go. She grabbed it in her mouth 'till she fell asleep. You can see this in the pics below (she laid on her favorite pink towel). It was funny!
Everyone, enjoy the pics of Jasmine.

I know it's late to post this story. But, like people says 'better late than never'. First, I really want to thank my best friend Lily Widodo (she's wearing white T-shirt next to me, in the picture bellow), who first introduced me to this "Indonesian Community" in Austin. I also want to thank Fransiskus Sani and Tena which through our chats they keep me updated about events and any info that is going on in this big Indonesian family.

After the first Indonesian Mass I attended last September, Lily and I keep in a good contact. She told me that ICC (Indonesian College Community, is more like Mudika in Indonesia, red.) would like to have rosary prayer every once in a week. First rosary would be at her house. Then Lily called me to see if I would like to have the second rosary in our house. Coincidentally, but I'd prefer to say it's God work, I have a day off of work that weekend. I told Loel and he was happy to hear that.

Few days before October 12, I called Lily to check on how many people we would expect to come. She said it'd probably about 12-20 no more than that. I planned to make huzzaren sallad, nasi goreng (fried rice), samosa (Indian snack), cendol (Indonesian traditional drinks), and lemper. Pretty good.

That Friday morning, Loel and I went shopping for all ingredients. He helped me chopped some veggies and cleaned up the house. I'm so proud of him! First guest to come was Ali. Then Lily and her family. She got lost a bit (thanks for my bad direction!), then called Loel for direction. Sorry Li!

Anyway, total people who came that night (including kids) were 25! Luckily, Inge and other person brought some meals also, even we didn't say it's a potluck meeting. So, everybody had enough to eat. Thank you Lord!
For everyone who could not be there, here are some fotos and love to share.

Hi gals!
Check out this cool website I found the other day. www.freerice.com
You can brainstorm your vocabulary and help end the world hunger. Sounds absurd?
Here is how it works. For every correct answer, you donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nation World Food Program. The more you got correct answer the more rice you donate to help people in hunger.

You may think 10 grains is a piddling amount. But the totals have grown exponentially. On Oct. 7, the day the site launched, 830 grains of rice were donated. Barely a bowlful. As of November 09, '07, the total has grown to 1,072,025,720, approx. 26,800 metric tones.

The site is the brainchild of John Breen, a 50-year-old computer programmer from Bloomington, Ind., who has tackled hunger online before, first with the Hunger Site and, earlier this year, with the launch of Poverty.com, a poverty awareness site that he hopes people will visit to learn about helping to get more funding for international poverty relief.

"I wanted to have something fun to do that wasn't just a waste of time and had some vaguely redeeming value," Breen says with a laugh. He decided on the vocabulary quiz — and entered all 10,000 words and definitions himself — after watching his son preparing for the SAT.

"It's hard to get people to read about hunger and poverty," Breen says. "It's kind of depressing, so I had to think of an entertaining way to draw people in. Hopefully, they'll also click on to Poverty.com and find out what needs to be done."

So? Let's play, have some fun while helping our brothers and sisters in hunger.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
I found this reading online from madonna magazine. Published by Jesuit Orde in Australia (www.madonnamagazine.com.au). I'd like to share with ya'll cuz it gives us strength and hope, to know that when we are living in Him, everything will be fine, nothing will turn bad.

Romans 6:19-23

Paul says that a disciple of Jesus can have no master but God. A Christian is a person who has surrendered to God in Christ, a person who has given complete control of his/her life to Christ, holding nothing back.

Grace is God’s gift. God’s Grace is not an excuse for sin!

The old life was characterized by lawlessness, uncleanness, sin. The new life is characterized by righteousness, by right relationships. New life is a life that gives God God’s proper place and respects the rights of other human persons.

The new life leads to sanctification……it is the road to holiness. A person who has given himself/herself to Christ has begun the process of sanctification, is on the road to holiness, and is on his life-long journey to holiness.

Luke 12:49-53

The Jews waited for the Messiah, conqueror and King. To them, Jesus spoke of the terrible experience he was to go through - the cross was before his eyes. How different this is from the idea of conqueror King! Jesus came not with avenging armies, but giving His life! His coming meant division and it still could mean division because loyalty to Christ has to take precedence over the dearest loyalties of this world.

To choose Christ could mean denial of other things and other loyalties!

Walking Faithfully: "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10).

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Good News Reflection

All things are working for your good

When you walk to your mailbox, into church, through a parking lot, down the street, or anywhere else that your feet take you, what do you usually look at? Are you watching your feet? And the ground go by? Or is your head up? Are you observing how beautiful the clouds look and appreciating the way the tree branches intermingle and raise their leaves toward heaven? Do you watch other people, in admiration of God's handiwork as you recall that he loves them all?

Directing your sight upward is great spiritual exercise. It helps us to understand and live in the truth of today's first reading. As Saint Paul points out, instead of focusing on our weaknesses, instead of noticing how our prayers are NOT being answered, instead of paying attention to our insufficiency and powerlessness when praying for big needs, we should remember the love and power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God partners with us, leads us, and prays with us. In whatever we're lacking, whatever's missing or not yet accomplished, God's Spirit within us can fill up the gaps and provide peace.

Look at that! Look at the goodness of God! Keep your eyes on Jesus!

No matter how bad a trial has been, no matter how destructive it seems, if we give it to Jesus, he redeems it. Redemption means that something bad is converted into something good. Jesus always uses everything for the good of those who love him. We can benefit from even the worst of hardships. The benefit might be more inner strength, or fuller compassion, or special blessings and graces. There is no evil that God cannot or will not defeat by bringing good from it.

There is no victimization without victory if we turn it over to Jesus.

Of course, asking God to redeem a bad situation isn't enough. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus, looking upward to see the good that he raises from the bad. We have to embrace what the Father gives us instead of turning away and pouting, "But that's not what I want! Why won't You give me what I've been praying for? Why won't You do it my way?"

When we have difficulty seeing the good that God is doing in a bad situation, we can pray what the psalmist did in today's responsorial Psalm: "Give light to my eyes... let my heart rejoice in Your salvation; let me sing that the Lord has been good to me."

We experience joy in the midst of suffering when we stop watching the dirty ground beneath us and look up to observe the beauty and the blessings that God has placed around us. This is when we can genuinely proclaim: "All my hope, O Lord, is in Your loving kindness!"