First Days in SF

Arrived at San Francisco International Airport in Tuesday morning 27th Dec at 10am after an 18 hour flight from Singapore with a 1+ hour stopover in South Korea's Inchon airport where we had a couple of bowls of noodles. It was Nathan's first flight and we are thankful that we managed to get a seat with a bassinet so that we could sleep in it. Matthew's video console didn't work very well on the first leg of the journey to Seoul and had to be rebooted a few times. Still it didn't work well and kept hanging on the games. In the end he gave up and went to sleep.
For Nathan, he wasn't quite used to the flight, but was generally good on the trip. Only when we were landing at Inchon did he cry a lot due to the pain and pressure in the ear that he wasn't used to.
On the second leg from Seoul to SF, the tail winds were very strong, reaching 200 knots or 350 kmh at one point. This made the flight a bit bumpy especially when we passed over 2 storms in the Pacific Ocean. Those storms have now followed us to SF and is raining down hard right now.
I spoke to the leading stewardess and she said that there were 15 babies on this trip but only 8 bassinets, so we are not really thankful. Thankfully, Matthew's video console worked this time and he was able to watch a few shows. Well, the strong tailwind helped us arrive in SF 1hr 20 min ahead of schedule.
When we went through immigration, the officers don't come across too many people with H1B1SG visas, so it took us quite some time to clear. In fact, we were the last ones on the flight to clear. Also, we found out that although the visas were valid for 18 months, we can be admitted for only 1 year at a time, so it looks like we all have to fly back to Singapore before Christmas next year. Now I have to look at saving and raising funds for the trip back. Originally, we didn't plan to go back until April 2007 so hadn't budgeted for that.
We had quite a lot of luggage, 6 checked in and another 3 carry on. So when it came to collecting the luggage and handling 1 boy and 1 infant at the same time, it was very challanging. We finally got a porter to help us in the end for USD30 for all the bags. A bit expensive, but I think it was worth it cos we wouldn't have managed otherwise.
Our friends Phil and Alex from the church came to pick us up in 2 MPVs and Phil brought his 3 daughters who have become good friends with Matthew during our last trip here in August. We went to the church and moved all the stuff to the rooms and then went to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. It was rather cheap according to American standards and quite good. We bought some take aways as well for dinner.
After lunch, we went back to the rooms and then I went with Phil to his house to pick up the cara, a Saturn that he is lending to us until we get our own car. The car is a compact sedan and just barely fits the family inside. Also, it's manual and Li Soon can't really drive it in SF's hills.

After picking up the car, I went back to the rooms and showered and slept as we didn't sleep much on the plane. Had a late dinner and continued to arrange the place and unpack a little.
One of the challenges we faced immediately was taking care of Nathan. He is extremely active and likes to explore everywhere. In Singapore, we had 2 maids to take care of him when we were busy - ours and my aunt's. Also, we had the play-pen to put him into so that he would not get into trouble running and climbing. We didn't have those luxuries here the first few days, and had to spend a lot of energy taking care of him and chasing after him. Unfortunately, being in a new place, he didn't know the dangers around and fell several times, once from the 4ft high end of the bed, thankfully onto a carpeted floor. That really scared him and us.
Also, he started to miss the people at home including the maids, aunty Iris and our parents who came to visit a lot just before we left and developed a bond with him. So Nathan was having difficulty sleeping and kept crying after 1 hours of sleep. He was feeling homesick and insecure due to the change of environment that he didn't understand. I had to carry him for quite some time before he would go to sleep again. Fortunately, he is very close to me, so I was the only one who could calm him down after some effort. The consequence of this was that both Li Soon and I were very tired for the next few days.

Tomorrow's the day

Yup. Finally got to the last day in Singapore before we leave for San Francisco. It's been a week of parties one after another. At home, at relatives' and at my parents last night. We are all pigged out. Our favourite excuse, of course, is that we won't get a chance to eat all the local food for awhile.
Today we are going to do the last minute stuff and try to relax. Most of the bags are packed - finally, and we are going to have a foot and back massage, cut Matthew and my hair, develop some photos and stuff. Tonight is the final party with Li Soon's favourite "kiam chye ah" or salted vegetable duck soup. She says it reminds her of Chinese New Year's - which we will miss without the family.
The reality of our moving has finally hit home. Going to say goodbye to friends, loved ones and familiar places, foods, things to do. Sometimes I have apprehension on why we are doing this, but we have to just trust God to show us. I'm sure He has a lot in store for us.

6 days to go

Can't believe it's less than a week before we leave for San Francisco. It's been an interesting couple of months counting down to the 27th. It's going to be a week of parties! Tonight, we have a party at home for church friends and some family. On Saturday, a party at my parents' and another party on Christmas night.
As the date draws closer, the realisation that the major change in our lives is upon us. We ponder as we move from a large, comfortable 4000 sft home to 2 100sft rooms in SF. From having 2 maids to do everything from taking care of the kids to cooking, cleaning and washing to having to do everything ourselves. It's going to get some getting used to. I think it will be good for us to learn to take care of ourselves.
Last Sunday, I shared with the church about our ministry and they prayed for and commended us into the ministry.
Please click the link to my newsletter on the right for more info about our ministry for the next 1 1/2 years.

I'll be spending the next couple of days sorting out my company accounts before I go. Boring but necessary work.
My key verse
"12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. "
Phil 3: 12-14 (NIV)

Leaving for the US

I guess many of you already know this, but I have been too lazy to officially blog it. Come 27th December 2005, my family will be leaving for San Francisco for 16 months. I will be in full-time media ministry with Cornerstone Evangelical Baptist Church in San Francisco. I will be working on Family Programming for Asian families amongst other tech and music ministries. Matthew will be going to school at Cornerstone Academy and Li Soon will make the challenging transition from IT consultant to a full time mother.
On Wednesday, we shipped off 16 boxes of stuff, about 3 cubic metres worth of clothes, computers, books etc. Now we are living out of the clothes that we will be bringing in 6 suitcases.