thank you.

=thank you God for these reminders today=

of who you are

perfect, holy, powerful, merciful, just, consistent, loving

of who we are

sinful, helpless, vulnerable, weak

of why we need you

because nothing else will satisfy,

because nothing else brings joy,

because we cannot do this alone.

and praise the Lord.

another sinner is saved by grace!

Instead you ought to say,

"If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

[James 4:15]

my kind of love story...

...is one i'd share with everyone i meet. my kind of love story gives me chills at just the thought of his love. my kind of love story doesn't run my bank account dry. my kind of love story doesn't require me to look a certain way. my kind of love story exists despite my flaws and mistakes. my kind of love story exists because of my flaws and mistakes. my kind of love story does not involve a love that changes overnight. my kind of love story doesn't involve roses, cheesy poems, dinner-and-a-movie, butterflies or shooting stars.

For God so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish

but have eternal life.

[John 3:16]

my kind of love story involves a God who loves unconditionally, selflessly, sacrificially, abundantly. my kind of love story involves a God who doesn't just give gifts on a random day in february. my kind of love story involves one perfect gift of Jesus Christ that's more valuable than anything else. my kind of love story was written even before i was alive. my kind of love story involves the truest of all true loves. my kind of love story has a happy ending because there is no ending. my kind of love story will last forever and ever. my kind of love story is eternal. my kind of love story is perfect. my kind of love story can also be yours.

post-23 on post 203.

in just a couple hours of officially turning the big 23, so much happened to make my little heart so overwhelmed with incredible joy as my crazy crickhollow hall became the center of so many SURPRISES!

once the clock struck midnight, the weekly devotional with the bfriend was interrupted by banging on my door. i slowly opened it, only to see my beloved residents crowded around!!balloons, two giant cakes, ice cream and so many smiling faces!

i told them that i was so thankful and proud to be their RA and that i wasn't so sure if i'd be able to spend my birthday with my own family, but that we were family in itself. thank you rezzies for the awesome surprise!

but that's not where zee surprises ended...
little did i know that another dynamic duo was ready to pounce, equipped with my favorite dessert

sneaky sneaky bfriend successfully distracted me as the duo snuck in.

check out helen's play-by-play account
& the video amy made that documented the whole shabang!
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other birthday festivities:

^ stonefire grill with church fam and cacho^ dinner @ hooters with my foreal family

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and thank you also to those who greeted me with heartwarming texts, emails, messages, phone calls, smoke signals, writing in the sky etc. im so incredibly blessed to have such amazing people in life. beyond that, i give all the praise to God who transformed my foolish heart & mind a couple of years ago and granted me a life worth living and blessed me with people to share it with. now i can attribute such wonderful things to Him, giving the glory where it belongs. it's been a trying year indeed. 20 felt weird, 21 was a little cray cray and 22 felt safe. im not sure what 23 will bring, but it feels good already. my birthday wish? for God to grow and use me to do His work whatever/wherever that may be.

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Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

[Philippians 3:13-16]

* pics from alice kim & helen wong