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