My sister's keeper

Sara and Brian Fitzgerald's life with their young son and their two-year-old daughter, Kate, is forever altered when they learn that Kate has leukemia. The parents' only hope is to conceive another child, specifically intended to save Kate's life. For some, such genetic engineering would raise both moral and ethical questions; for the Fitzgeralds, Sara in particular, there is no choice but to do whatever it takes to keep Kate alive. And what it takes is Anna. Kate and Anna share a bond closer than most sisters: though Kate is older, she relies on her little sister--in fact, her life depends on Anna. Throughout their young lives, the sisters endure various medical procedures and hospital stays--just another part of their close-knit family's otherwise normal life. Sara, a loving wife and mother who left her career as an attorney to care for her daughter, is sometimes lost inside the single-minded caregiver she has become in her efforts to save Kate. Her strong, supportive husband, Brian, is often rendered powerless and passive by his wife's strength and determination. And their only son, Jesse, drifts, at times all but forgotten as Kate and Anna take center stage. Until Anna, now 11, says "no." Seeking medical emancipation, she hires her own lawyer initiating a court case that divides the family and that could leave Kate's rapidly failing body in the hands of fate. The judgement goes on, and everybody has to take sides one way or another. Later on, the idea about emancipation was not Anna's, in fact it was Kate, the always-sick one, who asked her to put a stop to her endless suffering.

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This is a best, inspirational, touching movie that I would encourage everybody to have a watch. I went for this movie with a girlfriend last night. She read the book before, and we both were so interested on this movie. It made me cried. If you plan to go for this movie, make sure you bring some tissue with you. I can hear everybody sniffing and crying so obviously in the theater.

Here're some sharing.

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Watching this movie inspirated me, made me recalling both of my elder sisters, those sweet and sour memories. Time really flies, I still remember vividly when my eldest sis leave to US for her studies in 1998. It seems like just happened yesterday, and now it is about 12 years old. And that time my second sis was doing her studies in the local Uni, we barely meet each other as she came home once or twice every weekend. It is funny that, I spent 6 years together with my second sis without my eldest sis, and now I spent another 6 years with my eldest sis in the States without my second sis, PRETTY FAIR huh??? =p And now, 3 of us are apart from each other and I do miss them most of the time. Especially my second sis, everytime we chat online, she asked me when do I want to go back, if we are going back this Dec as I promised her before. I pray and hope that we will have the chance to re-union soon! I love you two =)

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Kate, I really think she is a beautiful and brave girl, the main character in the movie made me cry the most, when I see her suffer from the leukemia. And the strong-tight relationship between her and the whole family, how they supportand love each other. I was thinking that, how fragile of our live as a human being. Kate said in the movie, "She is pain, her entire life is a pain". This really made my heart feel so pain. All in all, I learn from this movie, to appreciate every single person and thing in my life. To always appreciate and be thankful for having a healthy body to do many meaningful things.

This is the link for a short review of the movie,

http://www.mysisterskeepermovie.com/
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Go watch this movie, experience it by youself...I hope you enjoy the movie!.

Appreciation-no more complaining

Yesterday, LKM was watching one of his favorite TV series. There's a episode about a group of doctors and people doing the voluntary job in Kenya, Africa- dealing and helping a group of poor africans with epidemic diseases. In this particular episode, an infectious boy died in his dad's arm, nothing much the doctor can do as the kid was already in a very chronic condition. Right before he die, the main female actor managed to took a photo of this father and son, Okana.
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It was a very touching moment. All in the sudden, something pop out from my mind. I told LKM that, "I wonder how many people in this world will never had the chance to even take just one photo of themselve in their whole life???" My thinking, may be it is an infinity figure!
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This give me an opportunity to reflect myself. Most the time I told my friends that life is not easy, life is suffer. But, compare with people in Africa, and many other poor countries, I really think I do not have the right to say the word of suffering. No more complaining or questioning such as the food is tasteless, the bed is not soft enough, why loads of work with such low pay,...why me???...why do I need to overcome all these problems...etc...
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I told myself that-I need to learn again, the true meaning of appreciation, and no more complaining, but sharing! Let's all add oil together!
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Keep Going!

Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall
Product Details
ISBN: 140273607X
ISBN-13: 9781402736070
Format: Hardcover, 144pp
Publisher: Sterling Publishing
Pub. Date: October 2006
Sales Rank: 42,069

Synopsis
From bestselling Native American writer Joseph M. Marshall III (The Lakota Way, The Journey of Crazy Horse) comes an inspirational guide deeply rooted in Lakota spirituality.

Grandfather says this: “In life there is sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing, hunger as well as plenty, bad as well as good. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you…that life is a journey sometimes walked in light and sometimes in shadow.”

Grandfather says this: “Keep going.”When a young man’s father dies, he turns to his sagacious grandfather for comfort. Together they sit underneath the family’s cottonwood tree, and the grandfather shares his perspective on life, the perseverance it requires, and the pleasure and pain of the journey. Filled with dialogue, stories, and recollections, each section focuses on a portion of the prose poem “Keep Going” and provides commentary on the text.

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Hey guys, this is another good book! Recently I have a BIG BIG obsession with reading. YES YES YES i Do!!! I found this great book from Barnes & Noble. Saint Cloud, the place we are staying currently is a small beautiful, peaceful Uni campus town. Meaning, nothing much interesting places or things we can go or do. For this reason, hubby and I used to hang out there, a dating spot in our list. ;p

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To save money, we usually we go there look for good book, then copy down the ISBN and get a cheaper copy from ebay and amazon. I just bought it from ebay last week and it is still on the way to me, can't wait to read it!

I made it!!!!

Given my limited artistic skills, I finally managed to paint the flower pot I mentioned in the previous blog. I spent almost the whole afternoon for the printing. It wasn't the prettiest nor perfect, and my housemate said that combination of the colors seem a bit weird too. But I'm proud of myself that at least I tried, painting doesn't seem to be that hard as I think before. I give myself a B+. ^^

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Today, I was chatting with a friend that I know for more than 20 years. We both shared the life experiences that we had gone through in these years. I thank her for the precious sharing and encouragement.

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Life isn't always a smooth path, but what God wants us to learn from every single moment is the most important. No doubt, action is always harder than saying. But at least we try, we have no regret. Just like what SuPing told me. Life is about learning and trying. Like my little pottery, I will never knew that I can paint if I don't try, right? Now, the original plain ceramic pot has turned to become a colorful painted pottery.

Can you see those little small leaves. It just took 3 days for these baby leaf to "pop-out". I was so happy when seeing this, this is my first time doing the gardening. They do symbolize and carry the special meaning- life is always filled with energy and hopes!

The Last Lecture

Synopsis
The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Size Length: 206 pages
Height: 7.3 in.
Width: 5.5 in.
Thickness: 0.8 in.
Weight: 10.4 oz.
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2325-7

Publisher's Note
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them. And while they speak, audiences can't help but mull the same question: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? If we had to vanish tomorrow, what would we want as our legacy? When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn't have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" wasn't about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because "time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think"). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.

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It has been ages since I last read a book. Recently, I am reading this book that I accidentally found in Barns & Noble. Actually it wasn't accidentally, I purposely looking for book under the Self-Encouragement section. And, I found this!

Although I'm just at the first 20 pages, it make me want to continue to read more. I found this a really inspirational and touching true story book seeing this Professor's optimism and strong wish to share and present his last lecture or speech during his terminal stage of pancreatic cancer. This book reminds me how precious it is to have time, health, and love among people you loved and love you. It is like I am attending the real speech.

Well, if you want to know how the entire story goes, then you will have to get a copy of this book! It is cheaper if you get it from ebay or amazon, I got it 30% off from the Barns & Noble. =)

Busy Week

This is gonna be a busy week for me, things to do:

• planning for someone's secret bday


• updating the business stuffs


• packing to go back to my home sweet home (yes, i can see my ivan...FINALLY =p )

"Love is the flower you've got to let grow."
John Lennon

A Lesson from Crayons

I suddenly recall this in my mind, and I wanted to jot down before I forget. Couple weeks ago I followed LKM for his lion dance performance to an elementary school in our neighborhood. I walked around the school, and I was attracted by a big poster in an art room where they stored the painting tools and student's art work.

It was a big crayon poster with few sentences on it:

There are many colors in a box of crayon, some of them are long, some are short and dull, some are sharp, some are bright, and every crayons has different name. No matter how, these crayons still have to live together.

Did you get the message behind this box of crayon?=)

A yellow sticker on the wall of my room...

When I moved into this new room, I saw a small tiny yellow sticker with few sentences sticked on the wall...it was actually from the previous tenant, which is also my best buddies here...Here's what she wrote:

"Each task makes us become more mature and leads us to know how to appreciate life. Our responsibility not only to our life but also those people we love and loved us."


Thanks, Siew May =)

Footprints

Footprints
One night I had a dream--I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord and across the sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints, one belonged to me and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of my life flashed before me,I looked back at the footprints in the sand.I noticed that many times along the path of my life,there was only one set of footprints.I also noticed that it happened at the very lowestand saddest times in my life. This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,you would walk with me all the way,but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my lifethere is only one set of footprints. "I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,you should leave me." The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,I love you and I would never, never leave youduring your times of trial and suffering. "When you

saw only one set of footprints,it was then that I carried you."

...Mary Stevenson...