Saturday, December 19, 2020

A Covid Wedding

Mom and CJ got married today. They were married at the Richmond Hill Chapel by Bishop Rod Dyquiangco. According to Covid rules we could have ten people at the wedding - Mom and CJ, Andrew, Ken, Wendy, Kate, Alice, Fiona, Rod, and CJ's friend Han. 

The wedding ceremony was broadcast on zoom. There were a lot of people on the zoom call. Jon and Suzanne were on the zoom call.

Mom and CJ looked really happy. Kate and Alice and Fiona wore flower crowns. Kate and Alice walked in before Mom as I played Love At Home on the piano, Fiona sat beside me at the piano.

Han and I signed the marriage certificate as witnesses.












Friday, December 18, 2020

A Pandemic Romance

Goodness. Where to begin. At the beginning of course.

March - Mom signed up for Match.com, Mom met CJ. Mom started talking to CJ every single day.

April - right before or after Mom's birthday she told me that she had met a new friend online. Changjung Kwon - CJ for short. She was hoping to meet him soon. (Sting #1 - she wouldn't meet up with us but she was excited to meet her new friend aka complete stranger met on the internet.)

April - It seemed CJ was married. Then Mom emailed and said, no he isn't married. He's divorced, it was a bad marriage, he doesn't want to marry again.

April - Mom and CJ are talking every day. Meeting up frequently and going for walks by the lake. Mom sends me an email with pics of her "Prince Charming".



April - the story is muddy. He's divorced, he doesn't know where his ex-wife is, hasn't talked to her for a long time. Then he isn't divorced. He doesn't want to divorce. Divorce is shameful in Korea - where his wife and children live. 

April - a lot of back and forth mostly about you can't have a relationship with a married man and what are you doing mom, and mom saying it's fine, it's fine.

May - CJ goes to Korea to seek a divorce from his wife. He stays in quarantine for two weeks when he first arrives. Mom and CJ talk through Facebook messenger every day. CJ wakes up at 3 a.m. to talk to Mom. CJ is supposed to be gone for three months. Mom says that his wife has agreed to get divorced.

May/June - CJ's wife won't agree to get a divorce. CJ is still a married man. I feel like it is time for Mom to cut her losses. This isn't going anywhere, but Mom will not abandon her friend. 

June - Mom comes to visit for Fiona's birthday. It's the first time she's come in the house in two months. She's sad, she's lonely, I tell her she needs to spend more time with her grandchildren. She agrees. 

July - CJ comes back from Korea on July 13th - has to quarantine for 14 days. He comes home without a divorce. He plans to seek a divorce in Toronto. I am baffled by the whole thing.

July - we see Mom. The girls have an overnight. Mom is still talking to CJ, her friend, saying that if he gets a divorce she wants to get to know him better.

August - End of August CJ flies back to Korea. This time his wife has agreed to a divorce. He plans to stay for three months. He moves stuff into my Mom's place before he leaves. They plan to get married when he comes back with his divorce finalized.

September - Mom misses CJ lots. She does start to look into a prenuptial agreement. I message CJ on messenger on Facebook. He seems nice in his messages.

October - Trunk or Treat at our ward chapel we meet CJ. His divorce is almost final in Korea. The paperwork needs to be filed in Canada. He takes lots of pics with his selfie stick.

November - Paperwork is filed in Canada. We have a Google Meet as a family. 

December 19 - Mom and CJ get married

I'm still not exactly sure what to think about the whole thing. There are more details, more hurts and stings, and miss-communications and not communications. I've pondered quite a lot and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel. I'm glad that my Mom isn't sad. But that's about it. I'm not excited about this new member of our family. I'm not. It's made me miss my Dad. (I should do art therapy like Alice) Mom has told me that when my Grandma (my Dad's Mom) eloped and got remarried after Dad's Dad died, her kids were not happy about it. I know it's normal to feel how I feel, I just don't like it. 

I'll probably need to force myself to get over it at some point. I did fast at the beginning of December for peace, and that was good. I did feel peace. I should do that again. Or something. Eventually.


Thursday, December 17, 2020

The Book of Mormon

This year we studied the Book of Mormon in the Come Follow Me manual at church and at home. The grown-ups and the primary children's lessons were all based on the teachings and readings from the Book of Mormon. We decided that we wanted to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover as a family this year. If we followed the readings as outlined in the manual we would finish this year. 

Tonight we read the last 19 verses in Moroni chapter 10. We all took a turn and read a few verses. I'm so grateful for this experience. There were many times that the readings were long and difficult to understand. There were many times the children complained bitterly. But tonight as we finished reading, the girls all felt proud of our accomplishment. We set a goal and we reached it. It felt really good.

I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon, and I hope as the girls grow older they will continue to read it, and learn about their Savior Jesus Christ, and that they will ultimately want to be more like Him.

Sunday, December 06, 2020

Fiona's Half-Birthday

 I remember reading somewhere once that someone's Mom found any excuse to celebrate. I don't think that's exactly me, but I love a silly excuse to celebrate life with my kids!

It was Fiona's half birthday today, and her awesome Daddy made cake mix cupcakes with her, and he even made pink buttercream icing. Fiona has matured so much in the last six months. Her reading continues to improve. She loves her sisters fiercely. She loves to play. She loves to help. We love our seven and a half year old Fiona!



Monday, November 30, 2020

Andrew's Birthday

The rules right now... only see people you live with. I don't like this, no one does. I'm not sure who follows this rule perfectly. Andrew came over for a birthday dinner. We had fun with him! The girls love him so much. 






Saturday, November 28, 2020

Santa

I had assumed that I would not get a Santa picture this year. I had made my peace with that. But then someone on Facebook posted that there were Santa pics happening at the mall! I was so excited! I made an appointment and away we went!


I thought the photographer was so great! She had them do all these cute poses. The girls wore masks, Santa wore a mask. There was plexi-glass. One family at a time near Santa, and one family at a time waiting in the store front six feet apart. It was really well run and super cute! It's fun to get something back right now, when there are so many things that have been taken.





The mall was pretty empty. We went to a couple of other stores. The girls all picked out Christmas presents at Mastermind and Claire's and Alice picked out a little something at the Harry Potter store. It might not be very magical to pick out your own gifts... but goodness that's what I like! I wonder what the girls will think as they get older! 


Thursday, November 26, 2020

A Major Award

Ken was chosen to be Toast Master of the Year for his club. The president and two other members of the club came by and gave him the plaque. It was cool. The girls thought it was cool. They were so proud of him. I think Ken was proud too.

He has done a lot for his club. He has grown so much as a person too. Toast Master's really plays an important role in his life. I'm so glad he joined up!




Saturday, November 07, 2020

Conference Thoughts - October 2020

Russell M. Nelson

·         Use this unique time to grow spiritually

·         Feel the Lord’s perfect love for you

·         Create places of security

·         Prepare your mind to be faithful to God

·         Our spiritual foundations must be solid

·         Never stop preparing

·         Let God Prevail – a definition of Israel

·         The Lord is gathering those who choose Him

·         Expand our perspective – see the eternal

·         God does not love one race more than another, favour with God depends on your devotion – lead out in abandoning prejudice

·         STUDY – make a list of the promises that the Lord has promised covenant Israel

·         The Lord wants you to feel optimism

·         Blessings waiting for us: peace, courage, revelation, harmony, joy

 

David A. Bednar

·         Preparation

 

Scott D. Whiting

·         What attribute of Christ am I in need of?

 

Michelle D. Craig

·         We need to get better at seeing each other deeply

·         What am I doing that I should stop doing?

·         What am I not doing that I should start doing?

 

Quentin L. Cook

·         Strive to be a Zion people, united, righteous

 

Ronald A. Rasband

·         “I want to go recommended to the Lord”

 

Dallin H. Oaks

·         Jesus – love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them

·         Do not contend with anger

 

D. Todd Christofferson

·         If enough of us strive to make our lives guided by the truth of God, virtues would abound

 

Steven J. Lund

·         Helping Jesus – become like Jesus – serve

 

Gerrit W. Gong

·         Change the world from the inside out one person at a time

 

W. Christopher Waddell

·         Principles of preparation should be applied in wisdom and order

·         Take action – faith leads to action

 

Matthew S. Holland

·         We cannot become like God without suffering

·         Don’t listen to the adversary – that your trials are your fault

 

William K. Jackson

·         No us and them – we are all them, we are all us

·         Bring our faith, talents, all that is good in our culture with us

 

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

·         We will move forward and we will be better

·         This is God’s work, he holds us in his caring hands

 

Sharon Eubank

·         By union of feeling we obtain power of God

·         Let’s keep each other’s names safe and give each other mercy

·         Clear away the bad as fast as the good can grow

·         We’re never alone when we’re working for unity

·         Not just classes – be part of a collective force that changes the world for good

 

Rebecca M. Craven

·         We can give him change – a change of heart, not a change for His benefit, but for our benefit

·         Because of Christ we can change, and keep the change

 

Christina B. Franco

·         Our brokenness can be healed

·         Through our Savior we can all be healed and mended

 

Henry B. Eyring

·         We will be at the heart – an essential force in creating a Zion people

·         If you live up to your potential the angels cannot be restrained from being your companions

·         The Lord will help you as you help others

 

Dallin H. Oaks

·         The Lord is all powerful, trust Him

·         All tribulations are temporary

 

M. Russell Ballard

·         I plead with you to pray for this country

·         Pray for your enemies, God can change our hearts

·         Prayer will end this pandemic – PRAY

·         The Savior prayed then He went about doing good

 

Lisa L. Harkness

·         Why are ye so fearful, where is your faith?

·         How does Jesus help you?

·         May we trust Him

·         Peace, be still

 

Ulisses Soares

·         As we rely on the Savior our ability to control our thoughts will increase

 

Carlos A. Godoy

·         The Lord is always looking for people willing to be angels in the lives of others

 

Neil L. Andersen

·         A season of physical distancing, but we never have to experience a season of spiritual distancing

·         Focus on Christ

·         As the world talks less about Jesus, we need to talk more about Him

 

Henry B. Erying

·         To choose the right when it is hard

·         Bear burdens with steady faith as the Lord polishes you

 

Jeremy R. Jaggi

·         Count it all joy

·         Where we make covenants – the temple – is temporarily closed, but where we keep covenants – the home – is open

 

Gary E. Stevenson

·         A time of loss – loss of loved ones, so much disappointment and discouragement

·         Joseph Smith: “Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy… Shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, …and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing.”

 

Milton da Rocha

·         Pray about your concerns, listen, then write, revelation is essential to our spiritual survival – recording is an important part of receiving

 

Dale G. Renlund

·         To be Christlike, do justly, not judgmental, live peaceably

 

Jeffrey R. Holland

·         Faith means trusting God in good times and bad

·         One’s life cannot be faith filled and stress free