Week Beginning 8 September 2008

What’s happening…
Monday, 1st September, was a Labour Day and a national public holiday here. Apart from joining Professor Frendenburg and Professor Doyle at 10 a.m. in briefing the students on the Family Life programme, it was a fairly quiet day. A kind of little pause before the rush of the week.

The semester kicked off with an Opening Ceremony on Tuesday morning, when the university management team, the faculty members, and the students got together. We were introduced to the university community. We recognise this great privilege to be a part of the Family Life Department, and a part of a unique and reputable university.

After the ceremony, we were off to the lectures. It was quite an experience for us. After 26 years of absence from the university life, it was kind of nostalgic to be ‘back to school’. The major difference this time is that we are studying things which we are deeply passionate about. Therefore, we are enjoying every bit of it. Nonetheless, as expected, it is a life of tons of reading and keeping up with assignments.

We were glad to come to the end of the week. Friday night, we all went out to a special dinner, celebrating Jennifer Freudenburg’s birthday. After that, we were joined by Sara (Professor Freudenburg’s younger daughter) and her husband Tom, and their daughter, Markey. Markey is a special girl to all of us. She is just so beautiful.

Early Saturday morning, we left for a small town one hour from Ann Arbor, to an orchard to pick apples with the family of Cori (Professor Freudenburg’s older daughter). She and her husband, Matthew, have three young children (Caleb, Adelaide, and Micah). Again, the children are just so adorable. Caleb, the big brother, is the inquisitive one. Adelaide is shy and gentle, while Micah is very friendly. We enjoyed immensely the time we spent at the orchard and the lunch we had with the Freudenburg family afterwards.

A major part of the Saturday afternoon was spent in preparing the food for the Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. This dinner was organised by the Freudenburgs to give us an opportunity to thank all those who had contributed to arranging for us to study at Concordia University and the furnishing of our campus apartment. We cooked curry chicken, beef satay, and laksa for the guests to try.

Many people came and we had a wonderful time together. Great group of people with the genuine heart for serving others. We are just so thankful to live in the midst of a great university community.

Just Pondering…..
There is a blessing in disguise in this delay of finishing the blog write-up for this week.

I read an incredible piece of news on Tuesday (9 Sept) about how a 3-year old girl, Leona, in U.K. got sucked into a hole in the middle of a puddle of water on a playground and was carried for 230 feet in an underground pipe before she was rescued by her own father. Her father watched her disappear and saw her again at the other end of the pipe.

These are some of the reported remarks of Mum Beverley Baxter.

'She just vanished in front of us, one minute she was there, the next she had vanished.’

'I thought I'd lost her. I thought that was it. I just kept saying to Mark "we've got to get her, we've got to find her".

I reflected on the great anguish of Leona’s parents as they witnessed the stark reality of losing their child. All parents can easily identify with these feelings of loss, though at varying degrees.

I always wonder, as a parent: When did this tremendous love we have for our children begin? Something inside me happened before the arrivals of Nicholas and Douglas. That something, loosely referred to as parental love, causes all parents to give their all for their children, even their very own lives. This is something special, very special. Without that something (love), I don’t think I could do the many things that I did for our two boys. Likewise, for all parents, this special kind of love came from somewhere. It wasn’t there before.

Where does it come from? Here is something to think about for the week ahead!

Word of Wisdom
A quote on parenthood: ‘Parenthood always comes as a shock. Postpartum blues? Postpartum panic is more like it. We set out to have a baby; what we get is a total take-over of our lives.’ Though what Polly Berrien Berends says might sound negative, the reality is that having children is our way of giving a part of our life away, a part that wasn’t there in the first place. It (love) was given to us to give away to a special group of people – our children.

What’s ahead!
The pace of student life is going to pick up during the week ahead. Some assignments are due. We are about to be swamped. But again, we are telling ourselves, ‘This is what a student life is!’. I guess it is for us now…for another 3 months+

A Week In Passing

Acknowledgement…

This blog is updated with the creative input of Miss Trish Wong, an incredibly talented multi-media IT savvy young lady. She may be contacted at (blueshores86@yahoo.com)