Our Animated Journey

June was an intensive lesson in learning to love each other as family. When everyone is at home and we are forced to get along with one another all day every day, things can get very trying. Why isn’t the toddler putting on her shoes after five reminders? Why is the baby throwing his food on the floor instead of eating? Why are breakfast dishes still in the sink at lunch time? And the list of grievances goes on and on until eternity. Yet none of these June days were meaningless. Two trips to the Singapore Zoo. An extended family holiday to Thailand, a very typical Ji-family getaway, full of beach days, coffee stops and local food feasting. A short getaway with Jonathan to Batam for a staff retreat, getting to have extended conversations with old friends undisturbed by the need to rush off somewhere. A farewell for a precious Korean classmate. And finally, a combined church camp across the causeway where we saw true community in action. July is now upon us and school...

Of late, we have been praying this prayer over Nathan daily. It is part of his life verse and also reflects the desire of our heart. This month, we were really confident about the transfer to the cardiologist at Public Healthcare since his specialist told us there has been marked improvement. However, we came out a little frustrated and disappointed. An operation is still pending, a keyhole one to mend the hole because the position of his hole is less than ideal and may cause the adjacent flap to be deformed or collapse in the worst case. The flap cannot be fixed medically as of yet, so it’ll be easier to mend the hole. Here we are, back at the waiting game again. But our hearts are still filled with gratitude because he continues to bring us much joy daily. Cruising, laughing, singing and inhaling his food. We are also grateful that the hole is indeed smaller relative to the heart and does not require open heart surgery. Some Updates: In the months of May and June, w...

We thank you for praying with Nathan ever since the hole in his heart was discovered. We are pleased to share that in the latest check up, it has halved in size and proves to no longer be life-threatening. However, extra fluid continues to cause swelling in his lung, which makes infections harder to clear. As such, we have chosen to remove him from both BSF and Sunday School until he gets older.  Please continue to pray for us to discern what is best for his health. And pray that his sleep pattern will improve along with his eating pattern, which has been relatively poor since hospitalisation last month. This month Mya heard the story of Samuel's call twice. Once in Sunday School and again through BSF, which she attends every Monday. It is so deeply planted in her mind that she randomly declares, 'speak Lord, your servant is listening' out of the blue. Contrary to her biblical outbursts, we have been receiving reports from school about misbehavior. Her...

         In January, when we posted about Mya's hospitalisation and influenza A episode, we mentioned that our faith was being refined. And it continues to be tested this March. Nathan having a prolonged cough that became vomiting, which forced us to bring him to the hospital. How often I found myself thinking - if only my kids were like other kids. Healthy and strong. Good sleepers, good eaters and so on. How annoyed I got by people who kept spamming me bible verses and telling me to keep the faith, as if I had wavered. How discouraged we felt when the doctors said this incident might have put strain of his lungs. How frustrated Jonathan must have felt, when finally, settling into his revision routine, another child comes and turns it all upside down.      But, on the night we were discharged, it was Mya's turn to pray, and here's what she said - "Thank you God for family. Thank you God for bringing Didi home from hospital. Thank you Go...

As we result of the kids being sick so much in January, Jonathan and I find ourselves behind time in just about everything. His readings and assignments, my writing and other work commitments. Thankfully, the Chinese New Year break gave us a slight reprieve and brought the children much joy. Now that March is upon us, we find that we have to up the pace in order to get back on track. But before that, we have much to rejoice together with you. Thanksgiving 1.        Mya has adjusted well to her new school and our generous Father answered her child-like giving her a slide in the new school compound. 2.        Nathan continues to grow well making a smooth transition into solid food. 3.        Amy is looking forward to getting back into the swing of work and ministry. 4.        Jonathan has made considerable progress with Hebrew despite initial worries and con...

Some of you may have heard, some may not know. Since Saturday, nine whole days ago, Mya has been fighting a battle against flu A. To give you a fuller picture - Things started off innocently enough. A mild fever. A slight runny nose and a barely noticeable cough. Sunday went by with all the regular toddler measures. Regular temperature taking, extra hydration and medication. Then Monday came and we realised things were definitely awry. The fever could no longer be controlled by medication but was getting higher by the hour. By dinner time it hit 41.7deg and we were off to the Children's Emergency. There they did also the usual. A blood test. Then a urine test followed by a snot test. With constant monitoring her temperature seemed under control. By Tuesday evening they let us take her home. But despite rest and fluids all Wednesday and Thursday, the temperature soared to 41.4deg again Friday evening. Another trip to Children's Emergency showed us nothing out of the ordi...

For those who recently started following us in 2019, a very warm welcome! Our little family of four are happy you have joined us on Our Animated Journey. Similar to last year, we are committed to writing at least one update a month which may include thanksgiving, prayer items or both. Do note that we are in no way soliciting your gifts or money, but we do highly covet your prayers. December 2018 ended with many wonderful blessings. So much so we were able to host friends and family. Host several giveaways via Amy’s personal Instagram account @jieames as well as have Mya donate her toys and clothing to more needy children. Just as we thought these blessings in kind would plateau as the new year arrived, the Lord blessed us with a HUGE Christmas gift. The back story is that we have been hoping to transfer Mya to a school nearer to our home to facilitate drop offs and pick ups now with Nathan in tow. We love her current school now, but it is not that convenient via public tr...

December means school holidays for Daddy so the children have been enjoying lots more time with Jonathan. Nothing special doing, just unhurried play time, library visits and slow meal times followed by long baths. Whilst everyone rushes overseas for the holidays, we are taking time off for each other this time round. Chilling at the beach, going across the border for some cafe food and reading mountains of books. We forfeited Taiwan this year because we have enough adjustments to make as a family. A new child, a new sibling, a new home arrangement and a busier school schedule. Thanksgiving - Nathan officially cleared from requiring early surgery - Mya completing her N1 year well - Jonathan sermon on God's presence at Frontline Youth - Amy having had pockets of paid work throughout maternity period Prayer Needs Nathan 1. Smooth transition to solid food 2. Continual good health and growth until the next heart review in Feb Mya 1. Smooth transition into N2 2. Co...

A dear sister texted us to ask on the day of Nathan’s heart review, “how? Was there a miracle?” To which our reply was, “yes and a resounding yes.” Like many of you, we were certainly praying for the hole in his heart to close completely. When the symptoms slowly started decreasing in October, we were very optimistic. It must be a miracle we thought. But the heart scan early November showed that the hole was still very much present, except that it had not grown nor decreased in size. Dimensions remained more or less the same as the check up six weeks prior. Nonetheless, we have decided that this is still no less than a miracle. From choking during feeds, struggling to breath normally while lying flat on his back to this chubby, happy baby we see now, we recognise that God’s hand is upon him every single day. Simply because God did not give us complete closure, does not mean what he has done for Nathan is not a miracle. Nathan’s very life is a precious gift and that’s ...

We have finally been receiving small groups of guests since October began! Our biggest group being our cell group made up of mainly couples who are around our age. With a few families who have kids Mya’s age, much to her delight. As we mentioned in September’s post, we have been experiencing how God has thrown open the floodgates of heaven such that we have so much to thank Him for really. This continues to be true even today when an ex-colleague now good friend told me she has heaps of clothing for me. She even assured me she would sort those that are breast-feeding friendly, so I won’t have to buy a thing! This month as well, Mya received the best Children’s day gift in the form of a huge bag of books given by the owner of the @flipforjoybookstore who also happens to be a believer! Brand new Chinese books carefully curated for her, totally appealing to her love for food and nature. It’s amazing how the Lord provides so specifically and so timely. October has been a good...

This month as a family we experienced so tangibly how God threw open the flood gates of heaven and poured out so much blessing that we literally have run out of room for it. Typing this as a thunderstorm rages all around me and baby N sleeps soundly in his cot. This season has been truly a torrent of blessing, let us share how and why.

Dear Prayer Warriors, It is with great joy we announce that our second child has arrived! Nathan was born on the 27th of July, a shy two days after his father turned 33. What a great gift! With very little fanfare, the little man took his own sweet time to arrive in this world. Leaving his parents semi-trapped in the labour ward for more than 20 hours. (We got so impatient by the tenth hour, we told doc to burst the water bag, but our son had his own plans.) Thankfully, active labour was a sprint and pushing ended with a flourish in only eleven minutes. Only family was allowed to visit those 3 days we were in the hospital. But for many of you who sent your love and well wishes, please know that we appreciate you. You may be wondering about the radio silence on our end. And also why we have been turning you away when you offer to babysit, bring meals or visit. In this post, we hope to share the painful reason with you and a sincere request for prayer - Nathan was discovered ...

July is usually the busiest month of our year. A nephew's birthday. Another whole string of birthdays. Our own wedding anniversary. J.G.'s birthday. And this year its threatening to get a whole lot busier with seminary starting for J.G. next week. Plus the impending birth of our second child, thankfully still incubating within me. For how long though, is unsure. Do keep us in your prayers as we begin a real process of juggling. Especially for M who's transiting all at once to a new Sunday School Class, Swimming Class and Big Sister (no classes available). We begin with thanksgiving - 1. Thank God for a great time of memory making in June Lots of committed time to family, pool time, relaxing together. We were very intentional about bringing her out to special places, allowing her to hang out with her friends, our friends and so on. We visited a couple of other churches and managed to gain many wonderful insights, be it from their pulpit, youth ministry or even ...

A big thank you to all who prayed for us while we were off at camp. Spent a couple of days extra in JB just chilling with J's family and that was really a bonus too. We have a bunch of things we want to thank God for this camp especially the huge turnout from our peers. Parents with young children have many reasons (excuses) to miss camp, but we prayed and prayed and saw so many young married couples coming along to family camp with their toddlers in arms, strollers equipped and hearts ready to worship. How blessed we are to be in such a community of dedicated believers! Honestly, we were a little apprehensive about M going off to kids programme as she would be the youngest amidst a sea of eighty over children. But thanks to your prayers she actually looked forward to every session and every dragged me to the class before starting time. Needless to say she had her faithful friend Shiloh with her every step of the way as well. We are so grateful that she can grow up in ...

A short prayer request blurb before we head out to Malaysia this evening. We are off to church camp this weekend until Tuesday along with five hundred odd members from our church. Our Cell Group has a pretty good attendance too, four families in total. We are asking for prayer because we know that God often moves powerfully at camps and we believe this one will be no different. Will you pray along with us that we will - 1. Have the discipline and right posture of heart to seek the Lord 2. Be open to blessing and ministering those around us 3. Intentionally build strong bonds from those of our Cell Group 4. Getting to know new members from our church and forming new friendships For Mya, it will be her very first time at the Children's Programme. She will be the youngest participant as well. Please pray for - 1. Quick adjustment 2. Good health throughout 3. Good friends to watch out for her as she has voiced her anxiety about not knowing the older kids Looking forward ...

Image Source April has been an interesting month thus far. On one hand we are running to the finish of our first year in Seminary, whilst the little baby is going on to the last and final trimester. I (Amy) am now finding it hard to climb flights of stairs without panting and my hips are starting to ache from being too narrow for littlest Ji. Nonetheless, this is a month of God’s unfailing providence and never-ending surprises. Here are the top stories, including a mold spores horror story if you’d like to read on –

Dear Prayer Warriors, Apologies for the lack of a proper update this month. Thankfully, I was reminded while praying for a sister this morning that I haven't given you guys a heads up for the month of March. So here it goes - Since its the last lap of Term Two Semester One for both Jonathan and I, we are pretty busy with our essays. Busy is an understatement. Jonathan spends most nights working till the wee hours of the morning, on days he's too tired, he instead sets his alarm for 3am and works till we get up. I am amazed at his resilience. I just find pockets of time during the day to catch up on various parts of multiple essays I am writing all at the same time. Thankfully, this has worked well for me since I have a very short attention span anyway. I find myself ahead of most of the deadlines and its certainly by the grace of God and your prayers. This month was special because we went to Kuching for a family trip to meet my brother's fiancee's family. It was ...

     First up, a very blessed Lunar New Year to all readers of Our Animated Journey. And thank you for your patience. We have good reason for this delayed update which you will read about very quickly. But I just wanted to say before that, thank you so much for all your love and prayers! We have been receiving your gifts, emails and texts of encouragement, and it fuels us on in this journey. Thank you!                  As the title post reveals, God has decided to change our plans quite significantly this year. Initially, I (Amy) was meant to finish my Theological studies in 2019 and begin part-time work (secular) whilst volunteering in the church Missions department thereafter. However, our gracious Father has decided to give Jonathan and I another child!      We are very grateful that Mya will finally have a sibling. One that she has longed for since she started talking really. We are also...

     This year, to be very honest had been off to a rather weird start. As a family, we took turns to fall sick over the Christmas cum New Year Celebrations. Starting with a huge bout of stomach flu, fevers and the regular incessant cough. That being the backdrop of 2017, we barely realised we were in 2018 when it happened, all of us catching up on our sleep as others took videos of fireworks and clinked champagne glasses at the various countdown events.      Nonetheless, the New Year descended upon us, without our consent. And school begins officially this coming Monday. With our holidays behind us and an immensity of readings ahead, we are once again humbly asking for your thoughts and prayers to accompany us in this new term. THANKSGIVING 1.        Wonderful short beach holiday in Desaru after the exams 2.        Slow-paced, nature-filled Taiwan trip with close friends 3.  ...

October went by like a whirlwind, quite literally, with group projects, individual assignments and the like. Every day was a mad rush, to classes, to group meetings and the top it off with revision that often went past midnight. Yet we have much to be thankful for. School ended off with a wonderful Sports Carnival last week. And we were so grateful to have little Mya join us. The little cheerleader was happily chasing bubbles and running around with the other children on campus. It was a true joy to have her with us.  Despite our busyness and lack of time to meet our Cell Group members individually, we have seen much fruit and are greatly blessed. A couple who had been attending our home church since Easter, were just baptised the week before! We had so much encouragement hearing their testimonies and how God worked in their lives. Another cell member decided to spend their block leave going on a Mission Trip! How wonderful it is to serve alongside like-minded indivi...