28 great moments

i went out for dinner for my birthday a few weeks ago with chris, jeehon, james, and our wonderful friend grace. chris asked 'what was the best moment of your life?' and i answered him #10. which isn't really number 10. i guess it's number one since that's what i said to him. but then we all went around and answered the question, which i loved. answers varied from waking up to a pile of cash, to meeting my sister and i.
so i've decided to compile a list of 28 great moments to commemorate the 28 years that i have lived. they are absolutely in no particular order, so don't be thinking i am building up to something great for #28, cause it's actually kinda lame. but enjoy my list anyway.

1. super cheesey- but hanging out as our little family of four is pretty awesome. the kids are always doing and saying funny things now, and i just love love love our little family to pieces.
2. giving birth to lily. that was a doozey. but holding her and knowing that chris and i actually made this little (GIGANTIC) thing was beyond insane.
3. having topher fall out of the birth canal. that was also insane. and the recovery from that was the best. but again, meeting my son was pretty fantastic.
4. getting to drive my 'dream car'- jeep grand cherokee. even if it was short lived, and only to be followed by driving a mini van. my anti-dream car.
5. not having sex with my boyfriend in high school/university. i dated this one fella for 7 years on and off. more off than on. but i thought i was in love and that i might end up marrying him eventually. so we really almost had sex one day. like for real. condom was there and everything. but above all- the Holy Spirit was there and did NOT allow it to happen. thank you thank you Jesus!
6. finding out topher was a boy. chris loves Lily. LOVES her. but he really needed to have a boy. if topher had been a girl, i feel like i would be pregnant again already, just so chris could have his boy. thankfully he wasn't and i'm not.
7. going to japan to hang out with my sister for 3 weeks. it was my first time away from home without my parents. i gained about 5-10 pounds eating japanese ramen (which is THE BEST ramen out there!) and other wonderful goodies.
8. watching my dad walk my sister down the aisle when she got married. lots of prayers and fights and so on occured to make that happen. but they were so happy and everything was just as it was supposed to be.
9. almost four years ago, chris and i found a small group comprised of 7 couples, including chris and i. and having those couples still in our lives is a pretty wonderful thing.
10. getting engaged to chris. he went above and beyond the call of duty on that one. it think i wrote about it in my 'ode to chris' section a few months ago...
11. the day i went to a youth revival and DIDN'T feel like i needed to 'rededicate my life' to the Lord. i was dedicated and i knew it! i think that was better than the day i 'received Christ', cause maybe i didn't do it right back then anyway... i think i received Jesus and rededicated myself to Him at about 5 or 6 different camps and revivals.
12. the moment a bug fell out of my eye, after it had been trapped in there for HOURS. i thought i was going to be blind. i thought it was punishment for something i had done. i prayed and prayed for forgiveness and for that danged bug to come out. and it did! i'm not blind. but i knew that prayer- and excessive blinking, were going to play major roles in my life. i was 7 at the time.
13. watching the 'Mask of Zorro' with all of my siblings. this was maybe 10 years ago. my youngest brother had already seen it and said it wasn't funny. then it ended up being one of the funniest movies we had ever seen. but when the five of us are together, things are always more ridiculous and funny than at any other time.
14. being at Sun Valley and watching people get baptized. every time i see it, it's amazing. new life. so fresh and so beautiful. i love it.
15. one night my sister and i went for a drive. she parked across the street for this gigantic house and told me that it was ours. i was in shock. It was the first house that my parents had bought and that we had lived in. It was an extra half hour away from my already-one-hour-away high school. but since i was about to be a senior, and public transportation in toronto is phenomenal, i was pretty excited about the whole thing.
16. leaving above-mentioned house at 2am to go pick up my brothers from the clubbing district downtown (to dance. not hit people, or seals.) my brothers are 2 years younger than me, and they were calling me cause 1. they didn't have a drivers license (even though they were of driving age), and 2. they didn't want to get in the car with any of their drunk friends. i was really happy to do it.
17. every time i am back in toronto, eating or walking around with my friends and family. it's always nice to be back home. and it is always very nice to eat great food with great people. that's acutally probably my favorite thing in the world to do.
18. the day i picked up one of my writing assignments and my professor wrote as a comment that i should look for a publisher for my piece. i still haven't. that was almost 7 years ago. but it was a great moment.
19. meeting barb and jerry in oregon while chris and i were 'on a break.' so great to meet the woman who would soon become my mother-in-law and one of my closest friends. though the circumstances were as strange as could be. but i was also with jeehon and we were about to do some more west coast traveling and that was good clean fun.
20. chris and i had just had an 'issue' about this one girl he knows. then we went to the suns game with his dad and robert and it came up again, and it was hilarious. seeing chris with his dad and brother always cracks me up. these men are never afraid to say 'i love you', especially to each other. they are three of the funniest and most ridiculous human beings i know.
21. living in korea in a small apartment with my older brother, sister, and our crazy friend sooha. we were rarely all home at the same time, but when we were, it was all jokes and laughter.
22. when jeehon worked for us airways. my parents came down to see us all the time. i went to boston, san francisco, toronto, and los angeles for free, or almost free. that was a pretty great traveling year!
23. two weeks ago when i finally got to see Lily really pee on the toilet. i really felt like i would never see that day!
24. when i was in 2nd grade or so, one of my buddies went to India with his family. he was gone for almost a month. which is the equivalent of 2 years when you're a little kid. he came back to school, and everyone wanted to talk to him, and sit near him at lunch. i figured he had forgotten about me and our friendship from way back when, and then as we were getting packed up to go home, he came over to me and told me he bought something for me- a beautiful silk wallet with flowers on it. i still remember it. it was amazing. he bought one for me, and one for another friend, and that was it. i felt really special that day.
25. our rehearsal dinner. all of our friends and family were there. even the friends who weren't involved in the wedding, but had come from out of town. i really could feel the love. it was a joyous occassion. and an opportunity to hang out with my friends in a way that i couldn't at the wedding. cause your wedding is crazy, but the rehearsal dinner shouldn't be. and of course, it was the day before i got to marry chris. that made the occassion all the greater.
26. road trips with chris. el paso was a good one. all the times we've gone to vegas together have been pretty great. even the moving caravan from oregon to here in 24 hours was pretty great too. they are just extrended dates for chris and i to enjoy each other's company and conversation and not get distracted by dishes, tv, or anything else.
27. working at Global Christian School for 3 years. i really met some people who changed my life, my outlook on missions, and helped me have a better relationship with Jesus and His Word.
28. one birthday while i was in university (or maybe high school... and i was just studying at the university...) was really quiet and kinda depressing. january birthdays in canada aren't that fun cause there are exams to be studied for, and it is COLD! i remember being at the library, studying/sleeping. then my mom called me and said she wanted to go out for dinner. so she came to the library, picked me up, then we went to china town and had lobster. oh to have a wonderful mother and lobster in black bean sauce!