the otnaicus daily

Beautiful view isn’t it? I’m fresh back from my first family vacation. It’s Izzie’s first time abroad also, and yes, her passport works!

We had a great time at Club Med Bintan Island. Our first time at Bintan and I must say that we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I like the idea that the package is all-inclusive. Food, drinks (house pours and beer included), and accommodation. Most, if not all, the activities are included in the price as well. In short, a stress-free holiday, without the worry of paying an additional cent over what you have already paid for the holiday. Sorta like a cruise getaway, but on a beach resort.

They had the best welcome that I’ve experienced at a resort. The staff, including the resort’s General Manager, comes out to the lobby to personally greet every arrival. After a quick welcome speech, a staff will show you personally to your room. Your bags are delivered to the room shortly after. And your holiday commences. A really nice way to start actually.

Because we had an infant along, we didn’t really take part in a lot of the activities. But we loved the beach. My wife and I could just sit there for hours enjoying the breeze and the sound of the ocean waves crashing. Even little Izzie enjoyed it. The breeze easily made her fall asleep in her pram and made her miss her feed.

The only disappointment I had was with the food. It’s mainly buffet-style dining, with a small restaurant serving a la carte. Taste was so so, although there were highlights in their menu rotation. Best in the bunch were their Indonesian cuisine.

Club Med has pretty good facilities for kids and babies. At some of their resort, they actually have babysitting services for infants. Unfortunately, the one at Bintan Island doesn’t have that. But they do have this Baby Welcome Pack that comes as part of your holiday package. They will put a play pen with mattress, bottle sterilizer, and a baby bath tub in your room as part of this welcome pack. This is definitely convenient for us as it meant that we had to bring along less things on our getaway. Their main restaurant also has a baby corner that is stocked with necessities for feeding a baby.

Check out is a breeze. You leave your bags outside the door at the pre-determined time and the porters will come and whisk your bag off to be loaded onto the bus. When you leave the resort, the staff and the General Manager once again sends you off. A very good good-bye as well.

All in all, I feel that the overall experience is good. The biggest plus point for me was the Baby Welcome Pack. I would certainly try out their other resorts in the region such as Bali, Phuket and Cherating.

Best part of the holiday is the precious first holiday that we had together as a whole family. The time spent together was precious, and it’s always a reminder to slow down and enjoy the more important things in life.

This year has been a year full of changes and firsts. Definitely an eventful year, even though the events centered around one major thing: my wife’s pregnancy.

The year started out with Debbie finding out that she’s pregnant. I was overjoyed. Our prayers have come true. We started about doing what first-time parents-to-be would probably do, which is to research as much as possible into the pregnancy. But it was a pregnancy full of ups and downs.

I think the worse “down” came during the last trimester. Debbie was diagnosed with polyhydramnios (excess amniotic fluid in the water bag). And it went pretty much downhill from there. She was hospitalized for a total of about a month.

I think God has really been good to Debbie and me. I thank God for all the friends who stood by us since day 1, when Debbie was first admitted to Gleneagles Hospital. It made that entire month just that more bearable.

The journey was difficult, but it taught me what it meant to let God’s will be done in my life. There was a night when I was praying, the Holy Spirit prompted me to say those exact same words that Jesus said when He was in the Garden of Gethsamane. It was hard saying it, and I did not know if I would mean it, but I said it anyway. I think that did something in the spiritual atmosphere, and right there and then, I surrendered everything to God.

Against all odds, Izzie came into this world without much complications. Even the suspected hydrops (accumulation of fluid in heart and head) wasn’t there. She was out of the NICU within a couple of days, and within a week, she was back home. Although she has some congenital heart-related issues, the doctors have so far found that she displayed no symptoms of those issues. We keep praying everyday for total healing and for her condition to never take a turn for the worse.

I think for Debbie, those first few weeks at home were quite torturous for her. After having been confined in the hospital for a month, she had to be confined at home for another month (the Chinese tradition of confinement). Add to that the challenge of having to learn how to care for a newborn as we are new parents.

I think it’s undeniable that God’s hands has been at work through all this time. The challenges that He has placed in our path definitely brought us closer and stronger as a married couple. For me, it taught me what it means to be a parent. I can begin to understand all that my parents must have gone through when they were bringing me up.

Izzie never fails to melt my heart with her smile. It’s so amazing that every morning when she wakes up, she’ll spend some quiet time on her own without disturbing anybody. Mind you, she would have spent 9 to 10 hours without milk as she has started sleeping throughout the night. What makes it even more interesting is that she’ll give me a smile every morning. No stimulation required. She’s just happy that Daddy is there to say good morning to her.

All in all, a pretty good year I would say… Praise the Lord!!