"Your attitudes and the choices you make today will be your life tomorrow, build it wisely." - author unknown
Our first choice for our to-be-rented flat was located on the ground floor with two rooms, one study room, two bathrooms, wooden-floor tiles and complete furnishings. It was also just behind the community swimming pool and gym. But the most enticing part of the flat (at least to my first impression) was that spacious balcony where I can already picture my children safely and freely playing and running around.
The second choice was on the 9th floor of a nearby building with three rooms, two bathrooms and with the same wooden-floor tiles and completely furnishing. It has a balcony also and a view of the community on the inside and the nearby high-way at the backside. What’s beautiful with this unit was that we would have been the first occupants and hence all the furniture and appliances are brand new and the house will not need the pre-cleaning agony associated with second hand units.
Our third (and uh, very last) choice was a fourth floor unit with only two rooms, one bathroom, without any balcony and ceramic-tiled flooring. And though it is also completely furnished, this was a second hand unit so some appliances and cabinets need serious washing and scrubbing. And with a less than 90 square meter of floor area, fitting our large caches of kids stuffs and personal things accumulated over the past eight years of stay in China, is an insurmountable task in case. I was admittedly hardly interested with this unit.
I moved heaven and earth (and some more planetary entities in between) to get either one of our first two choices but as they would say it – it was not meant to be. Sky-high renting price for the first flat and the unprotected and unsafe balcony of the second one led my wife and I to give-up our great deal of desired options.
So there we were nearing the last two weeks of our contracted stay in our existing flat with only our third choice starring at us.
And so after a quick two days of negotiations followed by a less-than-exciting 1 year contract signing and another full day of cleaning and preparation, our transfer and moving in finally came by the end of August.
It was the longest three day weekend of our lives as we scampered in fixing our stuffs and organizing them into whatever little space our new flat can offer. The house was not totally cooperative either as the air-con leaked on our first night and I realized that the
cabinet under the bathroom’s wash area is irreparably damage. A lot of our AC plug outlets was the flat Asian version that did not conform to our Euro-plugs. The general feeling was that it was going to be a very long contract year ahead for my family.
But then came a turning point for us.
What I have not given much attention at all before slowly unveiled its beauty in front of our eyes on our second day. Our window view was simply one of the most relaxing panoramic sights we will ever see. Because in one picturesque setting, we can view a part of the lively city of Gongbei District of Zhuhai, the living river directly flowing into the southeast sea and boats in occasional sail-by, the high-way bridge crossing that river with endless horde of vehicles traveling to and fro, a portion of the vibrant city Macau, a stretch of greeneries, an on-going construction of high-rise condominiums and a verdant mountain meeting the blue sky on one horizon. Night-time brings out another façade of its scene with all the bright and changing light colors of the casinos of
Awesome, breath-taking and inspiring are a few words to aptly describe it.
Zek, our eldest, summed it up when he said, “Wow, its beautiful!”.
So after our first week of stay here with all the city-scouring, strolling on the community parks, business blocks and play areas, taking dips at the pool and completely re-arranging the house to make our stuffs fit like eggs on their egg tray yet with a considerable playing space left for our kids, we found ourselves enjoying every moment of stay in our new place we can finally call our home. We are still scouting for a possible kindergarten school for Zek but at the meantime, we met an english-speaking Chinese who offers to tutor Zek. Everything is falling nicely into its places.
Now I am grateful that God “coerced” us to take this third option.
It is meant to be the best choice after all.
And so I was re-affirmed once more than any choices we make, as long as we lift them up to the Lord, it is bound to get beautiful in His time.
I think I heard a word for that.
Oh, I know.
They called it….God’s choice.
God bless.
