Baby Lin's Mini Van

Yesterday we picked up our minivan we purchased on Friday. Mimi and I have been looking for a while, and it was pretty amazing how God led us to make this purchase and deal. A few months back we looked at the 2008 Honda Odyssey in Redwood City. At that time we we're only looking at the deals Costco was offering and they were not bad. We worked with Pam who was not a high pressured sales woman, and Mimi and I were very happy to work with her. We decided back in September to just ice the deal since we both felt that we would be able to manage with our current vehicles.



Then the economy started to tank and we heard that car dealerships were going under everywhere. Toyota and Honda coporations were also taking large hits, with their stock dropping by almost half since a year ago. With the economy in such hard times, we figured maybe this would be a good time to strike a bargain with the dealerships. So off we went on Black Friday to go find ourselves a deal.



We first went to the Toyota dealership in Palo Alto and talked to Kevin who allowed us to test drive the Sienna on our own. The test drive was good, the Sienna was a comporable ride to the Odyssee, and the one feature we liked that the Odyssey did not have was the power lift gate which would make putting things in and out of the back a lot easier, especially for Mimi. The only thing the Sienna did not have was the camera in the back so that you can see what is behind you when backing up. We had a fairly nice chat with Kevin and essentially said what was the lowest deal he could give us if we were to purchase this weekend. He said he could knock off a few hundred dollars, but in the end, he did not give us a price that we would feel comfortable with purchasing at that very moment.



So then, we left and on the way home I asked Mimi if we could stop by the Honda Redwood City dealer. She was tired and did not want to do much of the talking, but finally agreed to go. We stopped by and tried to find Pam, but she was busy with another customer. We got put with Sheila who showed us the car. Now when we got there, the interesting thing was I asked if they had any 2008 Odyssey models. She said that in fact there was one more, it was driven by the general manager to Auburn where he lives so there were roughly 3000 miles on it, and that it was the last one they had on the lot. I was actually surprised that they had any 2008 models left considering the Odyssey was one of the best selling minivans around.



We decided to definitely look at this one and if we did not like it we would look at the 2009. We test drove it and it was fine. Looking around inside it was a little dirty, but nothing a good cleaning would not take care of. We found a baby passifier in the car, so clearly some baby had used it. Overall, it was a fine looking vehicle with some minor repairs like the side mirrors not working or the remotes not being programed.



So after test driving the car and feeling that it was good, then came the time to deal. We sat with Sheila for almost three hours going back and forth. The car was invoiced at $30,092 and then there was the $3500 savings on the 2008 models. So then we were down to $26,592. I then asked how much lower she could go and she said if we were serious about buying the car tonight she might be able to take a hundred or two off the price. (Typical car salesman response.) I said that would not do it, and that if we were serious there would have to be more to offer. She came back and said if we were "really" serious, she would knock off up to $500 off the price. That would then bring the car cost down to $26,092. After looking at this number and keeping quiet, I finally told myself, "Go for the price that would make you walk out this door." So I said, I would walk out this door with that car for $25,000. Sheila looked at me and said "Do you want me to be fired". I said to her, "Hey, what do I have to loose? I've got the money to buy it but I'm also not in a desperate need for the car, so here is my offer." She took it back to her manager and came back with another offer of $25, 742. I was intrigued and complimented her on coming ever so close to what I was looking for. I also said that it was not enough. I asked her what was the price to walk out the door with that price just placed on the table, which then would include tax and title fees. She said it would be $28, 180. I said to myself, this is definitely under the invoice of most places and much less than we would pay for any other minivan out there today, especially a 2009 model. It has nearly 3000 miles on it, but that is the bargaining feature for us. Also, the Odyssey itself was something that I think Mimi and I both liked, so maybe this would be the best time to pick this car up and make the deal.



So now I can tell that Sheila is really into the bargaining and she knows the deal will be made tonight. I also knew that this was going to happen and I really felt in the groove of the "let's make a deal" game we were having. So in my last attempt to get as much as I could, I said to her, "Let's just make the out the door price a nice round number." I originally was going to ask her for $150 off the asking price, but when I saw that we were at $28, 180 I said, "Sheila, let's just make it a round number of $28,000. She went back to her manager and came back saying she wanted our trade in as well. I said what does the trade in have to do with the final offer since it was not something that I had included with the final offer. I had a puzzled look and then she stuck out her hand and she said, congratulations, you now are the owners of the 2008 Silver Honda Odyssey.

Needless to say, I was a little surprised that we had won. We got it for just a little above the price that we were looking for, and in the end, we had the minivan. I suspect that their sales had been slow and for them, making a sale would have been a very good thing that night. They also knew that we were pretty serious about buying a car, coming in with our research and all, so they worked hard to make it happen as well. We did not drive it off the lot that day, but picked it up the next after they had finished detailing the car.

The funny thing is that when we went to pick up the car the next day, Mimi and I got into a car we thought was ours and started checking all the things that were wrong with it like the mirrors not moving. We tried the air conditioning, the radio, power doors. I mean, this car looked exactly like the one we were going to get, from the color outside and inside to the floor mats. Then Mimi, who was in the driver's seat, looked at the console and said, "Hey, there is a button for the rear power tailgait". I was a little surprised because I knew that our 2008 Odyssey did not come with that, but the 2009 models did. Mimi pressed the button, and I looked back and realized that if the hatch opened all the way, it would hit the wall. I quickly said, "Hit the button again, its gonna hit the wall"! She did and it stopped and then we were seriously puzzled. We stopped the car, got out, looked around, and said to each other, "Is this our car?" Then Mimi said to turn on the ignition and look at the miles on the car. Sure enough, the car only had 13 miles, which then told us that we had the wrong car. We were pretty excited that maybe, just maybe, we got the car with the rear power tailgait lift. That would have been awesome. We eventually found our car, which they brought out later after detailing it. In the end, we got our new ride and she was pretty as can be.

And that is our new car story.... for new baby Lin.

Week 35...Oh so close...

We're really counting down the weeks until our baby arrives. It is hard to believe that 8 months have passed by and we're entering our ninth month ever so soon. The changes are huge, and Mimi would be the first to say, "Can we have this baby yet?"

Sleep has been a big issue for Mimi lately. At least the past two nights, and maybe more than she has not mentioned, she has woken up in the middle of the night an been unable to fall back asleep. Every woman who had a baby is telling me that they have gone through this. I really do believe it is natures way of preparing the mother for motherhood. Getting them ready to wake up in the morning when the baby cries. Waking them up to attend and getting the woman (an man) used to the routine. Last night was the one few times I heard her get up in the middle of the night and I woke up too. I tried (in my sleepy tone) to get her to come with me to eat a bowl of cereal and try to get up with her. She just told me to go back to sleep. Bear in mind, this was at 5:00 am. I have no idea how much longer she was up before that, but she eventually went down to the living room and I heard her talking with her mother. I was glad that her mother was up already, so that Mimi could have some company at that time of the morning. I know that when the baby comes, I'm going to be up with her to help with the baby. My only question is, how am I going to get used to waking up at all hours of the night. I think we're both going to be so tired. Ugh, just the thought of being tired is making me tired, and I just got up and am having my first cup of coffee.

Today is the baby shower that Evelyn is hosting for her. I'm excited because this is a time for Mimi to celebrate the work she has done thus far of carrying the baby girl. Plus, we finally get some payback for the times that we gave baby gifts. We're not done yet since we're going to make sure we do the red egg and ginger thing after the baby is born. Oh ya, we have people still to get in touch with. I'm really thankful for people like Evelyn who are so caring. She is with her son Thomas and he is only a little more than a month old. She must be so tired and needing to feed so often and yet she was willing to host this baby shower. God bless her heart. We've gotten some gifts already. Cynthia already gave us some nice stuff off of the registry. Hee-jung sent us a baby carrier. Kristi sent us some items off the registry too. Selina gave us some clothes and bibs. Even Debbie Chiu gave us some baby things off the registry. Oh ya, and Melissa gave us the car seat carrier, which my parents already bought for us. I guess we're going to have to return it and we'll use that money to purchase the baby monitor. Good thing we can return them to babies r us as needed.

So I have been reading more and more about the phases of labor and delivery. The reason I keep reading over this material is that I feel I need to know what to expect with the baby on the way. In some ways I feel like I'm preparing for a test or practical examination and I'm going to be graded. I know it sounds so Asian of me, but there is that pressure. I think it has something to do with how I grew up and my own father drilling it into my head to study hard, study hard. There was the pressure for perfection. Did I every attain that level of perfection...no. I was an average student, and by average I am talking about B's and C's with a few A's scattered in the mix. I was in no way every very smart nor did I have much confidence in what I was doing. I'm still surprised that I made it this far in life regarding education. I did know that when I eventually worked I would do a good job because I am a dedicated and hard working employee and I have the desire to climb the ranks with increased responsibility. Why did I go off on this tangent, I think it is because I have work on my mind right now. Anyway, I am trying to learn more and more about what parenthood is like so I can be as prepared as possible. There are still more things to complete, like getting the baby room/office finalized. The crib and changing table/dresser are the two last things we need before we're ready to go. We're also considering to look at mini vans since the car industry is taking a hit. We'll look sometime this weekend and if we decide to stick with one car over the other then we'll install the car seat into Mimi's car since it is the most reliable of the three.

During my last post I was talking about the transition I was making to having Mimi's mother back with us. I have to say that I'm feeling much better about where we all are. I think we've all gotten into our routine, though there have been some additions that we were not anticipating. We got cable tv installed into our home for her mother. Now I know that I'm complaining because it costs an arm and a leg these days, but I have to say that even the first day of having it, I just wanted to watch and watch. There were so many things on tv and I knew that it would suck my time away. That is why this morning, I made it a point to not go directly to the tv and to do my journaling for the baby. So yes Mimi, as you're reading this, I do like it but I'm trying to stay balanced, and when the six months are over we'll drop down to limited basic like we planned. We don't need extended. I also have to say that it is a real blessing to have Mimi's mother cooking for us every night. I can come home and exercise and join the dinner. Mimi has been on liver transplant so she has been getting home super late. Kitchen wise, her mother keeps the place in order. I just have to take care of the other areas of the home. Today is my day to clean up.

So I finally booked the tickets for my parents to come and help us out. They will fly in on January 31 and leave on April 7th. That is a pretty long time and I think Mimi is wondering how that will be, just as I was worried about having her mother return. I realized I'm really going to have to talk with my parents and give them some guidelines to work with. I think my dad will be fine, by I can see my mother wanting to impose her thoughts and traditions on us. I'm just going to have to kindly decline and redirect the conversation. I did tell my father last night that I have a gardening project for him. It entails planting some flowers and or/fruit trees in the back. That would be pretty cool if he was able to take care of that, with our input as well. I do want to give him an element of freedom, but just not where he makes some fantasy land out of the flowers and other toys. That just gets a little weird. We'll have to work out a budget for the gardening and go from there.

And finally, we're approaching week 37 which is essentially when the baby is full term. At full term we can have the baby and she will be fine, or fully developed. Mimi asked her OB whether she could induce earlier, like a week. Sounded like her OB said it was ok, and that we should pre-register for the admission. I guess this means if we induce, the baby will come earlier and maybe not have her birthday on Christmas. I think Mimi is very much ready to have this baby and get back to her normal weight. I know it has been hard, and given that she is on her feet most of the day, I can understand that it would be even more difficult. Many times I worry about her, that the way she works so hard and pushes herself might be detrimental to the baby, at least in the earlier stages of the pregnancy. I know I just need to keep quiet and pray for the baby, because I feel that if I nag that only adds more stress and pressure to Mimi and it is already hard enough.

Well, we're getting closer and closer and pretty soon, I'll have to print this up for Mimi to read when she is in the hospital. At least that is my plan. Who knows if she'll even want to read all of this. I guess if she doesn't than I will since it is my chronology of the past 9 months leading up to this day. God has been very good to us and I have no doubt that He will take care of this baby girl we have.

6 More Weeks

We are now in the 8 month and there are so many changes to report. Let's start with Mimi. Her belly is large now and the baby is finding it difficult to move around. Almost every night, the baby will make this rotating movement which will drive Mimi crazy. I on the other hand, since I can't feel anything, think it is awesome to see our baby so active and alive. Many of the books have said that the baby's head will move downward during this time to prepare for delivery. I have to say that I might disagree since we often feel a hard part and we think it is the head. I suppose the books could be right and what we have been thinking was the head is really the baby's butt.

My interns have been commenting how good Mimi looks considering she is pregnant. They said that looking at her from behind, they could not tell she was pregnant. She only protrudes forward and not sideways like many other pregnant women do. In fact, I saw this one Asian lady last night at dinner who was pregnant, and she looked pregnant from every angle. She would rotate 360 and it was pretty obvious. I actually think Mimi is the type of person who, after giving birth her body will just go back to the way it was before, with very little exercise needed. I think that is just pretty amazing. I'm also a little jealous because when I gain wait it takes me forever to loose it and a lot of hard work. Who am I to compare, I'm not the one carrying the baby, Mimi is.

Let's see, what else can I comment about Mimi and the pregnancy? She continues to struggle with sleep. Last night, she woke up at 4:00 and was unable to return back to sleep, tossing and turning. She eventually got up and went down to play some Wii. How do I know this? Because I was tossing and turning too and I heard her movements when she got up. I was having a tough time sleeping because of my own physical pains of doing my long run. I am also a light sleeper in general, so those movements just wake me up at night. I know that when this baby is crying to be fed, I will also hear it and even though I might not be able to feed her, I think I'll be getting up too.

So with 6 weeks remaining, I have to honestly say that this is getting more and more real for me. I can feel a little excitement and nervousness. I know that the life we live without children is coming to an end and we will forever be changed. The freedom to go here and go there will not be available to us for a while, and we'll have more responsibility than we have ever had before. In the same regard, I remember when we were trying to have a baby and God gave us a foretaste just a year ago. Now we are having a baby and I really believe that we are ready. We want to be parents, Godly parents, and loving parents. I also think we'll have our share of mistakes to learn, but in the end, I hope that since we're older, we might be a little wiser too.

"What are my current concerns of worries", I was asked. My answer is this. I'm concerned about the health of Mimi and the baby during delivery. I know that for the most part, things go smoothly. God has made this process work perfectly for so many thousands of years. He will do the same. There is always this small chance that something may go wrong, and I would be devastated should anything happen to Mimi, and terribly sad should anything happen to the baby. Do I trust God? Sure I trust God, and I pray daily that He would continue to develop her into a strong and healthy baby. I believe God will answer my prayers and towards the end of December, we will have a strong baby girl and Mimi will be one tired mother after giving birth.

Mimi's mother came home this past Tuesday from Taiwan. She has come back to rest, reconnect with her friends here, and take a break from taking care of her own parents. I know inside I have been struggling with the addition to our household and I could not understand why, at this point, was I have so much trouble with the transition when I did not have this much trouble before. I realized that the social worker at work had mentioned something about nesting, that I also read in a baby book. Nesting is where we prep the environment and or our lives for the changes of having a baby. I'm realizing now that this is what I have been doing during the entire pregnancy, getting ready for this new life to join us. Since we moved back to Foster City, we have been trying to get this place cleaned up and junk stored so we could have room for a family. We are still in the process of getting the baby room set up, but even that involved moving books, furniture, and packing or throwing away more stuff. I've been religious about cleaning the carpets and floors and dusting, and I never would have done this in my younger years. All of this weighed on my mind and I'm realizing now that it is what they call nesting. I guess what it comes down to is when Mimi's mother came home, I had based our nesting on the two of us and there was more control with just two. Now that she is back there is a third person involved and I don't have as much control and there are unexpected things that creep up in life. This now throws me off and makes me question whether our nesting is secure enough. This is not to imply that I don't want Mimi's mother to be here, let alone my parents to come later on after the baby is born too. I'm just trying to get used to having this other party to deal with. Honestly, if my parents were here now, I would feel the same way towards them, that they were affecting the nesting work Mimi and I had worked so hard to attain. I'm actually happy that they parents can feel free to be a part of our lives, and I know that their help is greatly appreciated. We're definitely going to need it after the baby is born, and they are only a shout away.

In other baby news of our small group, Ton and Cynthia finally announced that they were pregnant. To our surprise, Newt and Joanne also announced they were pregnant, and their due dates were two days apart. How crazy is that? I also found out this week that my resident is also pregnant and due around the same time. I guess this is the time for making babies. There is the maternal or paternal urge to get the family started. I'm telling you, this small group will no longer just be young couples and singles. It is transitioning to a young family group right before our very eyes. This is going to be very cool because we can certainly lean upon each other for support.

Finally, I want to end with how much I love my wife. She is constantly amazing me at how strong she is, how patient she is, and how much she loves me. When I have things on my mind, I can talk with her. When I have a bad day, she is there to give me a hug. Despite her big belly and lack of sleep, she pushes forward and gets her work done during the day. Her birthday just passed and I was reminded that over the past 5 years of knowing her, a lot has changed for both of us. This is what I wrote to her in a poem for her birthday.

At 30:
You came into my life,
Making things, new and bright.

At 31:
You said “I guess, (a.k.a. YES!)”
When I asked you to be my other half.

At 32:
You married me this year and to no surprise,
God blessed our time, our families, and our lives.

At 33:
You and I traveled the world,
Japan, Cabo, DC, San Diego, Chicago.

At 34:
You and I, determined we were,
To have a baby, a boy or a girl.
God heard our prayers and now we can say,
Thanks be to God for the gift He gave.


At 35:
You and I will now be dad and mom,
To a girl, maybe boy, either one.
God’s love is good, perfect, and true,
Happy birthday my dear, I love you.

That night we went to ABC Seafood in Foster City and had us a nice dinner. We had her favorite Goo-e-duck, fish soup, large pea leaves, and finally a shrimp dish. For just a few dishes, we blew almost $150.00, but for this girl, that was a drop in the bucket. I would have spent double on her.

All right, that should do it for this posting. I'll try to come back more often now that we're getting closer and closer to the due date. My prayer continues to be that God would bless this baby, Mimi, and I.

8 More Weeks

We've entered week 32 and I have to say, Joe was right. The closer we get to the due date, the more anxious I find myself. Can I say it is a bad anxiety, probably not. The anxiety helps me to get my act together and start getting things ready for the baby. I think both Mimi and I are feeling it, the pressure I mean. This week, she has been really concerned about getting the baby room ready and things around the house are a bit of a mess right now. We've made it a point this weekend to work on the baby room, so these are my plans for this Saturday. We almost got into a fight, or maybe at least we had a small tiff the other night because I got upset that she was telling me to do this and that. I on the other hand, wanted to rest after coming back from a baby class lecture. I gave back some attitude, and then we sort of parted ways for a bit that evening until dinner. I think after dinner we calmed down and joined together again. I am sure the stress is there, but how can we work together to address the stress of having a baby. I know my job is to provide and make life as easy as possible for her now. I need to keep this in mind and be thinking about what needs to be done for the FAMILY.

I really need to commend Mimi for carrying our baby girl. I love her more and more because I see the sacrifices that she makes to bring our baby girl into this world. Each week, there seems to be at least one night where she wakes up to use the bathroom and is unable to return back to sleep. This can be from 3:00 am to 6:00 am, and she wakes up at 7:00 to get to work by 8:00. If that was me, I would be a zombie the entire day, with a bad attitude, and just wanting to nap all day long. She goes to work, will come home and even cook since I've been getting back later. She endures heartburn and a reduced stomach size, which means she cannot eat as much as she would like to eat. She continues to abstain from sushi or alcohol, which is something she would like after giving birth. She will still go out and do things even though it is tiring to carry the extra weight of the baby. She does not complain that much. She feels itchy because the skin on her belly is stretching. She feels pain when the baby kicks at times. I could go on and on about how many ways pregnancy has caused a measure of discomfort, but she bears it for the sake of our baby girl. I think this is an example of sacrificial love that God describes. It is really the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

We've decided to try a little study on our baby girl. I'm sure that this study has been done in the past, but being the psychologist I am and the researcher that Mimi is, we're going to try this on our girl. We've selected several CDs that consist of classical or soft music that the baby will eventually use to sleep with. The reasoning is this. The baby is currently in the womb which is the safest place she will be. She is feeling the warmth and security of the womb. She has hearing now, and is becoming more and more attune with our voices. She will actually have voice recognition by the time she comes out of the womb. So our thought was to play these various CDs while she is in the womb and start making the neuron connections of this music with being in the womb, therefore, helping her to feel safe and secure to sleep once she is born. We play 15 minutes of the music every evening, placing some headphone directly to the belly. We change the selection around in order to provide us parents with the most variety so that we ourselves don't get tired of the same music playing over and over. The beauty of this experiment is that we can use this music where ever we go. This can be in the car, at home, on the plane, going for a walk. We have a special section of our ipod set up with just baby songs. I'm realizing now that we're going to need a music player where we can plug in our ipod for the baby's room. Maybe I can add that to our registry. In any case, I'm really excited to see how this experiment works with our baby. I wonder if there are any other experiments we can try.

So dreams has been an interesting part of this pregnancy. In the beginning, I dreamed that we were having a baby girl before we knew the sex of the baby. Sure enough, we found out we were having a girl. This past week, I had a dream about the baby coming early. She came about a month early and she was the size of my hand. She literally fit in the palm of my hand. On top of that, she was born and was not breathing. I remember screaming to her to breathe, just breathe! She eventually started breathing, but that dream felt so real. I woke up a little jostled over the whole experience. I know it was just a dream and it was probably my unconscious anxiety speaking to me. At the same time, it was a dream that I honestly wish I had not had. When one month before the baby is due arrives, I'm going to remember this dream and try not to let it get the best of me.

Finally, I wanted to talk about these baby classes that I've been attending that the county sponsors. Since Mimi was not able to attend, I went by myself. It was a little weird since I was not the pregnant one but I was there. There were other fathers to be there, but they were there with their spouses. In the end, I was really glad that I went because it gave me an idea of what to expect leading up to the birth, the labor and delivery, and after the birth. It really is amazing just how much there is to know about bringing a baby into this world. It is also a good thing that know that this has been going on for centuries so our bodies know what to do and how to handle it. There is so much information that I got, I cannot recount it all here in this blog. Maybe I can put it all together into a book of my own. Ha ha, wouldn't that be funny. I was able to speak a bit about post partum depression since I was the mental health professional in the crowd. That was pretty cool.

So that is about it for where we are now. It has been an incredible learning experience and with under two months to go, we're in the home stretch. We constantly pray to God for continued healthy development of our baby girl and we trust in Him that his work will be made perfect in her.