Thank God I finally get a chance to write and share a story again after 2 months. From the mid of July until the end of August I had summer vacation outside Canada. Luckily, my supervisors allowed me to take vacation for 1.5 months as I had planned for marriage since October last year. Thank you Sirs!

Yes, I am a married man now 🙂 and I am blessed (not only lucky) to marry my other half, Sandra, on behalf of whom I am writing this now. By grace of the Almighty, we are no longer two but one!

I believe that marriage is God’s idea to unite two imperfect people, a man and a woman, to faithfully love one another for a lifetime with the love that God has already put into their hearts to bring out His beautiful plans and wonderful purposes in the world.

Undoubtedly, it was hard for us to prepare the wedding since I was being away from home and my loved ones in Indonesia. You may ask any married couples how complicated it is to prepare their weddings, even if they lived in the same places (country or city) on the days of preparation. To me, it was a bit more challenging, not only due to the long distance communication, but also because I had to divide my attention between the wedding preparation and my responsibilites to study and research. During those days, we never talked face-to-face in person, but through video calls we often discussed and fought about many things on the preparation. (Thanks to the technology) 🙂 Needless to say, it was draining our energy! 😀 But I loved to be in struggles with my loved ones! ❤

Big thanks to our parents who have faithfully supported us, not only materially but also emotionally and spiritually! I realize how much important it is the prayers from parents to their children. We would never be where we are today without the faith, hope, and love of God through our parents. Thankful words would never be enough to express!

It was my very first experience having such a tight schedule for vacation. There were 3 main events that we had: engagement, wedding, and honeymoon (in addition to a pre-wedding photography session). When I was still in Canada before the vacation, I was doubtful and did not expect all the plans would eventually work out.

Now, looking back to all we’ve been through, I am still amazed of how God has worked in such a miraculous ways to make everything good in the end, and even better than expected, despite our limited efforts. The engagement was done so well that two families could meet up and be the witnesses in the ‘semi-official’ day of our relationship. And July 30th was the day we were blessed in a holy matrimony and officially become a husband and wife.

Never came to our minds that we would have wedding parties in two different cities in Indonesia (Semarang and Bandung) which continued to the honeymoon in two different countries in Europe (France and Italy). One might probably ask how we could arrange the Schengen visa applications while we were still very busy with many stuffs for the wedding. My answer again would simply be: all is by the grace of our Father, Lord Jesus Christ, given through people (family and friends) who love and support us so much!

To be honest, until now, I still feel unworthy to receive all these blessings. Many times I was slow to make a decision and struggled with my unresolved weaknesses: lack of discipline, lack of focus, and too much worries. After all, I believe that we experience good things in life not because we are good enough, but because He is good! Not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done. Not because of who we are, but because of who He is! At the end of the day, our life stories are not about us. All is about Him, the Author of Life, who deserves all the glory, honor, and praise. It is not my story, it is His story…

If there is one thing about my last summer vacation that I am a bit regretful was that I didn’t have enough chances to meet some friends in Indonesia, especially my childhood friends, and hang out together with them for a cup of coffee (or two). Hope to see you guys soon in the near future, anywhere, anytime!

Lastly, here are some of the pictures from our last pre-wedding photoshoots. (The pictures from my engagement, wedding, and honeymoon can also be seen here)

Alright, guys! Thanks for reading and see you in the next posts.

Vancouver, September 10, 2017