Have been thinking about where home is. Since coming to Adelaide, I have to explain numerous times where I came from. "Yes, we just moved here from Brisbane, and yes if you are wondering I came from Malaysia originally." My background would be Australian Malaysian Chinese married to an Australian Caucasian.

My root will always be Malaysia. A place where I grew up and had spent about 20 years of my life there with my families and friends. My mum and brothers are still there and I would be the only one here in Australia if not counting Dane and his family. Now I have my own family (hubby and 2 children) here in Australia and I have also taken up Australian citizenship not long ago. In which I had to give up my Malaysian citizenship. Many people commented that I can live in Australia as permanent resident forever but I wanted a sense of belonging not a bit here and a bit there. I decided to be faithful to a country where my little family belongs and wanted to be part of it and being proud of being Australian. It is like an adopted child fully accepted into the family. Soon I will be able to vote!

I do miss Malaysia from time to time. Mainly because of my mum and so wish we are closer to her. However, I am certain that I would not go back to live in Malaysia in the foreseeable future. In fact the closest I would be to Malaysia would be Singapore. It is close to my hometown but in a better country. Many Malaysian Chinese would agree with me that we are commonly treated as second citizens in Malaysia. I do not want my children growing up feeling and being treated the same way. There are many inequalities in Malaysia and it certainly is not about the level of wealth or development of the country but the condition and mistreatment that are imposed on the non indigenous ethnic groups. On the other hand, I am in fact 100% Chinese and both my grandparents were from China. But my tie to China stops at that and China is indeed a foreign country to me. So where do I belong? I actually do not belong to any of these countries due to many reasons. Firstly, I am not Chinese living in China even though I am 100% Chinese. Then even though I grew up in Malaysia but I was never a full Malaysian in the sense of belonging. And now I am an Australian citizen who is not born and bred here.

I have to make decision together with hubby on how we should raise our children. Do we raise them purely Australians? Do we instill Malaysian and Chinese in them? Ideally, I would love them to be able to speak Chinese, love Chinese, Malaysian and Australian food and cultures, and to be proud of who they are and their mixed backgrounds.

So back to my questions, where is home? To me my earthly home is where my loved ones are. For now my home is Australia and Malaysia will always have a special place in my heart. However, we as Christians should not get too tangled up about where our home is because we are only passing by and our home is in Heaven! Let us live our lives for God wherever He put us. :D

Time has gone so quickly, we have been in Adelaide for about 2 months now and we are loving it! We have not visited many tourist places yet just enjoying time together as family when Dane has the time off work. God is good all the time!

Jono and his pet 'scruff' enjoying their breakfast.

Esther all dressed up ready to embrace another cold day.

Jono is making a banana sandwich. He is a good helper in the kitchen.

Esther loves playing with Lego Duplo.

Jono making his favourite egg sandwich

Esther and Jono having fun at Koorong bookstore in the city. We love their full size playcentre!