The Day of the Shabay

I cannot believe that it has been a year already since I marry my wife. In a moment like this is when I truly grasp the meaning of time flies. And how colorful life turned out to be for the both of us during our first year together.

After the joyful "Shabay" wedding (go check instagram for #shabay), we got busy planning for our honeymoon. How much have we been longing for a time out together in holiday, somewhere in the other parts of this world.. However, it was not meant to be as we found out that we have a baby on the way! This awesome news was then followed by us getting busy with the planning for the arrival of the baby. Not to mention all the cultural and religious ceremonies that we have to prepare for our first child. And when the bundle of joy called Mikael Aakarshan Maulada came into this world, our marriage has already come to its one year anniversary.

Despite the fast transition between wedding preparations to baby caring level of hecticness, not a moment during that one year have I not been grateful to have been blessed with your embrace.

My dear wife, Shahrina Tiara Wardhani, thank you for saying yes that day. I know you dont read my blog, but this time I hope you do. I love you luv. And here's to our everlasting moments being together.

Defining 2015

I did my new year's celebration inside of a clinic in South Jakarta last night. As I sat there half awake, my wife who had a bad case of a stomach bug last night, looked very apologetic at me as she said how sorry she was for making it the possibly the worst new year's celebration ever for the both of us. Amidst the noise that came from the neighborhood "dangdut" festival, which was really annoying to say the least, I sat there looking for an answer as I gaze back into 2015.

In 2015, I got married to my wife in Bali which became the most talked about wedding ceremony. This was all thanks to the freak typhoon that hit Bali just two hours before our wedding..! Thankfully we survived it and went on with our ceremony. And it was a beautiful wedding (super thanks to Mbak Erri and her whole team!) Not long after our wedding, my wife was pregnant and we were blessed with a baby Boy.

2015 was a year which defines me as a person. There were so many blessings which have made me be thankful and also a couple of misses which have made me more determined to make it happen when the next opportune comes (one of them is my honeymoon, which didn't happen because my wife got pregnant). Every now and then I hear my friends and families say to me that your life begins when you become a parent. It's funny how you are somewhat being reborn again when you have given a hand in creating a new life in this world. But now I am beginning to understand this saying of life that begins again; it is that newborn, that blank canvas which allows me to begin again with a new set of paint and brush, and creating a new art with a new definition and a renewed sense of purpose.

So my wife.. Its not a bad at all. After what you have given me in 2015, a couple of hours in the clinic with you will not give 2015 a bad after taste at all.


Cheers 2015! Now bring on 2016!