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I arrived in San Francisco last night with Jenny and a friend of ours at around 10:30 local time to attend Jenny’s friend’s wedding which takes place later today.  I was so extremely dead tired last night and was thinking that I’d be able to sleep in until around 7:30 am, but no, I woke up at around 5:15 and instead of fighting myself to fall back asleep, I thought I’d get up, iron my dressy clothes I brought w/ me, check into a Starbucks located across the street from the hotel, and create some free time for myself.

Free time has been nearly impossibly hard to come by as of late.  Yes, the upcoming wedding has a lot to do with it, but there have been a few other reasons for my busyness as well.

1) Job transitions: After switching to a new job back in July, I decided to come back to my old job and have been back for a week and a half now.  I left the new job because of 1) some very crucial “miscommunications” (I’ll leave it at that) that occurred which resulted in a fair amount of anger on my part and 2) being a consultant wasn’t quite the panaceatic experience I hoped it would be.  Had it not been for reason #1, I would not have left that job (or, at least now now) but you know, stuff happens in life and well, I really could not get myself to stick around at that company.  So this happens to have been the first time in my life I decided to leave a job because I was upset and well, I can only hope it doesn’t happen again because it wasn’t much fun going through the experience and in some ways, I feel like I wasted 12 and a half weeks of my career.  Having said that, I am happy to be back at the old job and in many ways, it feels like I never left the job in the first place.  It’s a really good thing I didn’t burn any bridges with people at work when I left my job back in July.

2) Family transitions: I’ve been busy assisting my parents with moving out to their new home.  Their original plan was to move back to Korea later this year but well, it didn’t work out like they had hoped so they’ll be staying put for at least another year.  With my dad turning 60 next year and my mom well into her mid 50′s, I cannot imagine even the possibility of having to pick up everything and move back to the country they had left behind 20 years ago.  I still cannot fully (actually, it’s nowhere near “fully”) comprehend how, back in 1991, they could have packed up their bags and move to a completely foreign part of the world for the sake of their children.  Hopefully in a few years, I’ll get to understand the love my parents have/had for their children.  I love my parents and always wish I can do something a little more to help them out.

And speaking of family transitions, my brother is in the process of moving out as well.  He recently started to sell Comcast to make a living and to my pleasant surprise, he’s been an amazing salesperson.  And in addition, he’s been instructing chess at various schools and even promoting a nightclub to make a few bucks.  I can’t help but to be proud of my brother for taking initiatives such as these in his life and it’s been a joy to see the growth that’s been taking place in his life as of late.

3) Wedding planning: Well, I just had to include it in this list.  42 days to go and quickly counting down.  There have been moments when I’ve been very stressed and find myself more or less in the “I-just-wanna-get-over-with-the-wedding” mindset.  There is A LOT to do, just plain and simple.  What keeps me motivated at the end of the day, though, is that when all of this planning is over with I’ll get to marry someone who is just incredibly beautiful and is the person God chose to graciously bless me with.

Okay, I’m gonna go enjoy the few hours of free time I have left before Jenny and our friend wakes up from their slumber.

While reading my Bible this morning before work I came across the following question:

“A difficult situation for Joseph (being sold into slavery) had a surprisingly positive outcome.  Have you ever had that happen in your life?”

While trying to come up with an answer to this question, I could not help but to think back to June of 1995, when less than a month after my family purchased our first home here in the States and moved into it, my parents’ jewelry store that they had been operating in Chicago’s south side got robbed.  At gunpoint.

My mom had flown out to Korea for a visit about a week or two before the robbery took place and so on the night the robbery occurred, it was getting late and my dad was going through his usual procedures to close the store for the day.  ”J & J Jewelry”–named after my brother & my first name initials–this was to be the very last day that the store would operate.

My dad explained to me that a large number of guys came into the store, were pretending to look around and then one of them (or perhaps more than just one of them, I don’t know) pulled out the his gun, threatened my dad, and well, they took pretty much all of the valuable merchandise and ran away.  One thing about gold is that it’s small.  And light.  And expensive.  And oh-so-very easy to steal in large quantities.

On the night the robber occurred, my dad came home and he told me he told me that he needed to talk to me.  I still vividly remember talking to my dad outside on the deck of our newly purchased home.  I had never seen a man so down and discouraged.  I was 14 at the time.  I was a little kid.  And yet my dad told me what had occurred earlier that night.

When I look back at my life there are 2 events in my life that I believe changed the course of my life (note: I don’t consider coming to know Christ and “receiving Christ into my life” an “event” that occurred in my life.  It was so much more of a process than an event.):  One is when my family immigrated from Korea to Chicago on the 16th of August, 1991.  The second is the robbery of my parents’ jewelry store.

After the robbery occurred, my parents were devastated, in various ways.  They were devastated financially due to the loss of their merchandise.  They were devastated because they had just purchased their home in Naperville.  How were they going to pay for the mortgage on this new home?  They were devastated emotionally and psychologically.  They had worked hard to get to where they were with the store.  They had made a ton of sacrifices.  And now, it was all but gone.

So, coming back to the question I came across this morning–did this tragic robbery produce a surprisingly positive outcome?

Well, while I’m not sure I would say that the robbery produced a “surprisingly positive outcome” I can say that I learned and grew so much because of it.  I witnessed in my parents the working out of their sheer will to survive and provide for their children.  A few months after the robbery, they took over a shoe repair store.  A shoe repair store.  This right here: the best shoe repair store in the world.  I’m not sure if people know this but let me tell you something:  Repairing shoes is hard work.  It’s dirty, dusty, you get no respect, and you can’t really make that much money doing it.  No one ever dreams of growing up to operate their own shoe repair shop.  My parents knew all that and they still decided to take over the shop because well, they needed to make ends meet and provide for their 2 children.  And you know what?  After all of these years (from 1995…) my parents are still struggling financially because of the actions of some heartless, immoral, gun-bearing thugs.  And even though they’re still struggling, they’re still going strong.  As I’m preparing for my marriage coming up in December and as I think more & more about having a family of my own, I can’t wait to provide for my children and to put into practice the lessons I learned & experienced watching my parents provide for me and my brother.

Another lesson I learned from observing my parents struggle through the outcome of this tragedy is perseverance.  I know my parents thought about giving up many times.  They had their share of days when they were 99% convinced that they just would not make ends meet operating their shoe repair store.  And yet here we are in 2011 and their shoe repair store is still going strong and the business is doing well (relatively speaking).  I don’t know how they’ve been surviving until now, but they have and I’m so proud of them for it.

Okay, it’s 7:12 AM and I need to leave the house soon to go pick up my fiancée and so we can commute to our offices.  It looks like I’ll be thinking of my parents on the train this morning.

On Saturday, I got engaged to the most amazing girl I know.  It still hasn’t quite hit me yet.  To be honest, I’m guessing it’ll hit me once I get used to the daylight savings time and get some much needed rest after one unforgettable weekend.

Here’s a wedding website that I started working on:

JENNY & JUNHO – Our Wedding Website

As you can see, the website is pretty naked at the moment.  Don’t worry, it’ll get updated soon.  The website contains a link to the blog as well (which contains some pictures from Saturday)… which I’m really hoping that Jenny (my fiancée) and I will be able to update on a regular basis.

BTW, did you know that there’s a Korean movie titled “Jenny, Juno”?

Okay, I need to sleep… NOW.

The aftermath of the Great Chicago Blizzard of 2011 which occurred on Tuesday, 2/1/2011.

Welcome to February, everyone.

post-blizzard snow

more snow.

my poor car…

I’ve never witnessed snowfall like this in my life.  And as inconvenience as it was (left work early on Tuesday and didn’t go back into the office until Friday) I’m glad it lived up to its hype.  I would’ve been extremely disappointed otherwise.

It sure has been a long time since the last time I updated my blog.  Here are the different things that have been occupying me in these last couple of months:

Work: Been busy at work along with the rest of the engineering team as we get ready to launch the next release of our software.  I’ve been able to get my hands on doing a lot of front-end work.  In fact, I would guess that in these last 10 months of working here, I’ve dealt with as much front-end work (Javascript, JSP, HTML, CSS) as I have in all my years prior to joining this company.  The fact that I’ve been able to get my hands on both front and back-end (well, anything “below” the front-end) development has definitely been a major plus of working here.  I can’t wait to see the new features get shipped out to our clients and getting their feedback.

Ministry: I’ve been spending some time helping another brother at church become acclimated with leading worship.  He has a great voice and has been serving in various worship ministry for a number of years, but has never taken the plunge to lead–until now.  It’s been such a rewarding experience to say the least.  I believe the church is always in need of faithful servants and likewise, the church is always in need of faithful worship leaders who love the Lord, love people, love music, and are skilled musicians.  It’s been a privilege meeting up with him to help him become the best worship leader that he can be and I have surely been encouraged by his willingness and ability to learn.  There’s no better way to learn than to teach someone and I’m finding that out for myself.  Exciting times for this brother!

Freelance: I started working on a website for a local Japanese restaurant.  For now, I will just say that while I enjoy design work immensely, it is also most definitely challenging.  I’m hoping to get it launched in < 2 weeks.  I’m planning on picking up more of these kinds of gigs.

Vacation: I spent a few days in San Diego with some of my closest friends about a month and a half ago and my gosh, I absolutely *love* this part of the country.  I love the weather, the food (ate a ton of Mexican food), the beaches, and people seem to be a little bit nicer out there.  :)  I have promised myself that I will, one day, live somewhere in California.

Rest of the Year…: I can’t believe there’s less than 3 months left of 2010.  Crazy!  I’m already looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Do you like to play basketball?  Are you free on Saturday, 8/14?  Do you like helping people raise money for a good cause?  If so, you MUST read on.

I’ve been helping out with organizing a 3-on-3 basketball tournament for my church (Lakeview Church) and we’re looking for teams to sign up!

We have a men’s retreat coming up in September and thought that holding a 3-on-3 tournament would be an excellent way to raise some funds for the retreat.  Here are the details:

When? Saturday, 8/14/2010 – Starts at 10 AM

Where? Christian Liberty Academy (502 W. Euclid Ave. Arlington Heights, IL  60004)

Who can participate? High school & Older

How much will it cost? $40 per team.  You can have up to 4 players per team.

How do I register? Click here to print out the registration form.  Fill it out along with a NON-REFUNDABLE check for $40 to Lakeview Church (65 E. Palatine Rd. #313  Prospect Heights, IL  60070).

When do I need to send in my registration by? Sunday, 8/8/2010

What do I get if I win? $$ + Bragging rights

Sign up TODAY!  Please let me know if you have any questions!