If you have been to our “our story” page on this website, you would have read that Ri first told me about his feelings for me when he woke up me early in the morning to take me to see the sunrise at Gasworks Park. Well, what we conveniently omitted to tell you is that we didn’t actually see the sun rising that morning because it was the impulsive act in itself that was important and romantic. That morning some 5 years ago, the sky grew brighter and brighter, but there were significant cloud coverage so to shield the circular sun from being seen. Disappointed and warned not ever to wake Selina before proper hours, Ri took me to breakfast afterwards. He thought, “at least I told her what I brought her there to tell her, it’s ok we didn’t see the sun rising”. But today, 4 hours before Selina’s 25th birthday, we saw the rising sun at Gasworks, together.

It all began when Ri insisted to video chat at his 530am on the 25th of August, which would be my 830pm of the same day. (I totally should have guessed it, but I was clueless as usual) The video chat started in the car, which is very unusual, but I guess nothing was really usual about this particular video chat. It proceeded with Ri telling me that he wanted to make up for that time when he took me to see the sunrise but didn’t really see it at Gasworks. He monitored the weather to make sure to do this on a rather cloudless morning, and the plan is that we can chat until after my 12am, when it is officially my birthday, so he can be the first person to tell me Happy Birthday on my actual birthday. My heart have just about melted at this point and his car hasn’t even left the garage.

Ri drove to Gasworks and got there around 6am, we talked in the car overcoming bad signals and lags, and he went ahead and start setting up his laptop for better image quality at the top of the hill. I secretly checked the sunrise time because I was mentally preparing myself for the possibility of not seeing another sunrise despite of all his hard works. 6:18am. So the website tells me. I tell myself, “it is ok if we don’t see it. If by 6:18am we still don’t see the sunrise, then we are probably not going to see it today”. And boy was I wrong! It was late, but it came, at 6:34am, that first ray of sunshine is so bright and pure and glorious, it signifies much more than just the sun or the beginning of the day, it represents dedication, love, and sacrifice. Such is the man that I dearly respect for his willingness to serve and desire for closeness with me and not being afraid to show it. Thank you, Jesus, for giving me such a man!