Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Accommodating and Compromising

It has been a month of marriage life for me. So far, it has been a wonderful experience being married. I thought I just want to jot this good-times-moment down so that when arguments happen, I can look back on the good times that we had.

To be fair, in the entire month, I only had 2 weeks of the real-world, being away for honeymoon for the first 2 weeks. Going away for honeymoon immediately was pretty helpful we felt. It helped us adjust to living together as a couple first (before I started staying with Geo's parents). It gave us ample time to talk about some standards and values we share. Although it was a little surreal (living in hotel and away from homeland), it was a pretty fruitful experience.

In the 2 weeks, I found that my in-laws love language is Acts of Service. They love by serving. They hardly talk, although I found a few good occasion to chat. Last week while cooking together with my father in law, I spoke of preserved beancurd (tao-lu) and how much I love it with porridge and how much I love porridge. Next day, my mother in law, in her silent ways, cooked porridge for me. My parents in law wakes up very early daily and will prepare breakfast.

I constant remind myself that as much as I have to adjust to living with my husband and in-laws, I cannot cannot forget that my in-laws are also adjusting to living with me. Compromising and accommodating is something so crucial. Now, I eat more healthily because of a value my other half and his parents hold - breakfast every morning. Usually, I don't have my breakfast (because I always wake up just in time for a bath and off to work I go). Now, I learn to wake up earlier because my PIL has already prepared breakfast for us.

I thank God for in-laws who allow me into their lives (to cook, to do household chores, to enter their room) yet still respect my private space whenever I need to.

Living with Geo has been amazing. He has such great capacity to tolerate and accommodate to my nonsense. Between us, I am the more picky one.
Our differences can be quite vast when it comes to living, honestly. He is the can-live-with-things & careless type of guy. I am the need-things-to-be-in-their-proper-place & prim-and-proper type of girl. I need things to be organized. It may be messy but I still need organization. Last week, we had a short cold war triggered by a missing bedsheet (laugh! but yes, missing bedsheet!). Prior to that, there were little occurrences of misplacement. Finally the missing bedsheet blew me off and I decided not to talk. After 30 mins (or so), I decided to talk things out. Thankfully, Geo's a very good listener and very open to accommodating and learning my way of living so we had a good talk.

Well, this is but just one month. I am enjoying every minute of it. Let's see how things go when work starts for me next Monday. :)

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