Dearest husband bibikooooii

 September 29, 2021

Dearest Bibikooooii,

Hi bikooooii! Don’t be surprised or get confused about this letter. Wala ra koy lingaw, hehehe.

I was browsing sa fb page nga akong na join-nan about dream houses of random people. You know I always get ‘suya’ when it comes to things like that because you know how much I wanted to have our own dream house, how much we both wanted it. We both wanted to have it this year unta before our wedding come September 2021, since we have acquired the lot last year.

But you know, life doesn’t always turn out the way we plan. God has better plans that He gave us our greatest blessing – baby claude. Of course, it’s a life-changing surprise that we will forever be thankful for!

And so everything planned was instantly changed. We had our wedding earlier this year, May 2021. It was our dream wedding – intimate and magical. We both know we really worked hard and saved for it (thanks to our small business) because we don’t wanna bother our families with the expenses. 

After the wedding, another thing we have to face is baby claude’s delivery. Again, we’re not used to asking financial help from both our families so we made sure we have enough savings for it, after spending for our wedding. So, we are both faced with the realization that we couldn’t afford to build our dream house this year as well.

Also, COVID affected our small businesses so finances were tight. 

But we are still here, enduring and trusting God’s ways.

Bikoooii, I just wanna let you know that I am fully trusting God’s plans in our lives. I always pray to Him that He will give you all the desires of your heart because you truly deserve it.

There was a point in my life where everything’s just so wrong and that life’s always unfair to me and that things I prayed hard for were never given to me. Now, looking back, I realized and fully understood why those things were never given to me at that time. And everything just fell perfectly in their right places in God’s perfect time.

So I want you to do the same, bikoooii. To trust Him and his timing always.

And lastly, I just want to let you know that I will always be happy to be blessed with a blessing called YOU. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I wouldn’t wish for someone better because you are already the best. 

We both didn’t come from a rich family that’s why we couldn’t easily afford the things we really wanted for our little family now, but I know that we always work hard to achieve them. I am willing to face all life’s challenges as long as I have you.

Someday, all our dreams will come true bikooooii. 

Until then, let’s just enjoy the precious moments in the present.

…with our baby claude… <3

Love you always,

Gwapa nimung asawa, hahahaha!

Our little white dot

 

Feb. 26, 2021

 

Dearest little one,

So today’s the first day I saw you. Been seeing social media posts from other mommies posting this kind of picture but I never really cared. Until I finally had my own.

Few weeks ago, I’ve felt strange and weird feelings inside me. And I’m almost quite sure that you’re the one responsible for it. 😊

I’ve never felt anything like this before. Everything’s just so uncomfortable and weird and I always feel sick. Yes, it’s because of you. I’m just being honest here, ok? Don’t get mad (wink!).

But let me tell you about my 1^st doctor’s visit.

I’m quite certain that you’re already inside of me because I took a PT and it’s positive!!! But doctor seemed not convinced at first when she went over my records (she’s also my OB by the way when I had a checkup 3 years ago because of my PCOS). You see, little one, mama has these conditions that usually make it hard for women to have a baby. First, I have PCOS in both ovaries. Women with PCOS usually need OB’s help – months of treatment with a lot of meds to take – before they can successfully have a baby. I didn’t have any. Second, I have retroverted uterus which means quite a number of tricks should be done first before a successful conception. Also, mama’s already in my 30s which would make it harder to conceive, as other people would say. And I also have a low uterus (if that’s the right English medical term of it), which will require a lot of bed rest.

I have friends with these conditions and it took long for them to finally have a baby. Some don’t even have yet as of this moment.

But you, you just came and surprised mama and papa like that!

So you see, little one, you are such a warrior and a fighter and our very own tiny miracle.

And when doctor finally zoomed you in in that monitor and told me, “there’s your baby”, oh my God, little one, mama’s in tears!!! I was trying hard to hold it back because mama’s shy but you brought those happy tears. You were just that tiny little white dot over there (7 weeks) but you made mama cry – of happiness, of course!

And when I showed your picture to papa, he was also in tears. And I was in tears again, hahahaha! You should know you are that much loved, little warrior. And we are really really happy to have you.

Some of my closest friends know how afraid I am regarding my condition before. For the past years, people have always been telling me to get pregnant already because I’m not getting any younger and with these complications.

But mama just can’t do that easily.

She wants to be really ready for you – financially, most importantly. She and papa work hard to be really ready for you but deep inside, mama’s also VERY afraid that when she’s finally ready, you won’t come easily, or worse, you won’t come at all.

And she keeps that heartbreaking thought to herself, every single day, before.

You see, our little warrior, mama didn’t come from a well-do family. She experienced all the struggles of being poor at a young age. And even when studying, she had to do things on her own. One day, when you are old enough, mama’s gonna tell you her story. But as of now, these are the reasons she never wanted to rush things about marriage and having a baby. She wanted to have you and raise you and provide for you well. She wanted to make sure you are not going to experience what she had experienced. She wanted to be responsible.

For you.

I guess you know mama and papa are already ready. Besides, we have planned to do our wedding this year, anyways.

So thank you for coming at exactly the right time, our little miracle.

And for coming easily without making mama and papa wait too long. It’s as if you know that mama’s now really ready for you.

So that’s all for now, our little white dot.

I still have a lot of things to tell you so be sure to hang in there and be healthy, ok?

Mama and papa will do everything to keep you safe until it’s time to finally meet you.

We are so excited!

We love you …

 

Always,

Mama & Papa

#14 - 17 reasons why

 

He goes with all the crazy ideas I come up with.

This is probably the craziest decision I have ever made in my entire life – our Hongkong trip.

This was in 2019. I never had the chance to write about this crazy trip because I never had time, of course because of work. But now, I have all the time in the world to do so, after more than a year? Hahaha

So it was in April 2019 when we booked a Hongkong trip with friends through this local travel agency. We were supposedly scheduled to fly September of the same year. Unfortunately, about June that year, Hongkong protests broke out, if you remember that incident. It was all over the news. Everything was chaotic and unsafe in Hongkong and so flights and tours got cancelled. Two weeks before our scheduled trip, the travel agency informed us that we couldn’t push through and that we will just be refunded. The whole group got so disappointed because we were all very excited for it. And it’s supposedly gonna be our first time to fly out of the country.

I was really disappointed. My mind and body were all ready for that trip only to be cancelled days before. I really wanted to go especially to Disneyland. Jeff and I did.

Suddenly, a crazy idea just popped up in my head. What if we just go? No travel agency, no tour guides, just a spontaneous trip to the happiest place on Earth!

I told my friends about it but they were quite hesitant to do it – first, it’s gonna be more expensive and second, it’s gonna be really risky. So I got disappointed again.

But Jeff told me “kita rang duha ay! Anniversary trip nato!”

I laughed hard with that suggestion. That’s really a very crazy one (although this trip was supposedly our 3^rd anniversary trip in the 1^st place). Both of us haven’t tried travelling outside the country yet. I don’t think we can do it just the two of us. Maybe with friends, we can survive. But just the two of us? Nope, I don’t think so.

And Hongkong’s not really an English-speaking country.

And then there’s the immigration.

And I didn’t have any idea how it’s gonna be like in Hongkong.

And I’m afraid we will get lost. I never had any sense of direction that’s why I wanted to have tour guides.

And we don’t have hotel reservation. No itinerary. Not a single map of Hongkong.  No plan at all.

Nothing.

But guess what? We still decided to go – last minute. Hahahaha!

We bought our tickets at the airport the morning of our trip (oh diba!)

We flew to Manila 11:00am, September 24, and had a connecting flight to Hongkong at 6:00pm the same day. We arrived in Hongkong past 8:00 pm and started our long adventure of asking questions, reading signs, getting lost, riding trains and buses, getting amazed of octopus cards, kulba moments….etc… etc…

I love their super fast trains!

We survived airport hassles and immigration scares even if it’s our first time!

To make the long story short, we safely arrived in our hotel past 10:00pm already. It’s a loooooong story how we managed to find our hotel. I know God sent us angels to help us find our way.

Even if it’s so late already, we still went out to look for food coz we were so hungry but our faces were full of crazy grins of what we have crazily done. We just kept on saying that “at this time yesterday, we were in Sibulan and now here we are!” then we just laugh at ourselves. Well, that’s just us – the crazy us!

1^st day.

Our first target was Disneyland. It’s my childhood dream to be there and finally, I was able to fulfill it with my bibikoi. It was such a very magical experience. Whole day of walking and exploring Disneyland. It’s very tiring but I loved every minute of it. Words couldn’t describe the magic that Disneyland is. Someday, I’m gonna bring my kids there. We will definitely come back one day.

Second day was Ocean Park. Another very wonderful place but the ocean park rides were not for me. Too extreme and you know how “bayot” I am of extreme rides. Jeff had to go on his own and I just took pictures. Hahaha sorry bikoiii! But I loved all the underwater experience.

Third day was Ngong Ping Village. It was a 3.5-kilometer cable car ride to the great Buddha – 7 kilometers back and forth. Though the heights always scare me, I was extremely amazed travelling above Hongkong – through its seas and foggy mountains.

We also went to downtown Hongkong after, explored night markets for pasalubongs, bought hongkong milkteas, ate a lot of foodies and walked and walked forever. Every single day was exhausting but full of fun!

Surprisingly, we survived all the long rides of trains and buses from our hotel to our destinations. Jeff just downloaded some things from google, then he just read train station signs, kept asking questions even if most of the time no one wanted to answer us… and we survived! I was not really a help, hahahaha!

We were in Hongkong for 5 days. And survived!

We had so many funny moments in this trip. Most of the time it was tiring but our trip was full of laughing-at-ourselves moments. There were so many times we did stupid and embarrassing things being first-timers but we just tell ourselves, “wa na sila kaila nato!” and then laugh at each other.

Some people say that the best way to really know your partner is to go on a travel alone together and it will reveal behaviors that you haven’t known before. Just like in the movie “Kita kita” where Alesandra and Paolo ended up breaking up after their trip. Some people I know also attested to that “sigeng away” while and after they travelled together.

But Jeff and I didn’t experience that. That Hongkong trip was supposedly stressful because of our unpreparedness but all we had were laughter and funny moments. Every flaw in our trip was made a joke and was not used to make “away”.  At the end of each day in Hongkong, we talked about those funny moments and laugh at them – real hard laugh! After returning from our trip, all we felt was “feeling victorious” because we conquered something big – something really daring – TOGETHER. And the memories that we had in Hongkong were so precious and magical and one-of-a-kind that made me so proud of the both of us.

That trip just proved that no matter how difficult and confusing the big big world may be, as long as we have each other, we can conquer them all and laugh at it all!

As long as I have my superman with me, I’ll be just fine.

Until our next travel bibikooooii….