Childlike

"I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it." - Mark 10:15

For a long time before I met Jay, I was nicknamed the ice queen. I did not entertain suitors and kept a small circle. I focused on Miggy, work and my community. It took years for me to heal. It wasn't a smooth road since when I was finally ready I kept meeting the wrong guys. Ugh. 

I was telling a friend the other day to just let go and love fully. When I got fed up with meeting the wrong kind of men, I just gave up and prayed for God to navigate my life. He must've heard me pleading so bad, He answered in less than 24 hours. 

Sweetie asked if he could court me. I immediately said yes. I felt it was His Will. He was writing our love story from the moment we met. It was a good thing I took time to heal. I was ready by the time I met Sweetie and we became friends first. I went into our relationship like it was my first time. 

I abandoned the baggages I had from previous traumatic relationships because I trusted God would navigate me to the right one. I know it's hard to move on and not be scared that bad things could happen again. That's why you have to remember that God is always there for you. You are His child and He will always take care of you. Let go and let love and believe God is guiding you. 

Happy Sunday everyone!

#BeKind #StaySafe

Celebrating Our 14th Anniversary

Put away our aprons today, closed the kitchen from any cooking to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. That meant dressing up since we were going to dine out. We used the opportunity to take our Christmas family photo. Ended up a bit haphazard since we were rushing to leave for our lunch reservation. We'll just do it again for New Year, haha. 

Since on my birthday we tried Chef Tatung's Private Dining, I discovered he had a resto at BGC, Lore Manila. It's nearer and you can order from the menu (you can also opt for the course meal, but it's good if you're a bigger group). Traffic was light, so we arrived in just 20 minutes. Parking was very easy too and we found a PWD spot. Soon enough we were ushered to our reserved table. 

I was excited to try Lore Manila since they have Davao Kinilaw. I was hoping it would be the same as the one they served in Antipolo. We chose several dishes. Each dish is good to share 2 to 3 people. To break our fast we had Molo soup first. It was Miggy's first time to try it. I told him we used to have it often at home waaaay back. He liked it and I told him we should try to cook it next year. 

We also ordered Humba Cebuana, Five Spice Fried Chicken with Haw flakes sauce, and Grilled Bangus with Salsa. The boys loved the fried chicken. I liked it with the haw flakes sauce since it reminded me of my childhood. Mom always bought haw flakes for me since she worked in Binondo (the original PNB HQ). I also liked the humba since it wasn't too sweet and the meat was very tasty. Of course, we had Tatung's Fried Rice to match all the dishes.

One thing very interesting were the mocktails we ordered. I had ube macapuno, Sweetie got the ginger tea and Miggy had the strawberry-pineapple drink. They were very tasty and I think I got full quickly because the ube drink was quite heavy. It's delicious though, like drinking ice cream, haha. 

Well, we ended up skipping dessert since we were very full already. We enjoyed our meal at Lore Manila. The restaurant was a nice place. You can expect to eat good food with more than enough servings. We'll come back for another occasion (well we rarely go out anyway, haha). If you want to experience a higher level of Chef Tatung's fantastic dishes, try the private dining option (I have a vlog here). 

After our gastronomic dining experience, we walked around the mall and had coffee. Met up briefly with a friend and then did some errands (got water filter + a few missing groceries + gas). We don't like going out a lot, so we pack things in whenever we step out. Good thing traffic was light and we were home by sundown. 

We skipped gifts this year (also for Christmas). Well, we didn't have time and we were too frazzled because of November's misadventure, hahaha. We're also in the middle of decluttering so it didn't make sense to add more stuff. We'll just do it randomly in the next few weeks maybe. We're just happy to be together and enjoy it by eating good food. 

Happy Anniversary Sweetie and Miggy. Love you both forever!

#BeKind #StaySafe

14 Years!

Today Sweetie and I are celebrating our 14th year together as a couple! We just usually recognize it as a special day and don't do anything. We decided to just celebrate our wedding anniversary when we tied the knot. We'll probably have leftover adobo for dinner tonight haha. 

Circa 2007 in Baguio

Everyday is still special with Sweetie. We resumed filling up the 3-year couple journal. Our last entry was 5 years ago and then the journal got lost when we moved. I found it recently while sorting out stuff. It's been fun to read previous entries. I'm kept on my toes when answering because Sweetie always finds a way to be witty. 

Sweetie's my rock. He is "subok na matibay, subok na matatag"! We've been through a lot especially "in sickness and health". We have surgeries and hospitalizations in our arsenal now and we know we can weather anything together. 

Let's look back at our milestones -

The proposal

The wedding

Need to find time to re-upload our wedding vid hehe.

The first day at home

And we have random videos of our life together on my YouTube channel. I originally wanted to post more vlogs, but I got busy. Tried posting  more last year, but I'm shy and I have an ongoing debate with myself about privacy haha. 

We're soon transitioning to a new phase in our lives. We're both really excited about it and look forward to be reunited with Miggy. I think we didn't do so well being empty nesters. We were just not ready yet. We probably need 20 more years with Miggy around haha. Every night I pray for us to have a happy and loving home where we could create more joyful memories together. 

Thank you Papa God for finding the right one for me and for continuing to write the best love story a girl could have <3

CB////*Yr2/171 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/194 #NewG276 #Home35 #Xmas87 #StayHome #BeKind

The Saint Who Brought Me My Forever

My Mom brought me up to get to know the saints. They also taught it in school. I love the fact that I'm remembering this part of me and I could ask for their intercession for my prayers and intentions. Something missing? Pray to St. Anthony. Pandemic? Pray to St. Roch. Need a miracle? Pray to Padre Pio* and ask your guardian angel to whisper to his ear. Anxiety? Pray to St. Dymphna. Teaching? Of course, St. La Salle is the one. 

At the La Salle Generalate, Rome.

I'm happy I bounced back quickly from last week's procedure. It was a blessing in disguise it was rescheduled because I can get feedback from my doctor before I get vaxxed this week. I've been praying a lot and I realized that's what was lacking in me the past few years. I think after OHS** I got too brazen and thought I was invincible. I was doing my mission and took it for granted that all systems would just run smoothly. 

I prayed every night, but my head would always be buzzing with other things. A couple of weeks ago I thought I could improve with how I did my prayers. I always hear people say that you have to be specific about your requests. I downloaded two prayer apps and started to pray novenas (now I know why my Mom always uses her prayer books). It was then I remembered the saint who led me to Sweetie. 

St. Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes. At some point in my life I gave up on love. I was badly heartbroken and kept meeting the wrong kind of guys. I felt it was impossible to find true love. I heard about St. Jude, so thought I'd pray to him. I did and eventually met Sweetie. I think I never thanked St. Jude for helping write my love story. I thank him every night now and I'm requesting for a couple of impossible things. Have anything that you think is impossible? Pray to St. Jude. He gave me my forever (#sanaol). 

CB///*Yr2/155 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/178 #NewG292 #Home50 #Xmas103 #StayHome #BeKind 

*Padre Pio novena starts tomorrow

**OHS - open heart surgery

Taking Chances

Circa October 2007

The other day I saw a video message I sent to Sweetie back in 2007. I made a video 3 weeks after we became a couple. It was a short message thanking him for loving me. Sweetie and I became best friends before we became a couple. When he asked permission to court me I just said yes. I thought it would be so awkward for us to go through the ligaw stage, so I just said yes. 

I sent the video to Sweetie last night. He had a huge smile on his face after watching it. The road to Sweetie was riddled with a lot of wrong turns and potholes. It took me years to heal from my last relationship before I took the chance again. After many, many years God finally answered my prayer for the right person for me. 

Finding the video was a good reminder for me that God answers prayers in His time. It took 15 years before that prayer was answered. And God did find the right person for me. I can just imagine how hard it is for Sweetie to take care of me. My prayer now is to get better so I can take care of him and Miggy too.

So how did I know he was the one? I just knew and took the chance to love and be loved. 

“I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Matthew 11:24).

CB///361  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/24 #StayHome #BeKind   

Ligaw - courtship

That Time I Gave Up, My Life Got Better

Many years ago I was a mess. I wasn't happy and was continuously getting disappointed with my choices. I was single for a long time already at that time and I was mulling whether I was meant for single blessedness. I already had Miggy and thought I could just go for my Phd. The funny thing is I gave myself a deadline.

I prayed for it. I told Papa God if I was meant to marry I should be in a relationship on or before September 30, 2007. If there wasn't anyone I'd enroll in graduate school and would just focus on that and Miggy. That was my plan and I had already accepted my fate. 

I was on my way home from San Francisco on September 26 and I was in the plane when I realized my deadline was coming up. I was really bent on following the deadline. I gave myself that expectation because I wanted to move forward. I made a desperate plea to Papa God and told him things were really not going well, this is how my plea went -

"Dear Papa God, it's a few days before my deadline. I messed up again. I've been making bad decisions and I give up. Can you please take over and navigate my life? If by the 30th I'm not in a relationship then I'd accept my fate and will dedicate my life to serving you."

Arrived in Manila early morning of September 28. I was badly jetlagged and ended up chatting with Sweetie in the evening. Our friendship deepened that year, we were best friends by that time. I had that strange wedding dream which involved Sweetie, but I never told him about it. I set it aside because our friendship was more precious for me. 

That night, around 1 in the morning Sweetie said he wanted to tell me something important. It took him almost an hour and a half before he was able to tell me he thought about being more than friends. 

And the rest is history. 

Like wow oh wow, that's how God wrote my love story. And that's how when I gave up, He took over and made my life better. 

CB//192 #StuckAtHomeDay/222 #WFH131 #StayHome #BeKind