Our newest nephew :)

Hello world :) let us all welcome the newest addition to our family..my very cute nephew :)
He was born May 6, 2014.

Isn't he adorable? Those cute little feet..I so love to kiss them.

God will provide

Trusting that God will provide for all the medicines that my Nanay need.

Today, we (my sister) brought her back to her doctor for the check up and she prescribed another two set of medicines for the brain -because she suffered most in the head at that motor vehicle accident.

To tell you honestly, it is not easy, seeing her so weak, seeing all the mediciness she has to take and thinking of ways how we can financially support her every need. I get tired sometimes but I drew strength from the Lord.

yes, my heart and my strength may fail..but GOD is the STRENGTH of my HEART- FOREVER.

And though the need is big as of this writing-I trust that we will be able to buy all those medicines. God will make a way and  miracles still do happen. 

This weekend, I will go home to take care of her and I trust that God will also provide for my bus fare. I'm sure He will. He never let us down and have always met our needs. My faith tells me that even our future needs have already been secured, our future house, our car, my husband's home studio and all the equipments including studio mixers maybe.

The GOD whom we serve owns the golds and silvers of this world and HE is able to bless us exceedingly and abundantly. Can you say Amen to that?

Psalms 30:5b

image from google

I maybe grieving now but I know there is also reason to rejoice. My dad is now with our Heavenly Father, in His arms, there is no pain and there are no worries.

Yes, I will miss him so much but I am comforted by the thought that I'll see him again someday.

Do you let your kids watch TV?

I am not yet a Mom but I have few nieces and nephews, all of them grew up watching tv. Now, in my yahoo group, there has been a lengthy discussion and exchange of ideas about the TV policy at home, the benefits and the downside of it. I still don't know what i would do if ever I become a parent but I am sure I can not eliminate TV at all in our home so I guess I would be in the "restricted tv time" side. But I really do not know. 

I also believe in the NO TV policy but that would mean no TV at all in your home right? 

Most of the Christian parenting books and articles I read (yes I read those even I am still not a parent) are on the no TV policy because they believe that TV has so much influence in a child and that it takes away the creativity in them. With TV, they don't need to imagine things anymore because it's there already. I have friends who let their kids watch tv and surprisingly they (the kids) also learn from it. 

Anyways, I will know what to do when I get there, for now,my husband and I enjoy watching tv together (which we very seldom do as we are not fond of télés series and mostly we open our tv to watch the news only) 

How about you? do you have kids? do you let them watch TV? 

June 17. Father's Day

My father just phoned me a while ago, he seldom calls me and when he does I know it is important and yes I was not wrong, it is important because it is about his medicines. The call reminded me also that it's Father's day on Sunday, (if you still don't have gifts for your father you can check redenvelope fathers day gifts online catalog) I wonder what we will do in the church for the Fathers :)

As for me, I don't know what to give him, I want to give him money so he can buy what he wants,(hopefully)  but definitely we will visit them on Sunday and have dinner with them. Spending time with your parents can be the best gift di ba?

My Father and his hats

Whenever I go out of town for a vacation or mission trip, I make sure I bring my father home a Cowboy Hat, I have bought him so many (lost count already) as far as I remember , got him one from Malaysia and Hongkong and he always love it!

The pictures below were taken on his 75th birthday and each of us are wearing his hats :)

the girls in the family with my Tatay

and the boys :)

I pray I can bring him more hats in my future travels and mission trips :D

Thankful Thursday-Family

It's been a while since the last time I participated in Thankful Thursday. Hopefully I'll be able to do it again every week, truly we are never out of something to be thankful for.

This week I am grateful for my family - my parents are here with us in the city and will be staying with my sister's family for a while. Thank you that finally they gave in to our request. It is hard for us to visit them so often in the province and we are worried most of the times as they were both old and living alone in our old home. Now  I can see them as often as I want to.

I am also very thankful about their health, my father stopped smoking years ago ( so no need to buy him  cigar humidors ) and I'm glad he did that. It helped him a lot, he's on medicines but for his age I consider him still healthy.  My mother is also doing good, strong and still very much willing to help her children and adores her grandkids to the max. She's also taking meds for sugar maintenance but other than that she's healthy. They're now both on their 70's but still fine. Thank God for that. 

Today, we also celebrate a niece birthday. She's my first niece and she's a joy to both her parents and to the whole family.  Thankful that she's been given to us :) 

That's me and her:

Happy 10th birthday Rachel!

Thank you Lord that I have a strong family relationship and that in tough times (like now) I can just be with them and be reminded that life is good :)

Hop on to Laurie's blog for more Thankful entries.

Realizations. Decision

I married a servant of God, that I knew very well since day 1 of our marriage or even long before the wedding date itself.

So when he decided to work on a secular job on a full time basis I had mixed feelings. I know he wanted to provide for me so he felt the needed to work with a steady income and for that reason alone I was happy, but knowing he'll just work for the ministry part time made my heart bleeds also because I know from the very start that he has a calling.

Romans 8 :28 said.."All things work together for good to them who love God"... and I believe everything happens for a reason. God allowed my husband to work on the same company where I work and it's been four months. He had many realizations in that span of time and yesterday he made the decision of which I am truly happy. He decided to leave the job and get back on track with God's calling.

For sure, the salary he receives on a regular basis is a big help but that isn't the most important thing in our lives. We are servants and we will serve with or without monetary compensations because we know in our hearts that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.

I am grateful he was able to experience a job outside from what he's used to. And he said he's thankful for the experience also although I know what he got was a tough and rough job compared to regular office work or some Concierge Jobs but nonetheless we are both thankful for the learnings and experience.

I know this is God's will..why? because I have this unexplainable peace in my heart. I am happy and my only prayer is that He will be more closer..we will be more closer to God than ever before.

God is our provider, our refuge and I know HE will not forsake us, there will be tough times (specially in our finances) but God will always be in control and I know there is no reason for me to worry.

The Newlywed

Ramon is my brother in law, younger than my husband. I am so proud of him! he's so close to me because he has pure heart, from the time I met him even before I married his brother he's been special to a lot of people because of his godly character, very kind hearted and so humble.

Yesterday, he married the woman that was chosen by God for him :) and I love them both!

Don't you agree that they're beautiful couple? Who would have imagine Ramon the street kid, the one sniffing rugby to fill an empty stomach? collecting garbages just so he can have something to eat? is now the man wearing tuxedo suit and holding the hands of this beautiful lady :) So many have been blessed by his life and by their love and in return they were blessed also yesterday, different gifts for her and for him abounds :)

Even their wedding is a story of faith and trust in God, being a full time worker in a small church, he may have nothing financially speaking but he proved to us once again that if he has God he has everything!

Congratulations again and WE LOVE YOU BOTH! keep making us proud :)

Family Team Building

The Maricaban/Mulawin (Pasay) outreach of our church just had their family team building. I was asked to facilitate the games and I gladly accepted the job. I commend them for doing this kind of activity every year, they focus on family and oh how nice it is to see each family having fun together. I am such a happy facilitator because I saw everyone enjoying the games and really trying out their best to win in each game. I made it like a family competition and motivated them to work hard and gave points and awarded the winning family. I can say they all enjoyed it. The highlight of course is the message from the speaker which focused also in the family. Everyone had a good time indeed.

I will upload the hundreds of photos I took and will post them here but have to read about equestrian helmets first.

It's Sunday tomorrow and I hope you all have fun worshiping the Lord together with your family and church mate. God bless you all!!

Home

Sometimes I long to be home.

Not that I do not have a home here but when you feel sad and gloomy, when you need rest, when you need a mother’s embrace and assurance that you are loved, when you need a certain security from everything that’s bothering you, you long to be “home”.

It doesn’t even matter if it is a small house, a tiny space in the side of the street, a shanty, a mansion or a manufactured home, I know we all have in our heart what we called “home” and it varies on how you define home in your heart.

Past happenings in our family made me long for home…. in the warmth and comfort of my mother’s love.

My diamonds

Women love all kinds of jewelries, no doubt about it. But I guess diamonds would still be on top of our list. Diamonds they say are girl’s best friend. I do not have any diamonds nor would I have one in the near future, I just can’t afford it and so is my hubby, not even if wholesale diamonds are a lot cheaper.

But I have other diamonds in life.

My husband- he’s my bestfriend and he’s far better than any diamonds I can get in this world.

My parents – I will forever treasure them.

My nieces and nephews- like a women who take good care of her jewelries, I will also take good care of them, they bring smiles to my parents faces and to me! They are the family’s gems!

My friends- like diamonds and jewelries, if you have the best cut..you should be proud and I am..I’ve got so many good friends, real find :)

Do you have nay diamonds too?

Happy 73rd Birthday Tatay!

My tatay (father) is 73 today and I want to thank God for the gift of life. And I pray that He would still give my father more birthday celebration with us. Today we had lunch at my sister's house and I can see how happy my father is, we were all there (except for my brother's family in Pangasinan but it's ok because they were with them naman last New year). We ordered a whole roasted pig (lechon baboy) just for the whole family. :)

I wish I could give my father a nice vacation somewhere so he and mom can relax a bit, that's one of my dream for them, I want them to see more of the Philippines,experience a nice hotel like los cabos hotels in Mexico. Have fun at the beach with their grand kids, go to parks, visit zoobic safari, visit their relatives.

It's not too late I know, they maybe in their old age but they are still both healthy and I know they would still love to travel.

Again, thank you Lord for giving my dad long life, please give him more so he would see his grandchild with us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATAY!!