Tag Archives: david

Faith Talk Family & Friends Life as I Know It Love Photo Dump

My husband turned 28

December 23, 2011 – 2:12 pm

It’s not the first time we celebrated his birthday together. Last year we were in New York, but his birthday was also the last day of my trip and I was flying back to Manila the very next day. Our emotions were all over the place, I remember. We busied ourselves doing last minute Christmas shopping, and packing up my suitcases, and trying to ignore the fact that we were going to part ways again. As the night was ending, we did our best to stay up and keep our eyes open even if we were tired and spent, until it was time to drag my feet and my luggage to the airport.

That’s how we spent his 27th birthday.

This year was a perfect contrast. :)

This year, we were not in a rush. We waited for the clock to strike 12 (same timezone, yes!), spent the first minutes on Skype with my father-in-law, and he opened his gifts like he couldn’t wait. We had a long uninterrupted sleep, we woke up next to each other, and I cooked breakfast like I never did before. (Well, we never eat breakfast.) And then we spent the day doing whatever the birthday boy thought of doing.

We’ve had parties here and there the whole month of December, we even hosted some at home; so for his birthday, he specially requested to have the day just to ourselves. We played some sets of bowling, watched a movie, had a full-body massage and spa, and a late night Taco party with the Velardos.

It was a beautiful, serene, quality time together, accentuated by lots of laughter, hugs and kisses, tears of joy, and moments we would stop in our tracks and marvel at God’s grand scheme of things. Oh how things didn’t seem to make sense before! And oh how He unraveled His great master plan and brought us where we are in His own sweet time.

I’ve been blogging relentlessly about our story, mostly because the daily dose of inspiration is too overwhelming to contain and I need a place to share them all; partly because I have a feeling that someone somewhere is going through similar valleys and roads, and I thought, if only I could encourage at least one person to keep the faith and never tire on chasing his/her dreams, then this blog has served beyond its purpose. Although it’s not really a self-help blog with how-tos and 101s to long distance relationships and chasing dreams (well, not yet), I’m happy to be sharing my life here as a case study. Lest you need to pick up a lesson or two.

God has made many of my dreams come true, and replaced the good ones with the best; and while the journey is not a walk in the park and we have to hurdle through difficult situations and people along the way, God is faithful, and well, we’re living our lives together now aren’t we? :)

So to you who’s going through your own roller-coaster ride of a life and wondering when the chase will end, take it from us: God has your best interest in mind, always. He will see you through. Just as He did with us.

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Faith Talk Family & Friends Love

On God’s grand scheme of things

December 21, 2011 – 2:42 am

It’s my husband’s birthday today/yesterday (today in New York, yesterday in Manila). I intend to post a longer blog with lots of photos as soon as I find time, but for now, a quick post before I retreat to bed.

As his birthday was about to end, my husband and I reflected upon the past year and how much has happened in such a short period of time. It wasn’t long ago when we would celebrate birthdays and monthsaries in front of Skype, opening our Fedex-ed gifts and finding creative ways to bridge the distance. Don’t get me wrong, we treasure those good ol’ days, we learned so much from them. But we cannot deny the fact that deep within our hearts we incessantly prayed for the day we would get to spend these special occasions together.

And now we’re here.

We had quite a lengthy prayer to cap the night, thanking God for blessing my husband 28 awesome years, most especially for the past year which was exceptionally beautiful. You bet there were tears of joy all over the place.

Chuck Swindoll wrote something that pretty much describes how it feels like, being in the center of God’s grand scheme of things:

Life is not based on blind fate or random chance. Everything that happens, including the things you cannot explain or justify, is being woven together like an enormous, beautiful piece of tapestry. From this earthly side it seems blurred and knotted, strange and twisted. But from heaven’s perspective it forms an incredible picture. Best of all, it is for His greater glory. Right now, it seems so confusing, but someday the details will come together and make good sense.

There it is—part of God’s perfect plan unfolding.

Those years spent apart were difficult, and there were a gazillion things we couldn’t understand (even until now). But as we witness God’s master plan unfold, it becomes clearer each day why God allows things to happen the way they do.

It’s not my birthday today, but it’s like I’m the one who was given such a beautiful gift.

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3 Beautiful Things Faith Talk Web Hopping

Polaroid Pogo prints, Habakkuk 3, & some link love

November 24, 2011 – 2:28 pm

1. Polaroid prints. We got a Polaroid Pogo Printer more than a month ago, but my excitement died down with each passing day as I realized how difficult it is to find Polaroid Pogo films in Manila. Why, surprise, surprise. A pack of 100 Zink photo sheets came in the mail last Friday, and I was left wondering again how my husband manages to cook up surprises like this from under my nose!

He ordered the Zink sheets from ebay, the package was shipped to the Philippines from California, and just like that, my love for instant photography is back. Mind reels that there’s a separate blog about this sometime soon. You bet. (:

2. Habakkuk 3:17-19. Last Sunday, David preached in church for the first time and the experience was awesome. I know, that last sentence was pretty biased, coming from his wife and #1 fan by default. But what’s truly awesome to me is how God prepared him for this. Sure, he didn’t have a degree in Theology, but his message felt so real to me because I’ve seen Habakkuk 3:17-19 happen in his life more times than my fingers can count and my mind can recall. I sat there front and center, listening to him preach God’s Word, feeling like I was getting to know him a little bit more, and feeling blessed and inspired of the message that God placed in his heart. So okay, I may be biased, but come to think of it, if there’s anyone who sees this man for who he really is now—ups and downs, good days and bad days—it’s got to be me. And I’m soo thankful to be a witness to how God is continuously working in his life, and our life together. (:

3. Link love. And now I send some link love to these people whose blogs/videos inspired me this week. After the jump.

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Destinations Photo Dump

Photographs from Boracay

November 18, 2011 – 11:45 am

The following photographs were stolen with our MacBooks, so if ever you see them anywhere beside my Facebook account and this blog, let us know ‘coz we’re still looking for suspects. Haha. (Kidding, we’ve let that issue go and have forgiven the bad people, just for the record.) That said, I’m glad to have backed these up by uploading them on Facebook. Don’t you just love how the world wide web can become your personal Time Machine sometimes? (:

Moving on. The thing is, it’s impossible to come home from Boracay without an SD card loaded with lots of memorable photographs of the sunset, the skies, the ocean, the white sand, and the fire dancers. And you don’t have to be an expert to take beautiful photos; anywhere you point your camera lens to is simply picture-worthy! Ok, I’m going to shut up now and just let the photographs do the talking blogging story-telling.

Getting to know Boracay: Taking lots of photos by the beach on our first night, lots of walking and scouting for good food, and feasting on some yummy Gelato! (:


Island-hopping: Photo session at Cove Island, swimming at Puka Beach, and some snorkeling. We looooved the Puka Beach, a secluded island with hardly any commercial establishments, just a boat ride away from the main beach front. It’s the only place in Boracay we actually got to swim at all! I really wish we stayed longer there.


Sunset; and getting a glimpse of the Boracay night life: We’re not really into bar-hopping, but we did enjoy walking by the beach under the moonlight, and watching the fire dancers somewhere at Station 2. But the highlight of our last night there would have to be that early dinner by the beach at sunset. We used to just dream about these things, and now we’re actually living them!

Boracay was truly a beautiful experience for us. Staying there 3 days was just right for us though, we would have gotten bored if we stayed longer haha! We loved the beach, the sand, and the food, and being away from the city for a while to just rest and relax. But mostly I loved doing all of these with David. I’ve always enjoyed my travels, but the thought that I’m never going solo again makes me look forward to exploring places—with a permanent travel buddy—even more. :)

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Uncategorized

Day 30: Home is wherever I’m with you

November 15, 2011 – 5:22 pm

30/30: Anything goes! After almost two months, this 30-day project has finally come to an end. And although it took me double the time to finish this one, the fulfillment is still the same as (if not greater than) the first time I did it.

And so our fairy tale wedding was over. It’s going to be the quickest day of your life, one of our Ninongs said. And he was right. We said goodbye to single life, boxed up my gown and his coat, went off to a quiet honeymoon just within the city (we reserved the out-of-town getaway for later), and the spotlight started moving slowly away from us, leaving us in our own little world.

Coming back from our honeymoon, we spent the rest of the week moving into our humble apartment, which soon became our very first home. Home. I just love the sound of that. 

Moving in is actually not a new thing for me. I’ve been apartment-hopping for years and I’ve had this love-hate relationship with packing and unpacking for as long as I can remember. But this time.. this time, it’s different. This time, I have someone carrying and unpacking boxes with me. This time, I’m not alone anymore.

Blue. Lots of blue. But of course we had to take our wedding motif home. (:

I absolutely enjoyed this time of our life together—cleaning up, unpacking our stuff, shopping at home depots, moving furniture around, making our own house rules, and seeing everything come together and fall into place. It’s a tedious task, but seeing the result of our hardwork was truly worth it all.

Now, coming home and spending time at home are my favorite times of day. Although our apartment was trespassed a few weeks ago and our most priced material possessions were stolen, nothing could take away the warmth and the love that our home is made of. The fact remains true, that God did not only bless us with a beautiful wedding, He also blessed us with a beautiful home. (:

So.. before I give in to the temptation of ending this with “and they lived happily ever after” (No? Too late?), allow me to sign this project off by sending some link love to our awesome wedding suppliers:

30-day Challenge, Round 2, over and out! (:

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