Nico's Accident

Nico loves to play on the slide in the rather quite small playground of the community where we are living in now. What is it in children that they never tire of repetitive activities? He can slide down and come up again then slide down dozens of time without tiring. He varies the activity by running from the top of the slide down to you who is suppose to catch him while he is accelerating towards you.

But his accident is not with this slide thing but when he was on his way to the slide and a 5 year old boy hit him while the latter was in full swing and Nico ran up infront of him. Nico rolled over then fell in a 1-foot drop towards the concrete pavement hitting and bruising the left side of his temples. By God's grace, he did not suffer any fracture and worse, any brain hemorrhage.
2 Thessalonians 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Prayers have new meaning

When I don't know what else to do and I'm at my wit's end, prayers have new meaning to me. I've been repeatedly asking friends and family to pray for me and my family. We've been experiencing a series of transitions, challenges and sicknesses. I remember my favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 which states:

⁹ But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

¹⁰ That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When I don't know what else to do, prayers provide a ton load of comfort. When I don't know what to pray, I can even pray with groans and the Lord understands what I mean (understood na yun kay Lord). My silence and keeping still before God when I'm speechless has meaning when done in the spirit of prayer. What will become of me if not for the Lord? I am weak but He is my strength...He says in Him I am strong not that I can be strong. May this truth be true in my life. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Nico's early morning crying frenzy

We are still wondering why at around 2:00-3:30 early in the morning, at least about 3x a week, Nico wakes up in a crying frenzy. There is no apparent reason for his crying and he can hardly be consoled or goaded to calm down. His inability to talk and our inability to understand him create frustration on his part and ours. It could not be because of nightmares. Sometimes, he cries at night even before he sleeps. By day, everything goes back to normal. He is hyperactive and jolly most of the time just as one would expect a boy of 2 to behave. Please pray with us so we can understand and alleviate his crying episodes at night. We would welcome any suggestions from you.

After the floods

We noticed nothing alarming when drove early in the morning through the rains on our way to Napico, a marginalized community within our district. There was nothing alarming either when the streets just in front of the church where we conducted our medical mission started to flood. Floods come and go. It is a way of life in many parts of the metropolis. But this one never went away quickly. By noontime, the waters was knee-high and by mid-afternoon, it was already waist-deep and started coming inside the church. News of flooding in more lower areas of the metropolis kept us glued to our cellphones. Late in the afternoon, I texted Joyce to tell her that we are spending the night at the 2nd floor of the church.

It is hard to describe the discomfort of sleeping on top of 3 chairs right above a raised platform used in Sunday worship services. The whole 2nd floor was sardines-packed with people and you have to meander through a winding course of sleeping bodies just to get to the wash room. I must have woken up at least 5 times in the night and wee hours of the morning and each time, I kept on looking outside to check if the waters already receded but it seemed to get higher and higher.

Before noon of the following day, we were surprised to see a real boat in front of the church building! The devastation caused by the sudden flood has been terrible especially in many low-lying areas like in Marikina and Cainta which are about 10-minute ride away from our residence which was not spared either as the waters reached ankle-deep. My in-laws sheltered 5 flood victims while we rummaged our closets for extra clothes, beddings, pillows etc. for the relief work conducted by our church.

Typhoon Ondoy left a number of persons dead and thousands of families homeless, especially those who are living near bodies of water. For the poor, what little they have had been taken away. I try not to dwell on the thought that the politicians who are now taking the opportunity of doling out relief goods for media coverage ought to have been the very ones who could have minimized the damage to life and limbs had there been a serious attempt to preserve the watershed and work-out a proactive plan in case of calamities. Pre-disaster warning measures are virtually inexistent and unknown in this disaster-prone country. We are in the ring of fire---our islands are dotted with active volcanoes. We are on top of an earthquake belt. The powers that be had been shaving the trees off our mountains thereby assuring us of constant flooding during the rainy season. On top of that, we have an average of about 30 typhoons a year coming in and out of the country! It is a comfort to know that many NGOs and churches are more coordinated and able to assist victims and their families. I wonder what lessons can we all learn from all of these?

4th Wedding Anniversary & 1st day of school

4th Wedding Anniversary namin ngayon. Kaybilis ng panahon. Di mo namamalayan dahil di ka na magkanda-ugaga sa kakulitan ni Nico na daig pa ang kiti-kiting nabulabog. Rechargeable yata ang nakakabit na baterya nito. Unang araw din niya sa eskwela. Natutuwa kaming malaman na may pre-school na malapit sa bahay, ang Creative Space...isang progressive school na nagtuturong maging health-conscious at earth-friendly ang mga bata...Mas excited pa yata si Joyce kasi naghahanda ng husto ng mga gamit ni Nico para sa eskwela. Suggestion din ng aming kumare na si Dra. Marie Lim na isang magaling na Developmental Pedia specialist na makakatulong kung mag-aral na ng maaga si Nico. Sobra kasing hyperactive.

Chateau Verde

Chateau Verde is nestled in one of the inner streets inside the housing area for faculty in the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus. Food is great, mostly Spanish & Mediterranean types and the ambience just right for private dinners with close friends. We spent a very pleasant evening with Dr. Jean Go-Du (Joyce's OB) with her husband, photographer Andy Du and their daughter Je-Anne. They liked their caricatures drawn by Daroy of The Inquirer which we gave to them as present. Naya was sleeping most of the time while Nico was running all over the place and managed to topple-down the dried painted twigs serving as wall decor while playing with his toy car.

PADA

Take a fresh lettuce or sesame leaf, place a piece of fresh raw fish in the middle, paste the fish with chili and bean paste , paint it with a dash of sesame oil taste, then wrap the fish and eat it. That's an interesting way of eating, the Korean way. Our dinner at Pada Restaurant with missionaries No Hwa Jin and Lee tae Gil was an interesting culinary experience...after our medical mission in Bgy. Isidro in Antipolo. Naya slept most of the time (no, thanks, but I prefer breastmilk, hands down---Naya).