Been off here for awhile!

March 29, 2014 by feyma

Been off here for awhile!

You guys probably figured out why I was off here for awhile now. In the beginning of February Aaron and I went to Manila for a few days to renew his passport at the US Embassy. It really went well there and I was so happy for Aaron to finally got the passport done and renewed. When we got home, just a days or so after, Bob got ill. We noticed one of his arm had a sign of bug bite. Man, with just a bug bite it almost cost him his life. We thought he will not make it. Just watching him going through the pain it really broke my heart and made me cry. I would not want anyone going through what he went through. It’s not a fun scene to see.

Firstly we thought Bob had a stroke again. So we made an appointment to our doctor in GenSan. Why GenSan, well we really liked his doctor there a lot. But after my sister went to the doctor’s office there to see if she can squeeze in an appointment for Bob, my sister informed me that the doctor right now was busy and it will take a few days for her to see Bob. So we decided then for Bob to see local doctor here in the city. So we went to the doctor here. I’m glad we did. He really is a nice doctor. As soon as he saw Bob he immediately told Bob you don’t have a stroke, instead you had an infection. As he keeps looking and inspecting Bob’s arm, the doctor said to him that “if you want the infection to go away immediately it would be better for you to be admitted to the hospital so that you can have the medicines through iv that will kill the infections immediately”. Bob thought he can handle the infection by taking oral medications. Bob was taking the oral medications for a few weeks and still he was experiencing severe pains. The oral medication just helps a little.

Davao Adventist Hospital

I just basically stayed with him the whole time almost 24/7. He has to have somebody with him day and night. He can’t even lift his arms. If he tries to lift his arms, he will be in pain. Just moving from the chair to the bed is a big struggle for him. Luckily my kids are here with me. To help him get up I get Aaron and Chris. To help him with the eating and the drinking I had help from Jean and Chris. During weekends Jared and Nicole would help out too. It’s really a rotation for us. I’m just so happy that during daytime I had so many to help.

He had to have somebody with him, his arms and hands can’t really do much. If ever he tried to use his hands for lifting his glass to drink he will be in so much pain. If he will use his arms to get up, he will be in pain. So I told him to just let us feed him and when getting up I will have the kids help him. Finally he realized that he really needed us to help him. So its been weeks that Bob is in bed.

By week 4, Bob was still in so much pain. So he then decided to be admitted to the hospital. He stayed there for 4 days. The doctor really gave him the medicine that will kill the infection and also it will not hurt him being he is diabetic. As I’m writing this post, Bob just got out from the hospital. Finally he had the good medication that totally knocked out the infection. Right now he is resting and I’m still reminding him to take it easy. He is still not totally 100% healed.

To all of you here that continue praying for his recovery, a big “Thank You” to all of you. I really appreciate you guys prayers and thoughts. Thank you also for those friends that visit here in the house and in the hospital. Thank you also for calling and checking on him. I can’t even tell you how grateful I am to you guys. A big thank you too to the hospital staff at Davao Adventist Hospital especially to Sean Dignadice. Thank you again to all of guys and God bless!

MABUHAY!

January 16, 2014 by feyma

Just a reminder folks!

A few days ago me and Aaron went to the Department of Foreign Affairs or DFA to file for our Philippines passports. First time for Aaron to get a Philippine passport and a renewal Philippine passport for me. We’ve been wanting to go there since middle of last year, but didn’t get around to it until end of the year. We know we had to be there early, I mean really early even before the mall opened. Luckily now the DFA office here in Davao City located at the third floor of SM City Mall Matina, not too far from our house. Good thing that the office is inside the mall, so it’s not so hot inside the office anymore while waiting. So Aaron and I went there like around 9:30am just right before the mall opened.

Aaron & Feyma

We already went there last year to get the applications. We just want to get the application paper from the security guards. They were just handing out outside the door of the DFA office there. We didn’t even have to fall in line for that. Our purpose of going there to renew my passport since its already expired a long time ago ever since I was still living in the States. When it’s expired (around mid 1990′s) I just didn’t bother to get a renewal since I already had my US passport anyway. At that time the Philippines would not recognize the dual citizenship yet. They just passed the law on august of 2003.

So after we (me and the kids) got our dual citizenship here early last year, we then decided to get our Philippine passports. Since Aaron is going to the States this year, its good for us to get his Philippine passport for the first time. When the person at the DFA office explained the requirements to me for Aaron to do, he could tell I am cringing every time he’s explaining. Duh in short too many requirements to fulfill. Big Sigh. One of the requirements you have to fill the same papers (7 times) and have it notarized by the lawyer. Wow unbelievable… One of the requirements that will takes us long to get is the NSO birth certificate for Aaron. They will not bend down there, the applicant had to submit the NSO birth certificate. So any Filipina giving birth in the USA should report the birth of the kid to the nearest Philippine consulate office in your area. So that the kid will have records in the Philippines too. Easier to get any Philippine documents then especially passport after dual citizenship. Unfortunately none of my kids were reported of their birth to the Philippine Consulate Office after giving birth. I never knew and never had friends that reported the birth of their kids too as far as I know. I really wish to God we did. It will be all easier for us by now then.

The personnel at the DFA office told me that the processing for the reporting of the birth (NSO) since we are in the Philippines will take around 4-6 months. Wow, really long, but we don’t have a choice but to report it. My understanding when the personnel explain, they will send the papers again to the USA (at the consulate office there) for their records that the child was born there. Send it back to the NSO office here in the Philippines for verification and approval. At least the kid already has records both countries. Oh well just have to do what they requires us to do.

So reminder again Fil-Am friends: To please report your kids after giving birth in the USA to the nearest Philippine Consulate Office in your area. Some of you might want to get a dual citizenship of your kid. It will be easier to get the Philippine passport then.

Cheers!

January 9, 2014 by feyma

Conversation that I heard!

It’s really nice now that we decided to ride jeepneys in going anywhere here in the city area. On one of our jeepney routes, me and my niece overheard a very interesting conversation of 2 old friends. One of the ladies might be in her mid 50′s and the other one might be a little younger than me. I am just estimating their ages. The route was a bit longer because of the traffic accident. So even with the traffic I was not agitated because of the delay, just thankful of the interesting conversation I’ve heard inside the jeepney. As the minutes went on, their conversations got intense. Both of them shared each other stories about their friends or close friends rendezvous. I will share their conversation here, some readers here might know of similar stories happens to their friends or relatives. Feel free to share here. I will make 2 post from the lady’s chitchat.

Overheard on the Jeepney

As I gathered with their conversation, both ladies used to be neighbors. They were just in that jeepney together accidentally. When the older lady converse about the wedding of I think her close family member. She was asked to be the godmother (ninang) of the couples to be. She was happy to do it. She was even helping the couple in the wedding preparation. Just by listening I could tell that the wedding was a success. The godmother said that the guy, a foreigner from the States, was a bit older than the lady. I guess the guy had money and was getting a big pension. As I was hearing the conversation, the bride was a lavish spender. Bought stuff that’s not even necessary. They had a really nice wedding. Which was understandable since she was just married once, so why not have a fancy wedding? She bought stuff for their house and of course the typical thing partied almost every night, drinking beer and liquor.

The guy wants to live here in the Philippines because he has the money to live here comfortably. The lady really insisted before the wedding that they had to live in America. So the guy agreed to the wishes of the girl because he really loved the girl so much. Thinking about it, it might also good for the lady to live in the States for a few years for her to learn American culture and that she will get her US citizenship and after that they will settle back here in the Philippines for good.

Well, after the wedding when they should have the honeymoon somewhere. The girl postponed it and said that she’s not up to it going somewhere, because she was really exhausted with the prep of the wedding. So she just wants to go to the hotel and sleep. The godmother saw the reason for her not going with the honeymoon somewhere. The bride already had an affair with her ex two days after the wedding. Instead of spending time with her husband she was in bed with her ex. The husband was alone in his hotel room. He thinks his wife spends time with her parents. That really shocked the people that saw her and the ex especially the godmother.

So the godmother was fuming. She told the bride to end the relationship with the ex or she will tell the husband immediately, she said not tomorrow, its going to be today. She told the bride that if she ever do that again that she will never want to get involve with the family because she will never tolerate that kind of behavior. She also added that from now on she will monitor the bride and if theirs something she notice that’s not appropriate to the marriage, she will tell the husband and the church. Hmm. Shocking.. It worked though, because she said the bride really straighten up and behave like a wife after their talk. Just by listening I was hoping too for the happy ending of the new couple.

So I guess you better get godparents that are really close to the family. At the end it will help out both husband and wife. I’m just glad that the godmother really stood her ground and gave her piece to the new bride. I think the parents were also giving advice to the bride to stick with the husband because not just he had the money but also they could tell that the husband will be there for their daughter until the end. They know that the ex will just be there while he can dig in money from their daughter. Plus morally they know that their daughter was already married. They bride was still processing her papers to go to the States. Hoping for the best for the husband and wife while living in the States. Good luck to them.

Watch out next week for the other story. If the story rings a bell to you feel free to comment. Have a great day!!!

December 5, 2013 by feyma

Christmas is giving to the less fortunate here!

Well Thanksgiving is over. Time for us to think now of the Christmas shopping. We are so lucky that we can buy even just a few presents for our kids and give some to our friends and family. Living here now for 13+ years, I’ve seen people – too many people here struggling to buy food for their Noche Buena for their family. It’s really sad but that’s the reality here. Noche Buena – A Filipino tradition for midnight dinner for the whole family on Christmas Eve.

I think you probably read here how we started the first Martin family tradition of giving away. We were just sitting on our office in our house one Christmas eve many years ago. Bob said to me that “Hon, I don’t feel the Christmas spirit here because I think I don’t feel the cold weather“. We kind of just smile to each other. Then after awhile he told me what if we will buy something like burgers from McDonalds and cookies and juices and candies from the grocery stores for the homeless people here in the city. So I called up McDonalds if they can provide me with 200 burgers and I will be picking it up in a few hours. I told them of my purpose for the burgers. They were so happy and so helpful that they said yes they will get it ready for me. They told me too that they will get some of the burgers from there other branches of McDonald here in the city. They also provided me with plastic bags so that I can put some of the other goodies in it. So we headed out to town and found homeless people in the city.

Then later we the headed towards Diversion Road and found so many beggars on the road. My goodness our burgers were gone immediately. But it was really fun giving away to them, since they’re not expecting it. We did it for a few years from our very own money. Of course it’s just limited since the funds were only ours and not so big. Until later when LiP was born. Bob started asking here from you guys our readers if you guys can pitch-in. And you guys did without questions. Now we got the LiP DRIVE. So really thankful that you guys did. We can now give out a lot and so many less fortunate people can put a smile on their faces.

I’ve encountered too many events during our giving away. A few of them really remains in my heart and it really humbles me. And it also taught more lessons to my kids. One of the events that stuck in my head was this event: A few years ago when we were giving out near BUDA (the Davao/Bukidnon border). On the way, we stop by at the road side because we saw an older lady, with her I think her daughter or a grand daughter. It’s really hard to say, she might just be looking older because of harder life. She’s getting ready to ride her horse, we stopped and and said hi to her and the little girl. We greeted her Merry Christmas and started handing her some food for the Noche Buena and some goodies for the little girl. She was shocked and didn’t know what to think, she just started crying and she said that “you guys are the angels sent from above” because she said she was praying for miracle because she didn’t know if they will have food for that night. You know what, tears were rolling my eyes and I know Bob too upon hearing her say that. Our kids saw it and I could see their sadness for the lady’s struggles but happy that at least they had food for the holidays. To be honest, It even brought tears to my eyes until now when remembering that day. Really we hear too many stories similar to that lady when we went out giving. Our kids really enjoyed doing it. They like to go to a little remote area and give there because those people never expect somebody like us to go there and just give. It’s good to give to people you don’t know and they are not expecting to get anything from anybody that day. The smiles and the sparkles of their eyes are priceless.

It’s been a good thing that we did give each year here. Our kids really know that too many poor people live here. I could tell by just watching them that they really care also for the poor people here. Our kids always look forward on every giveaway. They help out packing the stuff. It’s really a team effort by all of us. If you can help again this year, please send an email to: [email protected] and you will get full instructions on how to donate. Thanks to all of you that contribute.

We give 100% of all your donations to the less fortunate people here. I know that all of us struggles with the hard economy right now, but if you have some extra money, that amount can really feed to one of the poor family here in the Philippines. We are so grateful for your sacrifices too. More people will contribute, more people will have food for their Noche Buena. We can put a smile to the faces of the people here, the children especially.

From the bottom of my heart “THANK YOU SO MUCH” for helping our cause. To our LIP Family, I’m forever thankful to God for you guys.

A Merry Christmas to you all!!!

April 12, 2012 by feyma

Easter 2012 Celebration at our house!

We always celebrate the Easter with painting of eggs the night before. The kids will paint to whatever design they like and dip it into different colors for fun. The Easter bunny will have some goodies for the kids too the next morning before the kids hunt Easter eggs.

This year, we have a newbie to Easter egg hunting, our helper Mel. She really thought it was so cool. We let her join in with our kids for Easter egg hunting in our yard. And Easter Bunny gave her lots of candies too. We told her to eat her candies instead of sending it to her kid. Her child is too young to eat candy right now anyway. Just by watching her we could tell she really had a blast. It was really nice watching her hunt with the kids. I’m glad we let her join in with our kids.

Our other helper has 2 children. She’s a stay out helper, in other words she does not live with us. She came to the house after the kids already finished with the egg hunting. We just let the kids gave some eggs to her kids. The Easter Bunny also left some goodies for her kids here at the house. So, she brought that with her when she went home at the end of the day.

On Easter day, while preparing what to cook for lunch. Bob asked me if we could go to the orphanage that we always went to before. He wanted to pay a visit with the kids there. He wants to bring some food for them there for lunch. I told Bob that it would be okay for me to go there. So Bob and I and AJ went to buy all the food that we wanted to bring there. While were out, our other kids were preparing themselves so that we will just swing by to pick them up before heading to the orphanage.

Article continues below pictures. Click on the photo for a bigger image.

We decided to bring cooked fried chicken, bread, fruits and cooked rice too. We just let our helper cook a big amount of rice while we were out buying the other food. We got to the orphanage around 12 pm. We thought that they will eat around that time. Well, as soon as we got there the kids were getting ready for their nap. A few of the toddlers were already sleeping. So I asked the lady that’s watching the kids whats the best time to go there if bringing food for lunch or dinner? She said around 10am for lunch and 4pm for dinner. I told her that I will keep that in mind and tell friends about it too. They said its okay that we went there, lots of those kids still remember us from our previous visits. They were so happy seeing us there.

When we first got there the kids were quiet and just stayed in their own beds. Well, just after few minutes they were already ready to play. They were really playing with our kids. Almost all of them like to be held and be given hugs. I felt sorry for Bob, they want that Bob will carry them. One kid after another was calling him and wanting him to carry them. They want pictures. One time I was caught off guard, I was talking to other kids and all of a sudden a few girls grab my hand with cell phone in my hand, I almost dropped my cell phone on the floor. They said in unison “we want pictures too.” I told them “of course I will take pictures of you guys.: They want pictures with Bob, ha ha ha. . We also brought our niece Bebe and our helper Mel.

Bob and I think that Mel probably misses her daughter when seeing lots of babies there. She told me that she really enjoyed going there. I could tell, she just can’t stop talking about it. We also brought Nicole with us. She stopped going there for awhile because she got scared with a little wild kid when we went there before. But this time she really had a blast and the kids like her too. A few kids keep holding on to her hand. One baby there that she wanted to take home was Christian. I guess all our kids wanted to take home Christian. He really likes our kids too. He mostly likes Jared and Bebe. If Jared would be out of his sight he would be looking for him. Jared stayed with him the whole time we’re there. I could tell that our kids really enjoyed going there a lot.

Bob and I decided that every Easter we will go there or go for giving away food and gifts for Easter. It was really fun doing it. It’s going to be another tradition in our household I think. Even just simple and little things to give it makes little kids happy and brought smile to their faces. It makes it all worthwhile.

I hope you guys had a good and happy Easter celebration!!!

Cheers!