Category Archives: life

vows

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Wedding Essentials’ (WE) January ~ June 2011 issue comes with an article by Charlene Fernandez-Bobis that talks about how to write your word bouquets aka vows on your wedding. It even advised to just let the tears fall as you draft your vows because for sure, writing and thinking about your vows can really make you cry.

And I sure couldn’t agree more. Just thinking of the song for the bridal march already makes me cry. What more on drafting the vows!?

The article comes with a couple of sample bouquets. I read both samples to Hubbie and goodness there’s no stopping the tears. I particularly like the latter half of the first sample which goes like:

“….And so I will be the husband you’ve always wanted, and the best father for our child, who will grow up knowing and seeing that I love you. I am a better person because of you, and I live everyday knowing that you are the reason why I was born into this world.”

I read this twice to Hubbie and both times I cried. Heck I’m even teary-eyed now just typing this here. I gotta learn to put some rein on these emotions for me to at least utter an intelligible vow come wedding day. This really makes me admire Lea Salonga even more. She was still able to sing beautifully even during a very emotional moment. Man how can she do it? And yes, I also cry whenever I view this video lately. haha. Goodluck ne?

And oh. By the way. I grew up knowing and seeing that my father loves my mother.

Congratulations, Hamakawa-san and Akika-san!!

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You couldn’t get as close to a fairy tale wedding as having your wedding day on a lovely snowy day (well, except if you’re having the actual ceremony with the snow falling on you haha).

And yes, I do believe that it was such a lovely occasion what with the snow falling outside. As Hubbie describes it, it was such a cold day outside the New Grand Hotel in Yokohama but such a heartwarming moment inside as they witnessed the formal ceremony of Hamakawa-san’s and Akika-san’s wedding.

Congratulations and Best wishes, Hamakawa-san and Akika-san!!

I should have been there. It could have been our first important event to attend to as husband and wife. But alas, my visa is still not in. It was still good though to see my name (with surname in Kanji! hehe) on the seating arrangement.

a purpose driven life

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Just finished packing the first dhl box that will ship my stuff to Japan. How many boxes it will take, I’ve no idea yet. A European porcelain doll is in it (i wonder how we can display my doll collection in our apartment), DVDs/CDs, books, photo albums, gym clothes (yoga mat would have to be in the next batch), swimsuits, cocktail dresses.

Was about to close the box when I saw that the book The Purpose Driven Life was left on the paperbag where I kept some of my books. I bought this Rick Warren book during my long stint in Singapore some five years ago. I leafed through the pages until I came across my scribble on one of the reflections:
“made a life changing decision today – I accepted the 7 months assignment to Japan.”

That made me smile because that decision to go back to japan,straight from a Singapore assignment certainly was a life changing decision. That 7-month assignment lengthened to a 2.5 years assignment that totalled around 6 extensions. On my last extension, I was only asked about it less than a week before my flight back to Manila. So you see, my daily farewell parties were in full swing already.

But you know what? It was there in that last two months of my extended assignment when our (atsushi’s and mine) dream-turned-reality started to unfold. Totally unexpected, totally serendipitous.

So yes, accepting another Japan assignment was a life changing decision. Had I turned it down, I wouldn’t have known happiness as I have with Atsushi now.

But then again knowing how hubbie and I are soulmates, we would still have had found each other, albeit at a later time. I think and believe, that our fairy tale would still come to pass, even then.

Beloved

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Eating alone during weekends can be quite lonely sometimes; making me terribly miss Hubbie even more so. Had a late lunch at Cafe Mary Grace earlier and the table I chose had this as a centerpiece:

This made me smile. And it certainly eased up the feeling of being alone, because I know, somewhere in Japan, my beloved is also thinking of me….

Okay, back to detailing conceptualization!

9 years

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Last Friday, January 28, I celebrated my 9 years as a Process Engineer. And indeed it is a celebration. For I believe that God has blessed me with a career that is truly fulfilling for me. Ever the drama queen that I am, that very day and now a Senior Engineer, I also submitted my resignation letter; sort of like my way of “coming to full circle”.

Today was my last working day in the office. When I got home this evening, it was only then that I realized that my last working day and my first day as a “freed” engineer (please, i’m not saying this in the pejorative sense) coincided with the last day of the previous Chinese Year (okay okay i’m not Chinese, just having some drama and trying to make some correlation here hehe). In some sense, it’s like i’ll be working on a clean slate or a clean drawing board this new year. A new year full of promise, full of hope, full of exciting things yet to come.

At this point you may be wondering why i’m posting this in our wedsite and not just on my personal blog. But no, wait. Today also marks the first day that I’m totally Atsushi’s dependent. Well, until after I get to find a job again, hopefully. And for somebody like me who has been a very independent person, who has totally relied on the abilities God gave her (and on the opportunities God gave her) to earn her keep, feed herself and help provide for her family, being dependent like this is a major crossover. One that I have to learn and yet to fully grasp.

And yes, this is part of what marriage is about. It’s about shaking you in your old comfort zone to bring you to a yet better comfort zone. It’s about shaking you from what you’ve been used to, leading you to better experiences, newer places, meeting new people. It’s about having faith – faith in God that what you’re doing and about to do is part of God’s beautiful plan for you; faith in your husband that he will love you, take care of you and provide for you; faith in the goodness of the people around you; faith in the future that something really good is in store for you.

And of course, yes, there’s love, great love.

——-

Feb 5: Was cleaning my workspace today. Found a lot of diskettes from a long-gone era. Haha. Gosh. Ancient.

Dhonna and Ghepoi on our Cord

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The past week has been a couple of heartaches – concerning entourage guests who couldn’t come. I would understand that they won’t be able to come. But I would have really appreciated it if they informed me in a proper manner. A bride-to-be or one who has been a bride before would have understood how I felt. 

In any case, let us not dwell on the sad part. Let’s celebrate instead happy things!

 One, I have a very supportive MOH who’s always ready to hear me out. I also have very excited Ninangs haha. Second, Lene already sent me her draft for my invites. Yey!!

And third, which really made my day, was Dhonna and Ghepoi’s news. They offered to make our cord!! So sweet of them.

I wanted our cord to be something special but my hands and I are really intimidated on any handicraft-related project. And indeed it couldn’t get any special than having a cord made by one of my bestfriend. And together with her hubbie at that. A very pleasant surprise for me and one that is certainly a big help on crossing off one to-do off my list. Distance (they’re currently based in US) didn’t stop them from helping me out with my wedding preps.

I love how they thought of using different beads sizes rather than just one plain one. And I love how there has to be silver stoppers haha.

Above all, what I really am thankful for is their time, effort and thoughtfulness. Thank you Ghepoi and Dhonna!

Dhonna was also the one who DIY-ed her cord. And yes, they’re all beads. Really pretty handiwork isn’t it?

I was thinking of borrowing this for my “Something old, something borrowed”. But Dhonna gave me a much better option. ^_^.