He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.–Psalm 91:15

In 2003, Dei applied for her and my two kids’ passport in preparation for their visa application for Australia. I was already in Newcastle studying. It was quite hard for her as she was pregnant with Nel during that time. So, her father assisted her.

What happened during that application, I believe, was a test of faith. The day was very humid and the queue was long. She had to go somewhere, my father-in-law was keeping the line for her. Then after riding tricycle to the application center, she realized that she lost her passport application forms along with other important documents and a large amount of money.

She was crying as she immediately made a long distance call to me. She was frantic and said that she left everything in the tricycle, I calmed her and said that she should report it to the police. Imagine a pregnant woman, walking under the heat of the sun going to the police station, crying with two children in tow–I could only imagine and wish that it was just a dream. I was in the library, researching online. I stopped everything and just made a simple prayer.

Lord, help my wife

Believe it or not, but just under five minutes after I said the prayer–the tricycle driver came back and returned the documents to my wife–everything was intact, the document and the money! My wife was overfilled with joy and gratefulness. Well, the rest was history as they say.

2007. Today we submitted our visa application. I believe God showed that He’s still in control. Everything was smooth from our travel to the Australian Visa Application Centre to the actual submission. After malling a bit (well, some details in between are here) we headed home.

For some reason or another, we were caught in this traffic gridlock for about an hour and we barely 700 meters from our point of origin. Out of the blue, I looked for the envelope where we have the visa application receipt (without it, we’ll not be able get our pre-visa assessment), all our passports and other important documents! “how dare me to forget that!” I told my self.

We frantically looked for it in the taxi and when we realized that we left it somewhere in the mall we weaved through cars and buses in the street to cross to the other side and run back to Central Chidlom. In Central Chidlom, I instructed Dei to ask the information and I raced to the toilet and the toy department to see if I left the envelope in either of the two places.

God’s grace was really working, I saw the envelope untouched, not in the toilet but in plain view of the public–on the chair in the play place where my kids hang out. We were really grateful that God, again!, protected not only us but our stakes.

My wife was ultimately worried as she’s already burdened whether we would be approved to go together–well, it’s just the financial issue for a family going Down Under. But this incident made us realize–God is in control! No worries!

I was able to blog about this special day on my personal blogsite. Our wedding ceremony might count as one of the funniest if not dramatic!

It was Tuesday, January 30, 2001. The weather was perfect. “Good that we chose an early morning wedding!” I said to myself. Earlier, however, I was in front of the house of my bride worrying about the apparent tardiness of the beautician. I asked my aunt to take the place of the make-up artist. Apparently, the beautician came and the cameraman/videographer don’t want to compromise their commitment that they proceeded with their usual procedure, which took a while!

The wedding march proceeded even in the absence of the bride. Yes, I marched to the altar alone. However, when the mass finished, Dei came running towards the altar. I pity her for not getting her time even some colleagues were crying out of pity of us due to what happened. Whatever–we were wed finally. And I thanked the priest, eventhough he was close to shouting invectives when he realized that the bride was late (well, he has some points but he’s still a priest, albeit pathetic).

The videographer just remade the march, quickly though, as the next wedding was about to start. The remake lasted for five minutes and then we were off to the reception. My soon to be kumpare, Kenneth (who was a DJ at Mellow Touch then), hosted the reception with Kitchie as our wedding singer.

Everything went smooth after that–and yes six years and three kids after.

Our vacation in Singapore was full of challenges. One of the challenges was to know where to go. While we prepared by consulting the Visit Singapore Website and planned our itinerary via its travel planner, it’s simply tasking when you’re actually touring the city-state.

Taking a photo was also one of the many tasks that became challenging for us. As you can see in the above photo–the concept was Abbey Road! While it’s not Abbey Road literally but the bridge was so nice for a photo opt. But the kids! I think they enjoyed so much being a tourist and was so tired to hold a pose for 10 seconds. Nira is not actually dancing the otso-otso dance and yes Dei gave in to the antics of our children!

It was like that during the tour–self portraits, sometimes I’ll take the photos among other ways of creatively documenting our family holiday. It was hilarious everytime, we really enjoyed our holiday!

This year’s celebration is actually bigger–more fairs, more freebies but also more military equipment and armies in the guise of exhibits and as hosts. Fortunately, no untoward incidents were reported. While we (the kids) missed the air shows, the exhibits, the freebies, we decided to go out the following Sunday.

We missed the big event but we definitely hit it big time during that day–we watched Open Season!

Nel, originally uploaded by jimboombastic.

When she turned 2, it was as if she changed overnight! She was babbling words we’ve never heard before (not baby talk anymore), she was very active playing with her sisters–even initiates fights! She lost the inhibitions that she got used to and we’re glad that she’s expressing herself more.

This photo was taken during our Singapore vacation, she was leading her sisters to sing. And boy! they all got some talents! Nel, actually is a good dancer, not sure yet with her singing, though.

She’s turning 3 come April 12 and yes, she’s growing and learning fast!

On that day we were with a family friend along with my brother-in-law and his friend. We had a great time celebrating the coming new year especially our daughter Nira. Well, that afternoon, close to the time that the bombs were about to go off, Jim suggested that we take a bus going home. As we are carrying some take homes, we took the cab instead.

The bus ride would have entailed passing through Saphan Kwai then we’ll get off Victory Monument. We needed to go home that night as we are preparing to go to church for a new year’s welcome service of prayer, praise and worship. The church’s location is near Sukhumvit Soi 63. We also urged my brother-in-law to go to the countdown celebrations at Central World.

Jim’s colleague, who’s a Thai national, called him to inform us of what’s on the news and asked us to cancel all planned outing. We cancelled our plans for the night and immediately called other Filipino friends who might be going out that night including the family friend that we just visited earlier. We also phoned the Philippines to inform relatives in advance, before they get the news, and assure them that we are safe.

The personnel officer of Jim’s organization sent an SMS message informing the incidence and warning against going out in public gatherings. The UN security also sent the same message and regularly sent updates.

As details become clear, 6 bombs went off during the first wave of bomb attacks. The sites included Saphan Kwai, Victory Monument and Sukhumvit Soi 62. A second wave of bombings occured right after midnight–one of three bombs was in Central World.

It was clear that God’s hand moved in an amazing way that we didn’t get a bus to go home nor went a bit early to church. The places we planned to go were the very place or were near the bombing sites. We do not consider it coincidence or luck but one thing we are certain is that the hand of God moved to protect His children–we still have a mission!

Jim was grateful about God’s work that he blogged about it and emailed friends to inform them about what happened and assure that we are safe. We were overwhelmed with the response of support both on email and comments on Jim’s blog.

God is great! God is faithful!

Despite all things, this will be a blessed, happy new year. Photo above was taken in front of Central World during Christmas. A week later the other side of the road almost parallel to where we stood in this photo was bombed.

As to the victims of this senseless violence, our prayers are with them.

She would drag her father to the store and ask him to let him try the masked superheroes–from Spiderman, Robin and yes, Batman. During new year’s eve, we had a good time of celebrating in advance the welcoming of the new year with a family friend.

One of the happiest in the family was Nira–well as you can see in the photo she got to wear her dream costume!!! We were all happy as she enjoyed her batsuit (I will try to make her own batgirl costume–I will try!). So, Jim took some photos!

Nira was really feeling her suit that she lifted her sister! Go Batman! errr, Batgirl!

For those would like to see more of us just click here. Many thanks for visiting this site.