A Shower of Blessings

With the thunderstorms came showers of blessings for Rey and I.

A week ago, I would have called it luck, but with the way things are going, I am really convinced that a benevolent and powerful being is helping us with our wedding and marriage preparations.

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First, I am confident that we were able to choose good suppliers for our wedding. This does not mean that our suppliers are perfect, as they are not (I think that creative people must have a little idiosyncrasy.) But their imperfections are tolerable and it is enough for me that they do their job well and that I can communicate with them whenever I want to. Rey and I also had our own thoughts about our wedding and it really meant a lot to us that our suppliers really listened to us and actually improved on our ideas. Moreover, while we had some problems with a few suppliers, we were able to iron out all our issues with them.

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Second, someone always volunteered to take charge of the details that we have forgotten to take care of or we have chosen not to prepare for. Take for instance our honeymoon, we were so prepared to have our honeymoon at the Manila Hotel (we didn't want to book a trip when we didn't have the money, but when we were finally able to afford the trip, we had difficulty getting a booking.) By some mysterious turn of events, we are now preparing for a 6-day vacation in Santiburi, one of Koh Samui's luxury resorts. We also get to explore Bangkok for 3 days as a friend from college, Stevie (she's a girl!), who is now a consul in Thailand, offered to share her house with us. We also wanted a new aircon for Rey's room but we didn't include that yet in our budget. Last week, Rey's mom volunteered to get us a new one! Yey! I hope she also offers to buy me a tub. Hee.

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Third, we were so happy with how our wedding announcements came out! Initially, we thought that the people from Manila Bulletin were going to choose another picture. Apparently, they also loved the picture of our choice as it was the one that they published! And the best part of it was that we didn't have to pay for anything. I really love wedding@work!

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Fourth, and the most important so far, we got to finally meet Rey's half brothers and sisters! As a background, Rey is part of his father's second family. A few years ago, he was adopted by his father but he was never introduced to his father's first family (Rey continued to live with his birth mother.) Last Saturday, the patriarch of Rey's family (the elder brother of Rey's dad) saw our wedding announcement and was determined to bring the family together. On Monday, we received an invitation from Rey's dad to join his first family for dinner at Gloriamaris in Greenhills. I was very apprehensive about the whole set-up. I was afraid that the first family would be hostile to us and treat us like intruders to their peaceful family. I had visions of raised eyebrows and plastered smiles from Cherrie-Gil and other kontabida-look alikes.

I was wrong. When we went inside the function room that was reserved for us, everyone excitedly greeted us. We got to meet Tita Ysay, the beautiful wife of Rey's dad, Tito Max (the patriarch) and his lovely wife, Tita Belen, and Rey's half-siblings - Kuya Al, Ate Bessy (and her husband, Kuya Mario), Ate Clarise, and Kuya Dennis, who was celebrating his birthday. Kuya Dennis was accompanied by his 4 cute sons and daughters. They were all simple and if anyone looked like a kontrabida, it would have been me with my black turtle-neck sleeveless blouse and black and white pinstripe pants.

I was seated beside Ate Bessy and we exchanged stories about our careers. We found out that we are both committed to our work and are blessed with partners who are supportive of our professions. We also discovered that we hang out in the same barbecue place, Dannylicious, where we get tender and tasty barbecues for P14. Rey's dad would occasionally go to our side to chat with us. We were so excited to learn that the family of one of my bosses, Atty. Angangco, has strong ties with Rey's family. Tito Max joined us and mentioned that he stayed with the Angangcos while he was reviewing for the medical boards.

On my left, Tito Max eagerly gave Rey a crash course on his new family - Tito Max described the people who were not able to join us for the meal and he also discussed a few family traditions.

Kuya Dennis, who was seated across the table with his children kept on offering us more food. He also kept asking his daughter to take pictures of the group with her camera-phone (I was so disappointed with myself for not bringing my digital camera.) It almost shed a tear when Rey had his picture taken with his siblings.

And Ate Clarissa gave us helpful advice in dealing with each other. She also said that Rey and I are perfect for each other - Rey a fire person, being born under the sign of Aries, needs a water person like me, a Piscean. Isn't that so cool?!

We really had a good meal together. (I just hope that Rey's siblings enjoyed their meal as much as we did.)

It was all surreal - for years, Rey was raised as an only child but due to a wedding announcement, he suddenly has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. That is definitely the best wedding gift that one can ever have!

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P.S.

In my comment to Star's blog about the damage that the recent typhoons have caused, I mentioned that this is a tough time for our helpers. Several days ago, almost all the houses in their little town in Quezon was wiped out by a twister. A few later, the typhoon destroyed whatever was left. This morning, we got word that they finally have electricity in their town. We also got a text message from one of her townmates and we were so happy to learn that our helpers' families survived the calamities! Yey!