In 2012, at the age of 25, I decided to buy a house and a lot out of peer pressure from my then colleague, Jessie. He thought of buying a property in the town of Liloan, located north of Cebu City, and he convinced me to get one for myself. We were single then and so I thought maybe this property can be my spinster respite (because back then, I didn’t really think of getting married and having children).
Well, hello, three years after having my name on that 69-square-meter property, here I was with my two children spending time in the house under the care of my Mom and two nannies whom we hired for a month or so as Jeff and I went cruising for our annual couple trip (around Southeast Asia on a cruise ship this year!).
After our vacation, Jeff and I flew to Cebu from Hong Kong on March 6 to pick up the twins. Because there was already a plan to leave China and have our third baby in the US, I arranged an overnight family gathering on the 7th of March. It was a fun gathering that reminded us all of our childhood days, where we shared one bedroom and one, big bed. We spent the night at the Cordova Home Village and were spoiled with food and unlimited time at the pool.
On March 8, Jeff and I were in a open-air restaurant eating grilled food when my bag containing my passport and other valuables was picked up by unscrupulous individuals. If you’ve been following my posts, you know how distraught I was. You can read about what happened here.
So instead of getting on a 6am flight on March 9 to Hong Kong, I was stuck in Cebu for another two months. Jeff had to go back to China because he has work there.
It was a devastating time for the family. But we tried to make the situation work – and while it was a logistical and financial nightmare, we made sure that the twins enjoyed their extra vacation time with Lala/Grandma in the Philippines.
My Mom was hands on in teaching the twins their nursery rhymes. She taught them action songs and they were more than eager to learn from her. It was also in March that the twins started to learn how to count and sing the alphabet.
I kept a positive attitude in the midst of all chaos. The robbery incident made us take a couple of steps backward in our plan as a family but it did make me and the twins experience activities and events, which we would have otherwise missed if my passport wasn’t stolen. One of those events is my lone nephew’s day care graduation. The twins clearly enjoyed their vacation and we have the photos to prove them.
We were also able to visit the Cebu Daily News’ newsroom, where I used to work as a full-time reporter. I also made a quick visit to the Philippine Daily Inquirer – Visayas Bureau. There, we met Ate Bernadette Parco, a former colleague (who now works for the Manila Times newspaper).
March was a total mayhem, but there was definitely a showing of so much love in the midst of all that chaos.
Looking back, I don’t know how I even survived the days leading to our departure. The mayhem didn’t end there so continue to read on what happened in April and May because the plot just gets thicker from here on.
