(This cute hand-made baby shower souvenir was madeby my cousin Ate Tesay and Mariel Bagon.)
I guess it's better to post something now, than never! I had these wonderful plans to blog the hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, play-by-play details about our 4 baby showers...yes 4 in a span of one month! It's no wonder why I didn't have much time to create updates on MacrossKitty.
- My very first baby shower was given by my co-workers at Catskill the same week LAUSD handed me my "Notification of Displacement Letter". (I will try to explain this story in another blog entry because it was way too much of an emotional downer to share about in this entry.) All I can say is that I am so fortunate to work with a campus full of friendly and fun staff members. They are the best folks I've ever worked with! Everyone really cheered me up and helped me to look past my life of almost 9 years in my 5th grade classroom. As you can see we all had a potluck breakfast together. If it wasn't for the annually scheduled 8:30am earthquake drill, we would all have lingered in the teacher's lounge a little longer just to enjoy "ooing and awwing" at all the baby gifts and getting our coffee cups refilled.
- The second one was given by Erwil's co-workers at DCAA the night before Veteran's holiday at the Crab Pot in Long Beach. Erwil had no idea that the folks working in his department came together to not only treat us out for a seafood dinner, but come up with wonderful gifts to welcome the new baby. Erwil's co-worker Michelle baked a strawberry and cream-cheese frosted cake. I was well aware that shellfish is on the "Do Not Eat" list, but I couldn't help it. Forgive me for irresponsible parenting, but I took a risk and had my share of seafood that night. It was delicious!
- Another one was given by the CPC Ladies the weekend before Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve madness began, here at our place. It was a reunion of all our closest friends. I am merely understating it if I say this was a fun party. The CPC Ladies from church as well as my mom and aunties took care of the food, while Mariel and Bethany did a great job in playing the part as MC to keep things moving along. Ate Victoria led a Godly and bright message on Psalm 129.
- The last baby shower Erwil and I celebrated was a combination of Thanksgiving-Hannukah-Babyshower given by Buclatin's, at Auntie Perlie's house. This was a huge celebration, bringing our immediate and extended families together in one house. They are very fond of cooking all the authentic Filipino dishes. Plenty of food! Again, Mariel hosted all of the games to keep everyone from having a hefty food coma, while little cousin Kiyana assisted her on the side.
See this small piggy bank? This is the Untalan's family tradition. Erwil's mom and dad have saved up coins for each of their grandkids. Our child is the 10th one to receive the silvery contents of this piggy bank that contained coins totaling about $105.
Just reflecting back on our baby showers, we couldn't be more aware that God is able to sustain and provide for...not just a little, not a few, not some...
...but ALL of our daughter's needs.
We appreciate all the outpouring of love from our family and friends, for many have been praying for my health and the baby's health since I became pregnant. We enjoy the all the lovely gifts, the cards that contain well-meaning words attached to the gifts, and even all the advice and encouragement that we receive from the most generous and thoughtful folks. Thanks everybody!
You've seen how Erwil and I are the farthest away from being perfect people. Indeed our little baby girl one isn't going to be born perfect, regardless of what we'd like to think and highly expect from her. Even after listing all that we need to welcome the baby on that Target and Babies 'R Us baby registry, we might still feel like we don't have enough. That's where we have to be careful and guarded--the fearful feeling of not having enough when God in His faithfulness is always proving to us that He's more than enough for us and that all of our cares matter to Him.
When Erwil and I were called by God to enjoy having this child, we really learned to prayerfully guard our hearts from drooling over possessions and achievements we might dream of lording over to others. For example, it's just so tempting to be able to own bragging rights to a 6-figure yearly salary, elevated career status, prestigious college degrees and combing the desert for future scholarships for our kids, perfect credit, multiple savings accounts, measuring adequate square footage of a home for the each family member to have a bedroom and space for Rover the dog, shelling out major "$cha-ching$" for the most safely rated automotive vehicle with all the technological bells and whistles, living in the right suburban neighborhood, sending our kids to the best API ranking school, and everything else that makes parents feel "more equipped", "deserving", "better off in", "having higher chance" of raising a good family in this world.
At one point in time in our marriage, Erwil and I have been guilty of entertaining such nominal and borderline Social Darwinism "survival of the fittest" conversations on family goals and getting too far ahead of God's intention to bless us as He wills, at any point in time He wills. There's nothing wrong with having one or all of the above mentioned or pursuing it, but we pray that we guard ourselves from that Grand Canyon of a crevice between appreciating our blessings by giving courtesy credit "not by our might" but by God's handiwork, rather than allowing a pleasurable idolatry snuff out God like a candle on a birthday cake. (Not that we humans have that ability to snuff out a great God, but I hope that know what I mean by the imagery.)
Despite all that, God has not held back anything from us thus far, especially His mercy and His grace. Our family's needs are constantly being met, and that's just the top surface of what lies deeper beneath. We are so grateful and beyond content and by prayer and looking to the Bible we are all the more learning to take a more humble stance and let God do what He does best with His lovingkindness.
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Last of all, I love the words written in Isaiah 43:1-7 as in "Fear Not" because the experience of celebrating the arrival of our daughter's birth for one whole month straight have summed up how Erwil and I have been faithfully praying together to live out God's calling as parents.You've seen how Erwil and I are the farthest away from being perfect people. Indeed our little baby girl one isn't going to be born perfect, regardless of what we'd like to think and highly expect from her. Even after listing all that we need to welcome the baby on that Target and Babies 'R Us baby registry, we might still feel like we don't have enough. That's where we have to be careful and guarded--the fearful feeling of not having enough when God in His faithfulness is always proving to us that He's more than enough for us and that all of our cares matter to Him.
When Erwil and I were called by God to enjoy having this child, we really learned to prayerfully guard our hearts from drooling over possessions and achievements we might dream of lording over to others. For example, it's just so tempting to be able to own bragging rights to a 6-figure yearly salary, elevated career status, prestigious college degrees and combing the desert for future scholarships for our kids, perfect credit, multiple savings accounts, measuring adequate square footage of a home for the each family member to have a bedroom and space for Rover the dog, shelling out major "$cha-ching$" for the most safely rated automotive vehicle with all the technological bells and whistles, living in the right suburban neighborhood, sending our kids to the best API ranking school, and everything else that makes parents feel "more equipped", "deserving", "better off in", "having higher chance" of raising a good family in this world.
At one point in time in our marriage, Erwil and I have been guilty of entertaining such nominal and borderline Social Darwinism "survival of the fittest" conversations on family goals and getting too far ahead of God's intention to bless us as He wills, at any point in time He wills. There's nothing wrong with having one or all of the above mentioned or pursuing it, but we pray that we guard ourselves from that Grand Canyon of a crevice between appreciating our blessings by giving courtesy credit "not by our might" but by God's handiwork, rather than allowing a pleasurable idolatry snuff out God like a candle on a birthday cake. (Not that we humans have that ability to snuff out a great God, but I hope that know what I mean by the imagery.)
Despite all that, God has not held back anything from us thus far, especially His mercy and His grace. Our family's needs are constantly being met, and that's just the top surface of what lies deeper beneath. We are so grateful and beyond content and by prayer and looking to the Bible we are all the more learning to take a more humble stance and let God do what He does best with His lovingkindness.
