Birthday Party | 2011

Jakjak's first birthday was spent at the Little Angels' Home in Tagaytay City, Philippines. It's an orphanage that we found hiding in it's little nook over the hills. We have supported the children there as best as we could when we found it. At first, only a handful of people had helped us on our mission but that soon grew to a good number through our friends and organizations. We spent our first birthday there because we wanted to give back for our wonderful gift, our very own Jakjak (who had a not so ideal birth).


Up until today, we never really celebrated Jakjak's birthday outside of our family (we celebrated once in Lola's school where he was a temp student). Today, we agreed on celebrating Jakjak's birthday in his school (his current pre-school). Somehow, all of his classmates seemed to have celebrated their birthdays in school. It's not peer pressure, nor did he ask us to give him a birthday celebration in school, we just thought about giving him one. He did good in school and he had always been such a darling at home. He deserves this treat (we found out later that you can't celebrate birthdays when he steps up to primary school - so it's good that we had one now).

This party was all mum's idea. Dad won't take any credit for it. Dad was merely there to support every step of the way. And we're all happy that it turned out quite good. Instead of a big cake that we would need to cut up for everybody, we opted instead to get a set of cupcakes made for Jakjak's birthday theme, cars. Goodie bags for his classmates were segregated for girls and boys and some fun was had with relighting candles to blow (and blow and blow). We figured everybody in class had fun, and that's what birthdays are all about.


(Unfortunately, Jakjak came up with a fever that night - sigh)

Jakjak, Year One | 2006

Time flew by so fast that suddenly Jakjak was one year old. Who would have imagined that the 811 gram boy, born two months ahead of schedule would be this gorgeous, hyper-active, super-happy mighty mite!

Well, we certainly had high hopes and we had been praying for his recovery and catching up from day one. And God answered our prayers. And the prayers of all those who had prayed for Jakjak (and I know there are too many of you guys to thank in one simple blog - so Thank You!). All throughout the year, Jakjak had been going back to the doctors to check for any abnormality that may have come about due to his being pre-mature. His eyes in particular, had been checked more times than we would have liked. Believe me, the way it's been done, even if you know it's safe because of the clinic and the specialization of the doctor, if you were there while a little boy protested, you would have asked them to stop. But we knew it had to be done, and it's all for Jakjak's sake.

365 days later and he is up and about as normal as any boy half his age would be. Normal would be an understatement though. Because Jakjak had begun to speak in audible words, Jakjak had started walking and climbing up and down the stairs (to the worry of mum and dad of course), Jakjak had started to increase his attention span to listening and quite a bit more stuff that children older than him would have just started doing. 

And we knew all this to be gifts from God. And to thank Him for all his blessings, we celebrated Jakjak's first birthday with the less fortunate children of Little Angels Home, in Tagaytay City. Children who we had been caring for (in our own little way) since we found their little house tucked away in the hills, oblivious from the public eye. It was so low key (back then, anyway), that we had to slow down every time we went to visit as the turning point was hardly visible from the hi-way. One year of happiness for us, one day of happiness for these children. We want to even the odds some more one day.

This is the orphanage we have pledged to sponsor way back in 2001. We would have celebrated with family and friends, but these kids needed more of Jakjak's love. It was a small salo-salo (feast) with cake and balloons. A loot bag for the kids came with cookies, candies, juice and then some. We had lots of fun! And sharing the fun with these kids was worth all the effort (would you believe I was suffering from diarrhea the whole time). We thank everyone who was there and shared our blessings.

Labour Day | 2005

February 14. Valentine's Day. Everyone is excited for, then "Mum and Dad's Baby". All four grandparents are ready with camera in hand and smiles passed around for everyone. The delivery room door opens ever so slowly (like in the movies) and the doctor comes out with a smile on his face as he removes his face mask. 

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Unfortunately, that's not Jakjak's moment of birth. Although the doctor gave an estimate that Jakjak will be born on the 14th of February, he was too excited and came out two months earlier. Do the math and we come to Jakjak's birthday, the 24th of November. Born via C-section at a featherweight 811 grams. Of course, all this to the shock of mum and dad who were not expecting him until his due date.

Yes, Jakjak was a premature baby boy at only 28 weeks. He was so fragile that he had to be in Neonatal Intensive Care as soon as he got out. From day 1, he was strong as an ox and stubborn as a bull. From the doctors' and nurses' point of view, he was a pretty good fighter and they told me that his chances for recovery were quite big. Of course, they all could have just told me that because I was the father of a ti-nee-tiny baby boy who was as thin as bones. Add to that the fact that this was our first baby. And also probably because my sister was a nurse at the NICU facility in Asian Hospital back then.

Believe me. For a first time dad, seeing your first-born in that state of helplessness is not the best memory of your baby's childhood.