Christmas Real | 2006

Jakjak's very first Christmas was spent at the hospital's Neo Natal ICU. We celebrated it with only ourselves and the nurses that were on duty that night.

One year after and Jakjak has come home. Celebrating his first real Christmas with the whole family. Being too young to understand what the whole event was all about, he spent his happy moments ripping the wrappers off gifts and sticking them on himself using some left over tape.

Of course, for me and Judy, it meant more than just gifts and Noche Buena. It meant thanksgiving most of all, because we were given the best gift of all. And I believe that He did not just give Jakjak to us because we wanted him so much, but because we earned the right to be Jakjak's parents during the most difficult times of his life. A life that we now share at every moment, be it near or far from each other.

On Christmas morning, we opened our gifts, we visited our relatives and we greeted each other with warm Christmas wishes. Jakjak showed his appreciation for his gifts by giving everyone his bestest smile and his infectious laughter. And so it was that Jakjak's first real Christmas was a simple and heartfelt moment of thanks.

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.