God I’m so relieved! We found a new househelp yesterday! She, in fact, started yesterday itself. That only means I can peacefully go back to work without thinking how my mom would handle my two girls while I’m away. At least now she won’t have to worry about the house chores.

I’m kinda excited and nervous. Excited coz it’s a new challenging job for me. I’ll be in the Marketing Dept this time. I was offered the post of Asst Marketing Manager. It’s all new to me. I’m sure it’s not only about handling promotional products the company is giving to potential clients but a lot more challenging duties. I know I can do it! I’m so grateful that my ex-boss believes in me and still want my service despite leaving them almost a year ago. Goodluck to me!

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… poses and scenes at the airport. If you belong to an OFW family, you’d easily understand what I meant by that.

We live 3 hours drive away from the airport so going  there also means a family trip for us where in we prepare “baon” enough for the trip. And if there’s more time, we spend the rest of the (rented) hours  going to the mall.

These photos were taken yesterday when we dropped my brother at the airport. Some years ago, it was my dad. Not so long ago, it was me. Now it’s his turn.

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I would have been finished with my colon cleanse reviews by now if I hadn’t been so busy the past couple of days. I had to accompany my brother to Manila two days ago and get his passport renewed. He’s luckily chosen to work with DHL and will be joining my husband soon!

I could say passport processing is now a lot easier and faster than before. It took him 2 hours to finish. Just two hours. I remember the first time I had my passport applied, it took me forever to get it done. It would have been more faster if we were able to get the online appointment on time. It will be released on the 16th and we will just have it delivered here at home to avoid hassles going to Manila. My brother isn’t used to going to Manila and he refuses to go alone. I actually challenged him to claim the passport when it’s done, but he has to go all by himself. As expected he refused to.

Now let’s see once he’s off to leave for Bahrain. I wonder how he’s going to handle the situation. It’ll be his first time to be away from home and worst, Christmas is nearing. He’d surely feel what I had felt before.

Oh well, another OFW in the making. In due time, he’ll feel better.

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For the past weeks, I’ve been bothered by a thought that “what if he loses his job?” Well, he almost did. I had sleepless night thinking everything over - of becoming an OFW again. Not too soon but in time, I will. Those were the thoughts that came to my mind. I’m glad those will remain thoughts in my mind- for now.

My husband works in a place where he’s not supposed to be working (if you guessed it right, just keep it within yourself please). And every single day that I don’t see him online leads me to a paranoia.

Because of what we had just gone through, of almost losing his job and keeping me awake almost every night that might have affected the baby inside me, I realized some things:

• Things happen for a reason.
• Just believe in Him, and He will give you an answer at the right time.
• If there is no one else to hear your struggles, seek for His comfort and He will definitely lend a hand to embrace you.

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Christmas won’t be the same without you… I’ll be home for Christmas… Ang Disyembre ko ay malungkot… One of these lines could be the line that you wish you don’t hear on Christmas day, as it adds up loneliness rather homesickness every time you hear them played over the radio.

Let’s get to the point. How does an OFW celebrate spend Christmas away from home? I’m sure you just noticed the strike symbol that was used over the word “celebrate“. It wasn’t a post decor or anything coz in my own personal opinion, I could never call it a celebration. Simply because, I never got to spend it with my family - for the past 8 long years.

Rewind >>> I left home in October 1999, just two months before Christmas, full of hopes and courage that one day, someday, my family will never get to struggle again - ever. This is why I left the Philippines for greener pasture 8 years ago. I carried a heavy heart with me. For the longest time in my life, I had never been separated from my family. Call it separation anxiety at the age of 23, well, I may just have to agree. Not knowing what kind of life would give me there, the fact that I will be miles away from home for the first time is already killing me. The moment I settled myself inside the plane, again for the first time had already brought me to fear. Anyhow, I said to myself “I’ll be fine”, next thing I’d know I’d be ready for another flight going back to the Philippines.

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Keeping up with an average monthly remittance can sometimes be a burden. You don’t know when “the need of an extra money” is going to occur. And the worst, it always happens at a bad time, either the salary hasn’t come through to your account yet or it falls on a holiday or weekend which obviously means that offices are closed. When this thing happens, I bet you wish that Genie does really exist to grant at least one of your wishes and that is “make those figures appear on my account N-O-W or get the bank open to attend to your request”.

From my personal experience when I was still working abroad, bank and door to door padala transactions are not the best option when put in a situation that your family needs the money now - as in right now. Simply because this kind of padala transaction takes about 2-3 working days and could sometimes get delayed for some reasons like you have sent the money just before the cut-off blah blah blah! So what happens next? Nothing. All you could do is wait until the next working day comes. And another days of waiting for the recipient to finally receive the money. Read full article over at eOFW.net.

While you read on, let me finish my write up about Titleist golf.

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