Zek Moments

Here are some of our funny and warm moments with Zek that I compiled from my posts at KerygmaFamily forum. :)

Yellow

Me: Say Yellow
Zek: Leyow
Me: Ye
Zek: Ye
Me: low…
Zek: low…
Me: Yellow
Zek: Leyow
Me: Hay, again. Ye
Zek: Ye
Me: low…
Zek: low..
Me: Yellow
Zek: Green (with a wide grin on his face)

Rejection of Injection

Last Friday in HK, my family had our annual flu-shots. It was Zek's turn to be injected

nurse: Hi Zek I have a surprise for you.
Zek: Sorry, Not today. I'm going home now (It was a line from his Thomas the Train DVD )

Impeccable timing, huh or did he really know what it means na?
Anyway, my wife and I still have a good laugh.


Be Careful

This is his personal rendition of a song about how to avoid being hurt in a relationship.
(To the tune of "Fool Again" by Westlife.)

Zek: Carefully that I've been fooled again
I thought this love will never end
How was I to know?
You never told me.

Certified Westlife fan, huh.


How to Pray

me: Zek, let's pray properly ha
Zek: Pray potpourri

Praying with fragrance?

Louder

Me: Zek, there’s Mommy and Maia, call them.
Zek: Mommy! Maia!
Me: They can’t hear you. One more time.
Zek: Moommy! Maaia! ( in an increased tone )
Me: Not enough, call them louder.
Zek: LOUDER!

Row your boat

I just recently know the make of the boat in the nursery song "Row your Boat" because of my son.

Zek: Daddy let's sing....Row, row rubber boat, gently down the stream......

This is the way I brush my teeth

Before, Zek doesn’t really like to brush his teeth.

me: Zek, dadi will brush your teeth na ha.
Zek: no, momi brush my teeth.
momi: ok I will brush your teeth.
Zek: no, dadi will brush my teeth.

To avoid more excuses, my wife and I will both stand before him.

Zek (looking at both of us): Dadi brush momi’s teeth !

We never saw it coming ha ha.

Brotherly love

Maia was crying because she wanted to sleep and
Zek went into the room.

Zek: Dadi, Maia's crying (pointing to her baby sister)
me: Yeah, she is not feeling well e. (It was the first thing that I thought of saying)

Zek rushes outside into the kitchen, opening some drawers and looking for something.
He came back rushing and holding a glass and a medicine dropper.

Zek: Dadi, give medicine to Maia (stretching his little hands towards me).

Simply made me smile. :)

My preacher son

Every morning we try to watch the PIBJ episode before I go to work.
Lately we realized that our kids are enjoying the show too.

Maia is head banging during the intro song
Zek is guitar strumming as well.

And one time, I was thinking of the big problem at work when I heard Zek recited Bo’s famous line:
“Our biggest problem, give it some time, will be our biggest blessing. Amen".

Preached by my son. :)

1 > 56

Back in second year high-school, I had one of those memorable sporting experience.

I was chosen captain ball of one of the 5 teams in our school intramurals. The other teams have better and taller players but I don’t mind taking up the challenge. I look forward to playing against the better teams.

But as the competitions went underway, reality struck hard as we became easy prey as the other teams led by their future varsity players simply outclassed us. So at the end of the elimination round with one last game to play, we found ourselves at the bottom of the team standings without nary a single win to show. We took the losses in strides but deep inside myself I was devastated. It was simply hard for me to accept that my team is the least among them and that my love for the game and our efforts are not enough to lift our team to a respectable level. I covered up my frustrations with smiles and candid jokes about our team’s misfortunes.

And came the last game.

Our team, obviously out from any serious contention, has nothing to gain but a semblance of pride left just to win at least a game out of the tournament. The opposing team, on the other hand, has a mission at hand. Winning this game for them will give them the chance to compete in the championship game.

And so we both wanted it badly.

The game was played in see-saw fashion for the most duration. Jaybee, their team captain was simply unstoppable and we all have our hands busy trying to defend him. On our side, lady luck was also smiling as were able to have good looks and made some improbable shots. As the game went on, we experienced some form of adrenalin rush while being able to keep up with a good team. We felt good and energized. We were having fun.

The final result was a tournament’s only game-thriller with us winning by a single point.
It was the talk-of-the-campus for a few days.

Let me remind you that we were still the cellar-dweller of the tournament, but that lonesome win proved a lot of things to me and our team:

1. There is no such thing as born-loser – only perennial quitter.
If you keep on fighting and improving, then you are bound to win sooner or later but if you give up, then winning will never be an option. Even Michael Jordan, the iconic legend of basketball needed more than 7 years of frustrated attempts before finally winning his championship. He was the emerging best player of that time and it must have been really exasperating for him through all those years. But he never quit and the rest of his playing years were the lasting testaments to his legacy.

2. You can be a winner without being on top.
At the end of each tournament, only 1 team is always crowned champion and the rest are runner-ups. Yes, even the least team, in essence, is running-up the ladder of success. If you see improvement in your team as the time progress, then consider yourself a winner because you are moving in the right direction. It will just be a matter of time, before that on-going improvement will spell the team success you all are hoping and working for.

3. 1>56
I can never forget that 56 never-to-be-repeated-even-in-my-wildest-and-craziest-dream points but Jaybee scored 63 mind-boggling points of his own as well. Mano-o-mano, my personal effort would have been another losing effort but being with team-mates that finally believe in themselves made the intangible difference. We got the 1 win that we wanted so much. Nobody really talked about personal statistics after the game. All we ever talked about is the feeling of great teamwork where everybody played their role very well. In the end, winning as a team is all that matters because the fulfillment belongs to all.

Life is like a basketball game.
It is full of challenges, disappointments, discouragements, fears, problems, and obstacles.

So the same hindsight holds true.
Don’t quit. Keep the good fight.
Be a winner even if you are losing.
Look for good team-mates to help you.

Relentlessly aim for that single most important win in our lives – the glory of heaven.
Be God’s champion.

God bless.

Our Home

Excited.
Exhilarated.
Thrilled.

It’s the first time my wife and I will experience this.

My employer invested on a flat unit in an upcoming community near our work which my family can stay during my employment. But flat or condominium units in China are always sold in bare condition and the buyer must decorate by themselves. So the task of decorating and completing the unit was handed over to us subject to the approval of the final costs and expenditures.

As soon as some interested interior designers gave us their proposals, my wife and I started brainstorming with gusto on what and how we like the final design would be. We thought about the pros and cons of the dark colored motif for the house. We chose the balcony floor and protection wires to prevent our kids from accidents. We huddled to decide at the wood parquet color and the application inside the house. We agreed and match the kitchen fixtures with the shiny red cabinets. The choice of toilet fixtures was unanimous with bath enclosure and ceramic lavatory. Floor tiles for kitchen and toilets are confirmed. We scoured magazines and spied on the famous IKEA and B&Q shops for the latest in bedroom space maximizations.

The next important step will be merging our ideas with the professional interior designers while meeting the budgetary limit as well.

Later, we will have to choose the suitable electric appliances and furniture as well, but we agreed to take one step at a time and see first how the finishing goes before tackling this.

There is nothing like building a home that can bring such excitement and active energy from married couples like us.
Considering the fact that the housing unit will not even belong to us in the end, it still gives us the pleasant and enthusiastic experiences throughout.
We can only ponder our excitement when the time comes for our very own house to be decorated in the future.

Now, as Christians, there is one more thing that should really keep us on the edge of our spiritual seat which is about our future and eternal home. The site and location is magnificent and the view is breathtaking with crisp morning sunrises and soul-soothing dusks. The location has the safest zero crime-rate record in the entire universe. There are no reservation fees, no miscellaneous charges and no monthly amortizations to worry. The interior designs are…ahhmm…heavenly. The materials are rust-proof, mold-free, dust-free and forever-quality marked. The bill for management, water, electricity and maintenance is zilch, zip, zero, zapped.

* John 14:2 says, ”In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you."

This offer is sent to all of us into our innermost selves, waiting to be opened, reflected and decided by each one of us.
The minute details are kept, expounded and explained by our apostolic church, the one tasked by the Lord to keep the keys of the main gate.
All questions and guidelines are best answered by her alone.

So what are we waiting for?
Let us go ahead and accept the offer.
Let us sign on the invisible dotted lines.

There is only one thing to remember, we must start living our life with faithful certainty about our future home – inviting others to know about this once-in-a-lifetime offer.

Heaven is our eternal home.
Aren't you excited yet?


* John 14:2 (NAB)
“In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”

Bethany re-visited

Last year, my personal aspiration to re-visit Bethany, our diocesan orphanage center which we have been visiting as part of our apostolate activities some 20 years ago, was fulfilled. It was Maia’s christening and Zek’s third birthday so we timed the visit to have a simple afternoon celebration with the children. My father, youngest brother and his wife, sister in law and her children joined us much to my delight.

A lot has change.

From its original location hidden inside the barrio, it was transferred into a spacious lot beside the seminary. And from the simple structure it was, it rose forth a complete facility with dormitories for boys and girls, a playground, prayer room, classrooms, exclusive infant room and their very own chapel. The surrounding is well taken care of with trees and trimmed grasses. They have their own security and management group still headed by the Dominican nuns.

Some things never change.

Sadly, not even the better facilities and management yielded what the nuns have been aspiring for. What with the orphan population growing every year, the volunteers and regular caretakers are silent witnesses to the never-ending tragedies of these poor and neglected children. The sad stories remain the same. They are left and abandoned by their own parents either since birth or at their very young age. One toddler story is really heartbreaking because his mother was forced to give her up because her drunkard husband continues to beat her black and blue whenever they have argument, The last straw happened when he tried to hack her with a bolo. She was simply afraid that he would inadvertently shift his fits of rage towards their son. The mother, in deep pain, wouldn’t even dare visit their son because she is afraid he would be able to follow her and know his whereabouts.

Some things do never change.

Inspite of being orphaned, these children are a joy to watch and talk with. They pray. They clean their areas before they leave. They have the inculcated respectful trait as they never miss the words “po” and “opo” in their conversation. They share their toys. They share jokes. They kid around. They have their ready smile every time they see us look their way. They are very candid about answering our queries whether they are personal or trivial things. Yes, once in a while, loneliness and their deep longing to belong to their very own family get the better of these children but they know that they can get the love and attention from their dedicated caretakers.

And for this, I really would like to honor those selfless and nameless angels called nuns and volunteers who denied themselves of their personal time to care good care of these little angels. It doesn’t matter to them if others will recognize their sacrifices or not. What matters to them is what matters to our Lord – His children.

I felt very blessed to be able to spend another hour or so with them again.
Thank you Lord for that opportunity and looking forward for more.