Valentine's Day

Some people say that Valentine's Day is a pointless occasion because love is meant to be celebrated everyday. I don't agree nor disagree to it simply because I never really questioned why this particular day seems to be a big deal. When I was in primary school, I remember every corner of our classroom would be filled with heart-shaped cut-outs from red and pink colored paper. It's cute and tacky at the same time, lol. In high school, my friends and I would exchange little love notes and paper flowers. I love how these little gestures make a big impact in celebrating love.

This is the fourth year in a row that I get to celebrate Valentine's Day with E; our second as husband and wife. We decided to go to Chinatown to see the lanterns and Chinese New Year decorations. I didn't expect it to be packed with THAT many people. I should have known -- it's the weekend before Chinese New Year, and the queue for Lim Chee Guan bak kwa is craaazy.

Here are some shameless selfies! :D

After joining the crowd in Chinatown, we headed to Clarke Quay. We had quick dinner, then we spent hours having heart-to-heart talk by the river while eating our favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We exchanged love letters, which we read right there next to each other. Can you imagine how cheesy the moment was? Well, it's Valentine's Day, cheesiness levels are expected to be amplified. :P

Highlight of our Valentine's Day: eating our favorite ice cream by the river while reading our love letters to each other. ❤️ @erick_starr #clarkequay #benandjerrys

A photo posted by Gela Azaña-Labiano (@misislabs) on Feb 14, 2015 at 9:15pm PST

Our all-time favorite ice cream, Ben & Jerry's Salted Caramel Core :) Yuuuum!

The pavement by the river was filled with other couples, just as we expected. Thankfully we found a spot that was not too crowded.

Here's a screenshot of my husband's post in Instagram. It made me crazy kilig, so I thought I'd post it here :)

The letter I wrote for E contained 100 reasons why I love him. It was probably the cheesiest thing I've ever written, but I truly meant every single word. My hands ached while writing that 4-page letter, but it was all worth it when I saw happy tears streaming down his face while reading it.  :)

People-watching was more fun and interesting on V-Day. Seeing all those women walking around with one hand holding a bouquet of flowers and the other clasped with the hand of her special someone was so heartwarming. Then there's this young couple wearing matching shirts. The guy looked like he was just forced to wear it! It's sweet that he still wore it (even if it probably felt awkward for him), just to make his girl happy. Love really does make you do things you never imagined you'd do. :D

Yes, Valentine's Day is a big deal to me. I'd say that this day is worth all the fuzz and hype that comes with it. I'm just so grateful that there's this one day in a year where love is on full display among people from all walks of life. It's so inspiring to see people go the extra mile just to make loved ones feel special. It makes the world a wonderful place to live in.

Thank you for making me soooo happy everyday :)

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Hope you spent the day with family and loved ones. :)

Thoughts while on board Bus 88

It dawned on me during my prayer time this morning that I ask for a lot of things from God. Ironically, at the end of the day, I don’t really feel that I’m lacking anything in my life. Although of course it would be nice to have our own house, a car, a successful business, and our very own baby — I honestly feel that I’ve got everything I need to live a happy life. It took me years of angst and push and pull with my faith before I got to this state. To experience how it is to be truly content with what I have. I learned over the years that having the proper mindset plays a huge part. I’ve probably heard hundreds of times from my daily devotionals that we must focus on what we have, not on what we don’t have. It is by doing so that we are able to cultivate the attitude of gratitude in our lives. My life is not perfect, but it’s pretty great. I realized that my husband, my family, and my God are all I’ll ever really need.

—–

Last night, my husband and I ate out for dinner. We went to Manhattan Fish Market at Junction8 mall. We had home-cooked meals for the past 4 days so we decided to eat out for a change. I’m not going to talk about the food because I have nothing nice to say about it. But I will mention how much I appreciated the staff who served us. She was warm and friendly the moment we stepped into the store, and she made sure that we were comfortable. She was too nice, that I didn’t have the heart to give a negative feedback when she asked how our food was. I’m writing about this because it’s such a rare occurrence here.

—–

One thing I am most thankful for is being able to witness how my husband is growing in his faith in the Lord. These are some of our conversations these past few days that are evident to that.

Conversation #1:

me: Waah ang lakas ng ulan! Kainis naman, kung kelan pauwi na.
E: Nag pray na ‘ko kay God, titila din ‘yan bago ka umalis diyan sa office mo.
me: Eh 30 minutes na lang aalis na ako, sobrang lakas pa rin.
E: Titila ‘yan.  

True enough, the rain stopped just before I left the office. I was amazed because it was raining so hard just a few minutes back. My husband seemed 100% sure when he said that the rain will stop. And it did. I doubted, but I was proven wrong. I find it reassuring to have a husband with such strong faith in God — both in the trivial and life-defining things.

Conversation #2:

E: Baby, hindi binigay yung (salary) increase. Pero ok lang, pinagdasal ko naman na ‘to kay Lord. Baka sa ibang bagay ako i-bless.

When I read the first sentence, I was about to tell my husband to start looking for another job because he deserves a company that would reward him for his hard work. Bitterness was slowly filling up my heart, yet there he was, at peace despite the disappointment. Instead, he stayed positive, claiming that he will surely be blessed in another way. It’s humbling and it made me reflect on how I deal with my unanswered prayers. It reminded me that no matter what happens in my life, God will always know better. After all, He is the Big Guy up there who created us according to His image and likeness; the One who orchestrates every piece of our lives to fall into place.

And what do you know, the increase came the next day! Apparently, E’s boss just forgot about it. What a generous God we have! :) I am so grateful that I am married to someone who I learn soooo much from.

Random Love Burst

Here's something that's a bit too personal, but I decided to share it here anyway because it's just too precious, so much so that it made me cry in the middle of a busy workday (Thank God for my workstation that allows me some privacy, haha). Aside from his wedding vows, this is probably my favorite among E's many declarations of love over the course of our relationship.

I guess what really touched my heart is how random it was, so it really came as a surprise to me. Even though I am showered by my husband's paglalambing on a daily basis, my heart was not prepared to read such a heartfelt no-occasion email from him. You can bet that I've been smiling like a silly girl all day since I read the email :) What made it special is that it's not the typical love letter he usually writes me -- this one's like a story that came full circle with an introduction, a plot, and a conclusion. It's like a condensed version of our connecting-the-dots story. Every time E and I would recall how we were led to each other, we are always left in awe of how God reveals His perfect plans in His perfect time, all because of His perfect love for us. We get to feel this kind of overwhelming love because of Him.

And yes, I am just as happy and content every night before I go to sleep. I love you too with tears of joy, my darling. ♥

MOH

My beautiful sister and I got married one year and one month apart, wherein we are each other's Maid/Matron of Honor. I loooove that we have these identical shots in our respective weddings (both photos taken by the amazing CamZar Photography)

Praise God for the gift of beautiful sisterhood :)

Sweet Selfie Sunday

When I gave my old iPhone 5 to my Dad, the first app he asked me to install for him was Viber. We have a family Viber group, and he was the only one in our family not in it before he had the iPhone (For some reason, Viber doesn't work on the Blackberry phone he's using for work). I was so happy when we were finally complete in the group!

Yesterday was noisier than usual in our little group, with my Dad being the most active one. Naaliw siya sa pagse-send ng pics, hahaha! I think our family became even more closely-knitted after the Christmas holidays. I wasn't able to meet any of my friends in Manila when I came home because I wanted to maximize my time with my family. The twelve days that I spent with them were the best, especially those times when we were just chilling at the condo, all eight of us. Yes, our family has 8 members now, with my husband Erick and my new brother-in-law Christian. How fun!! :) This is probably why it was so hard for me to leave, that I cried on the plane going back in Singapore. And I don't have a memory of me crying on the plane, EVER!!!

Hehe, marunong na sila mag-selfie! Sooo adorable!!!! ♥ Being able to talk to them more often now (Thanks to the convenience brought by Viber) makes me so happy and thankful. We get to easily update each other not only on the big milestones, but also on the trivial things like what Dad cooked for Mom, Kat and Tian's newlywed adventures, and J and A's whereabouts. I LOVE THAT. Knowing these little things doesn't make me feel so far away from them. :)

Here's another selfie that made me smile like a love-crazed teenager, haha. I woke up earlier than the husband, and went ahead to take a shower. When he woke up, he sent me this selfie of him. Cutest 'Good morning' message everrrr. ♥

I asked him how come he still misses me even though we're together every single day. He said he missed me while we were asleep for 10 hours, and waking up without me beside him made it worse. Hahaha! Haaaay, this boy. Always so sweet and malambing. I'm so thankful that I get to keep him forever ;)

Humbled

My husband and I almost got into a huge fight today. We're moving to a new place in two weeks, so we spent our Saturday afternoon sorting and packing some of our stuff. My husband apologized to the prospective tenant for having to view our room while it was in a state of mess. When the guy left, I told my husband that he shouldn't have apologized -- well, we're moving out soon, what can he expect?? A messy room, NATURALLY.

It obviously upset him. I sensed the tension in his tone as he asked what's the point of telling him off, when it clearly wouldn't change anything anymore. It got me so annoyed because I thought it was such a condescending response from him. I expressed that I didn't deserve to be responded to that way because what I said was just so simple and straightforward. He said that he was offended. To which I replied that correcting him was not meant to offend him. And I went on to accuse him of having double standards because he has corrected me in the past, but I never took offense to it. Can you imagine how irked he was at that point? (In hindsight, comparing myself with him was even worse) You see, it's a struggle for my husband to make a rebuttal when he's at the peak of his emotions. He has to be calm and composed to gather his thoughts. Of course, that seems impossible when you're in the moment of dealing with anger. His inability to "counter-attack" immediately would seriously frustrate him, which would lead to a major drama-filled argument. In the contrary, I am always ready with an answer. E says it's like I'm unleashing my inner lawyer/debater whenever we argue. Oops.

I stayed silent and tried to ignore him as he whimpered to himself. I was expecting him to confront me again, so I was sort of 'preparing' in my head. About five minutes later, he called me: "Baby..." in a very calm tone. To my surprise, he asked me to lay down beside him. As much as I was touched by his unexpected mood shift in such a short span of time, I also felt guilty for thinking the worse of him. So I lay down beside him and he just embraced me without saying a word. Two minutes later, he explained why he felt offended earlier. Turns out, my correction was said in a harsh tone. I felt so embarrassed for not even realizing it!  E explained that he was just trying to be polite to the prospective tenant, that's why he apologized. He said that he could have humbly accepted my correction if it was said in a nicer tone.

I felt so bad realizing how careless I was that I've hurt my husband's feelings. I hugged him so tightly and said sorry for my words and actions that were uncalled for. He hugged me back and kissed me on the forehead. Thank You Lord for blessing me with a forgiving husband.

Our little argument could have snowballed into something worse, but my husband chose to initiate a gracious way of settling our misunderstanding -- even if it's not his fault. I WAS DEEPLY HUMBLED. This experience taught me these things:

1. Do not assume the worst of your partner. He/She deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt. Remember, loving a person means always having his/her best interests at heart.

2. The way you say something makes all the difference. I think the quote below best explains this.

3. You can initiate to make amends even if you are not at fault. Being able to do this is a sign of humility and maturity. It also says a lot about just how much you love your partner, giving more importance to your relationship than your hurt feelings.

4. It is important in a marriage to be good forgivers. I pray to have a heart that is always willing to ask for forgiveness, as well as to forgive. Whenever I struggle in this area, I think about Jesus and how many times He has forgiven us despite committing the same sins over and over again. If Jesus can forgive THAT much -- considering that He took our place on the cross and saved us from our sins -- then why can't we, more so the person we love most?

Compromise

One of the most important things that I've learned in marriage is the power of COMPROMISE. My husband and I, despite our many similarities, do not always want the same things. This is where compromise needs to come in. One of us has to "give way" to the other. Sometimes "meeting halfway" could also be a good idea. The bottomline is, we have to have a mutual agreement so that we're both happy.

The message exchange below shows how my husband and I compromised with each other recently.

As you can see, compromise may involve bargaining sometimes. Hahaha!!

Sorry if it's a shallow example, but i'm sure you get the point :)

P.S. Please ignore the fact that my husband loves Sam and Cat. This is the man I fell in love with -- don't judge. :P