How have I been blessed? Let me count the ways…

For starters, I have been blessed with life. My parents did not think I was ever going to be born, having waited for me for far too long. After seven years of trying, they were giving up and were planning to migrate to Canada. My mom was asked to take a medical examination upon filing for VISA application, which was consequently denied because she was found to be pregnant. She did not believe them and thought they just couldn't find a better excuse. It was not until after a week when she fell ill and my paternal grandmamá realized that her favorite daughter-in-law was with child.

I don't really know much of what happened after that except my grandmother kept on fussing over my mom and that my mom hated the sight of my grandmother because of that and allegedly because pinaglihian niya siya.

The ninth month came and I was still inside my mother's tummy, seemingly not wanting to come out. Well, I guess I had to come out some time and so I did three weeks later. But not without giving everyone, especially my mom, a hard time. She was in labor for 36 hours, at death's door for about two minutes due to the anesthesia she was injected with (that she's allergic to), and the lower half of her body was paralyzed for a whole month afterwards.

Ah, but I have been blessed with so much love. By my parents, grandparents, and other relatives. My father showered me with gifts, gave me baths, drove me around the city every night before tucking me in to sleep, and proudly showed me around to his officemates, business associates, and friends. My mom totally gave up working and gave me her full attention, sang me lullabies and love songs, read (and reread upon every request I made) to me fairytales, taught me the basics in life (to love God, honor my family, value life, respect others). My grandparents doted on me, too, most specially dear grandmamá whose looks I tool after (who on her deathbed 19 years ago persistently requested me to change my first name to hers and for me to take up law, become a judge, and resurrect her name).

I have also been blessed with siblings. We all thought I would end up an only child, but when I was four years and three months old, my mom gave birth to a baby boy. I welcomed having a brother, a playmate. Much as I enjoyed all the attention I got from everyone, I longed to have someone to share my room and my toys with. I even took joy in watching over him when my mom would ask me to, him being such a cooperative and unfussy baby. We did a lot of things together and though we had our own fights (as all kids do), they were rare and were easily patched up. Little did we know that we were soon to be joined by another brother, who was born when I was seven years, ten months, and three weeks old. He was an adorable baby who always laughed, readily hugged, and kissed people. Sickly as a child, he was small and fragile, yet so full of love that you just couldn't help loving him back. Oh, the delight I took in having two playmates, two live dolls to dress up, two younger brothers to look after. Throughout the years we have been the closest siblings could ever be. We have shared secrets, heartaches, and joys and continue to do so until today.

God has blessed me, too, with great friends. I'm not picky in befriending others, but I admit that I carefully choose those whom I open my heart to. And so I have a good number of friends and two hands full of those I am closest to. They are those with whom I can truly say "mayroon kaming pinagsamahan" (translated: we have gone through a lot together). We would do anything and everything we could for each other. Recently they've done a lot for me. Saved, borrowed, and schemed to find money to be able to come here to Cebu and be able to go back to Manila later. Rearranged schedules to gather together and spend hours stretching their vocal chords. Challenged their creativity skills to come up with wonderful works of art made up of ribbons, ferns, flowers, leather, and cloths. Most of all, they gave me the support I really needed.

There are actually almost one thousand blessings that I have been given. Such as a happy childhood, good education, travel opportunities, fulfilling jobs, some luxury, a gift for gab, wit, a flair for the performing arts, a knack in writing, culinary skills. I thought I had it all -- success and failures, abilities and limitations included -- that there wasn't anything else that I could be blessed with.

Well, that wasn't true. There was something else and I have been blessed with that, too. To be loved by a man for who I am, for what I can be, in spite of all that I was, because of the person I become when I am with him. And we have recently been officially blessed to spend the rest of our lives together as husband and wife.