Hello all! I trust you all had an amazing and wonderful Christmas. We sure did. We were busy up till Christmas and are trying to catch our breath now. Before I go into Christmas festivies, let me tell you a huge blessing we received this week.
Calvary Chapel Okinawa, one of our support churches, raised enough money for us to buy a new jeepne!!!!! If you go to their home page, they have a button called project: Bacolod Jeepne. This is such a blessing. Words literally cannot express how great God is and how he works everything out for our good. Many of us cried and got goosebumps when we saw the website. I don’t think anyone from that church reads this, but THANK YOU!!!!!!
Now on to Christmas. Myself and Manang Faith had our second day to finish our manita shopping. Another fun day of tramping around Bacolod, eating things and discovering new shops and fun things. I had a fresh piaya from bong bong which was absolutely delicious! My first all-nighter here was so much fun! I ended up staying up for 38 hours but it was worth every tired minute. We started at 9pm wrapping all the kids gifts. There were about 140ish kids to wrap for. First we had to lay out all the bags with the kids names and sort all the gifts by age, then start dividing everything up to make sure everyone in the same age group gets the same amount of everything. We had everything from books, to pongyo’s (hair bands) to skateboards to divvy up. I was in charge of the books. So in the back I had piles of books for all the different age groups. Making sure no one got the two of the same book. Then once everything was laid out, we had to make sure every age group had enough and if the didn’t figure out what else to put in their gift. Then after all that put them all into their bags or plastic. then carry them all the room where we were hiding them and clean up the church. By the time we ended it was 3am. Since it was Friday they were going shopping and not only was it a big shopping day since Christmas was coming, we also had our big monthy dry goods shopping to do. The pog (jeepne) was stuffed to the brim! We had food in the front of the pog and tatay couldn’t see out the back. I went with them since I was already awake. I thought I would take a nap when I got back but we needed to cover 13 skateboards that had bad images on them. I was the only one not busy, so I spent Friday covering skateboards. But it was a fun day! And completely worth it, when I saw their faces when they saw the skate boards.
On Christmas eve, we had our Christmas program at the El Fisher Hotel. It was a lot of fun! They served a nice dinner and dessert for the kids. Complete with punch, they loved it!! A few of the ladies watching were crying and some of the kids were trying to follow the hand signs. It was great! There is a song that Nanay included in the program “count your blessings”. I remember it from White Christmas. “When youre weary and you can’t sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep. And you’ll fall asleep counting your blessings”. During the song, all the kids come up holding numbers. Nanay explains that our blessings in life aren’t our material possessions or our finanicial situation but our faith in God and the people he has brought into out lives. That each of her 170 kids is a blessing from the Lord. The audience seemed to really respond to that, which amazed me. We were at one of the nicest hotels in Bacolod, very swanky. Their hearts were softened to hear the message.
Then Christmas!! Since it landed on a Sunday, we had our Christmas program for our church members. It was packed! A much different crowd then the night before, but just as soft and receptive. Ladies were crying, children were singing along. It was beautiful. The kids were probably dying but we didn’t open gifts till 4p. After church we needed the time to eat lunch, clean up and prep for dinner. How Christmas goes here is pretty much like any large family. The Manangs all give out their gifts first. A manang grabs her gift and the kids sing “Love my manita, yes I do, Love my manita, yes I do, love my manita, yes I do, love my manita, but I wont tell you” while the manang is walking around trying to find her manita. It takes about an hour to hand them all out. Then we put our gifts aside, and focus on the kids. All the manangs sit on the stage and we call out each kid’s name. They come up and give everyone a hug and take their bag and sit back down. This takes about another hour and is loud and crazy. I loved it. Seeing the faces of the new kids who had no idea what we do for Christmas was beautiful. Their was true joy and thankfulness in their faces. One of the new girls didn’t even think she got a gift but just loved having her name called and all the hugs we gave her. Her face when we told her she had a bag too, beamed so brightly. I basically was on the verge of tears the entire time. Once all everyone has a gift, then we all open them together. Our house was louder than any concert I have ever been too. Squeals of joy and excitement abounded from every corner. I don’t think I have seen so many true and honest smiles in my whole life. We gave the little girls the fluffy headbands that have the springs sticking out them to make them look like bug antennas and the boys got army and police helmets. They have not taken then off since they got them. They play, eat and sleep with them. It is absolutely adorable!! This was one of the best Christmas’s I have ever had. It was an incredibly blessing for me to be here and to share in the joy and love. My class got little readers and every single one of them, came up to me and asked if I would sit and read it with them. They wanted to make sure, they read it correctly. What an amazing blessing to be someone they look up too and want to share their lives with.
If all of that wasn’t enough to melt and break your heart. Yesterday I was talking to one of the older girls. I asked if she liked her gift. She looked at me with her beautiful smile and told me she loved it. Her eyes became teary. She told me she has never received a gift before. She is 14 years old. It took everything I had to not break down in front of her. She is one of the sweetest girls and to think that every birthday and Christmas she has had, no one has ever thought to give her anything, not even a little something.
Like I said earlier, my Christmas was amazing. To be counted as a Rosmarino and share in it all has been my favorite experience thus far. I did miss my family and they missed me. I know we kept eachother in our hearts in our separate celecrations. But we will have our own mini Christmas when they are here in 3 weeks!!!!!
All my love and God bless,
Till next time, Kelsey
What a wonderful experience! Thank you so much for sharing! We miss you and your stories warm our hearts! Sending you hugs and prayers....Leanne
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