Day 4/40: Family

Right after the People Power EDSA celebration (which ended earlier...happy!), we all went straight home to get a much needed rest. It's been two nights in a row where we only had 3 hours of sleep at most because of rehearsals and production meetings. After 7 hours of rest yesterday, I decided to have a Saturday movie night. 

The first movie I watched was The Art of Getting By. It was a movie of a young guy who is about to graduate in highschool but have lost all motivation to live, lost all motivation in life. One thing he realized at the start of the movie was that what use is living life if at the end of it all, you'll die. But he found inspiration to start living and doing his school stuff and pursuing his passion for arts when he saw his mother struggling through life and meeting a girl.

The second movie I watched was the Change Up. It reminded me of the movies 13 going on 30 and 17 again where the the lead stars wished that they lived different lives. So that's what happened in this movie, the married lead star wished he had his bestfriend's single life. The married lead star who was already in his bestfriend's body found himself missing his wife, missing waking up at midnight to feed and change the diapers of his twins and listening to the stories of his daughter. And so at the end, his soul returned to his body and he was back in his crazy, married life. And I love that it was shown how he missed every single moment of it. The common denominator of the 2 movies: family.

Family studio picture. I love!

So I found myself missing my family back home. I visited them (a surprise visit!) one weekend ago. My father turned 50 and before his special day was over, I decided to book a flight home. That was my most expensive MNL-CBU-MNL ticket purchase but no regrets. I spent the whole weekend with them and loved and enjoyed every minute of it. I went to watch the basketball game of my brothers, John and Mark and cheered and took lots of photos! Stage Ate at that. Then attended John's Parents' Recognition in school where Mama, Inday and I get to dance with him and we all went to dinner afterwards with a family friend. The next day, we all went to hear mass at the Sto Nino Church...but we missed Nyn-nyn. She's been very busy lately (every weekend) for  out of town trips because of her school projects which requires them to visit forests, marine sanctuaries, mountains and islands. Fun noh? I love that she's loving (and enjoying every minute of it) the course that she chose. I'm praying and wishing that Arboy and Inday who'll be in college next school year to choose a course that they love or will love too. 

On a family mission trip. During the SAGIP Conference in Cebu.
Fun and everyone was in their GK shirts! 

Top things I miss about my family:

1. Waking up with breakfast ready cooked by Mama dear and waking up to the noise of everyone cramming and getting ready for school.

2. Papa tagging us along to wherever his work is taking him to. This is one of the reasons why we too became passionate about GK and now the environment. He would bring us when he goes on mission trips on weekends and on long breaks. I miss working and serving alongside with him. In the future, I pray I get to serve with all of them again! 

3. Lazying around especially during Sunday mornings when we have no appointments to go to. Just talking, laughing, singing, hugging, asaran, kulitan, sharing stories and just enjoying laying down side by side with each other on our cramped bed...or floor. Haha

4. Serious talks with Papa while Mama listens. We have lots of this every now and then. When we have done a bad thing, collectively or individually, Papa wakes us up either very early in the morning or very late at night and talk to us. When Papa does that, it scares the hell out of us because Papa seldom gets mad so when he does this, he must be very mad and losing his cool. But there are those talks about mission, faith, hope, love that I always love.

5. Kissing the parents goodbye and magmano every morning before I leave for school and every night after I arrive from school or a YFC or GK activity. 

6. Late night talks with the siblings and Mama or Papa telling us to stop the giggling and harutan because we still have school the next day.

7. Kissing everyone during mass and going to mass together. 

8. Praying the rosary together.

9. Going on GK builds and GK activities together. Going on mission trips. Jumping, singing, dancing side by side with the family during worships.

10. Tampuhans. :)

On our way to a family gathering and even in the taxi,
 kulitan pa rin.

Though I never regret to be away from them for the time being, there are always those days like tonight that I wish I was back home in the comforts of the people who loves me for who I am and am not. I couldn't thank God enough for giving and blessing  me with such a beautiful family. As they always say, you never get to appreciate them until you lose them. I know I'm not losing losing them but I don't get to see them everyday as I used to. Makes me appreciate them more. Makes me appreciate and more thankful of the love that they've shown me all these years. I continue to pray that we grow as one family in mission, in love, in hope and in faith. That God will use us to inspire the families that surrounds us as well. I also pray for those kids of broken homes or of those absentee parents. I also pray for those parents with kids have lost their way home, figuratively. I pray for the families in our GK communities that they continue to strive and find the will and the grace to become better for their respective families. I pray for all families that we may be anchored in God, and find ourselves serving the families around us. AMEN. :)