MISSING NEMO

It has been almost five years already since his parents made the big decision of entrusting care of him to us. They were just starting their family then, and both his parents are saving up to be able to support the barely three month old Nemo then. They can't just yet afford to hire a nanny for him.

Me and my wife at the time was a little more than a year working out our relationship. As with a previous post, my wife have had two miscarriages in our first year together. We were not devastated then, as we have learned to trust whatever God has planned on us. Having Nemo though was sort of like a blessing to us.

Nemo's father is my nephew who is a year younger than I am. He worked then in Metro Manila as a junior engineer for a construction company. His mother, on the other hand, is an employee of the same company. As per the agreement we had, they werre to send support for Nemo every month as me and my wife also barely are making enough for our own living.

We were so delighted upon setting our eyes on Nemo. Yes, he was named after the animation character as he was born in the year the movie was shown (2003). The experience was the closest we had to being parents ourselves. It was quite a job, but we pulled through just fine, or some even say great. He stayed with us until before he turned a year old, and then returned to us for several months more shortly after his first birthday. When he was about three years old, his nanny left and he again lived with us for a month or so.

The good thing about Nemo is that eventhough we have taught him from the start who really his parents are, he always have treated as just the same as he does his parents. Well, sometimes even more, I should say. There are a few times his mother would get jealous when Nemo prefer our company during our visits after we have moved here in Metro Manila almost a couple of years ago. Also, that time when he returned to our care when he was three years old, he did not forget our names and have welcomed us as he would have when he was just a baby.

About three months ago, his father- my nephew, left for work in the middle east where he signed up for a two year contract. Nemo was growing and simply the family needed to generate more income to be able to support him. His mother is still working all these times and was not about to give up her career as well. Nemo had a nanny to take care of him whenever his parents are at work. Before his father left, they moved to a province next to Metro Manila where his mother enherited their old house.

Until this development, we used to be able to just visit Nemo at least once a month as they used to just be in the next city around thirty minutes away from where we live. For the last four months though, including the month before they transferred to the suburb, we have not been able to visit them. Although we are able to call Nemo on the phone, there is no replacement to paying him a visit and bringing him home with us for a day. Recently, also, we have opted to lessen the frequency of calls to him as he is beginning to beg for us to visit him. We ourselves are busy with our jobs, and being in the call center industry, our work shifts are not like those of traditional jobs. For example, my current rest day schedules are from Wednesday through Friday; wherein those days Nemo has school. The last time we called was about a week ago, and it was really hard to hear him cry on the other end begging for us to visit him.

His parents are good, and they always make it a point to give him quality time during weekends. It just so happens that Nemo considers us to be sort of second parents, and he probably needs affection from us too. We do miss him a lot too. The thing is that we just couldn't make time for him right now. With the company, I am allowed total of twenty days of paid vacation per year, but as of now I only have six left and I am saving five of those for our vacation in our province in December, and one day for emergency purposes.

Somehow, we may be able to workout a schedule by the coming week to finally come and visit him. However, it will just be a visit as it will be on a weekday and he won't be able to come back home with us. That poses another problem as he definitely would want to come home with us like he is used to whenever we visit him. We're willing to risk that and offer him anything to appease just to give him a visit and not to bring him home with us for a day.

Stormee Morning

One nice stormy morning, I went ahead to come to the office despite my wife pleading for me to call-in to advise the work force management I will not be able to come to work this morning. But then I gave my word to my supervisor yesterday I will report for work today. The company offered to reimburse me of my cab fare just for me to come to the office. I told them I don't need reimbursement as I can shoulder my own fare expenses, and that I only am worried about the weather I have to brave as the cab couldn't fetch me straight from my house. We live inside a university campus wherein many cab companies refuse to send out cabs for fetching passengers. The only option I seem to have is catch a passenger jeepney out of the university. So, on I went and risked my ass into the storm. Reaching the gas station outside the university I immediately saw a bus going my route, so I thought why not save the company from paying for my fare? Don't I deserve a commendation, PeopleSupport?

Holding On

It has been six years ago since my wife and I decided to build a life together. Life has been good and has provided us with everything we need and a few more. Although there is one thing more that we have not attained yet- that is to have a child. On our first year together, she got pregnant twice but had miscarriage on the second and third month, respectively. People around us, especially our immediate relatives, are quite alarmed that she never got pregnant again for the last five years. We couldn't blame them as we ourselves believe the clock is ticking on us, and add to it the fact that we have a huge age gap- at least ten years, with her being younger. However, we also firmly believe that if God don't see us fit to have a child yet, then so be it, and just the same if He decides for us not to have any children. At least we still have each other and have stood the test of time holding on to the promise we made then to ourselves- till death do us part.

FIRST LINE

I have started a blog about two months ago and promised on the posts that I will keep it running for sometime, unlike the countless blogs i have started before. But then, it met the same fate as the others; and worse, I even forgot the password I used with it.


Here I am, starting another, and hopefully this time I will keep it. Starting this blog has its significance to me because I am back to Blogger, who hosted my very first blog years ago; and I also have recently gone back to using Sony Ericsson phones after some years with either Nokia or Motorola. My new phone has direct acccess to Blogger, which I think now is standard with most SE phones, wherein I can upload pictures immediately as I shot them using the phone. With that convenience, I don't think I will have a lot more reason to keep this blog.



With this very first post, let me just give you the things you can expect from this blog. I am a recluse person and I mostly write random thoughts that cross my mind for the time being. Subjects could be anything from music to short stories. I will try to be candid or open with my emotions, as my wife is anything but techie, and I may write some things that she may be otherwise be indeffirent about, if she gets to read them. I care about here more than any other person, so her not knowing about this blog will give me so much freedom about my thoughts, for there are some things about me she'd better not know about-- some dark secrets that only a handful people and God Himself knows.



Here I am, blogosphere.