My husband was born and raised in the Philippines.  His family was poor when he was small, and his mother and father worked hard to change that.  They were  industrious, thrifty and hard workers.  When My husband was 15 or so, his mother came to the United States and worked hard and saved money.  She was here for a whole year when she finally had saved enough to buy a house, so she sent for the rest of the family – my father in law, my husband and a brother and a sister.  Two siblings were left in the Philippines because they were already married.  Imagine how hard that must have been on my husbands parents, to say goodbye.   Imagine how brave my mother in law was to move 9,000 miles away from her home, in a country where her language wasn’t spoken, and how hard she would have had to work to save up for a house, in merely a years time.  They’re now retired, and have provided well for all their children.  They can enjoy the fruits of their labor, and travel back and forth between the two countries visiting kids and grandkids and someday soon hopefully, great grandkids.

We’ve been blessed with the opportunity to visit the Philippines twice.  The first time was when Megan was a toddler, back in 2003.  What an amazing experience.  Imho, I believe every American should travel to a 3rd world country at least once … I daresay they’d stop griping about America, that’s for sure.  But I digress.   We were able to go again this year at Christmas time and spent 4 weeks with family and friends.  We stayed at his brothers house and his sisters house at different times during the visit.  His sister’s home is the home they grew up in.  A stoes throw from the Visyan Sea on the Island of Negros Oriental, my daughter stayed in the same house as her father, 9,000 miles away from our home, here in Maryland.  We swam in the sea on the same beach her Papa, aunts and uncles used to play on, and she was held and hugged by my husband’s yaya (nanny).   She also got to meet her many cousins, our neices and nefews and after being there for a whole month she came to love them.  Before our departure, we welcomed a new member of the family, Baby Ryle, my eldest brother in law’s 4th child.  Needless to say, saying goodbye was a teary, heartbreaking event.  Megan cried.  I cried.  My sister in law cried.  My nieces cried.

It’s been 5 months since we’ve been home, but thanks to modern technology, we get to talk often through email, IM’s, web cams, inexpensive phone rates and facebook.  This morning, we were heading into the classroom to start school when I noticed that my niece was online on facebook, and although I don’t remember which one of IM’d first, we started chatting.  Megan hopped onto the other computer and she and her cousin (Manang Rosheil) played “Pet Society” through facebook and got to chat.  A few moments later my other niece hopped on and we were all chatting.  Think about it … we’re here in Maryland in the same room on two different computers chatting away and playing online games with family 9,000 miles away, and both of them about 40 miles away from each other.   The time difference is opposit here, and as we were headed into our day, they were ending theirs.  Just as as we’re heading to our summer vacation and have aonly a few days left, they’re heading OUT of their summer vacation and have a short time until school starts.  They chatted for more than an hour, and then the girls were sleepy and had to go to bed.   If Megan were in a school outside of home, she would have missed that wonderful opportunity to visit and connect with her cousins, but instead we just started school about an hour late AND she got to “socialize” with loved one.

It’s a most awesome thing, imho.