For several weeks now, we’ve been very busy processing so many papers. With our scheduled move to another country in a few months, we figured that we might as well get most of the papers ready now while we don’t have another baby yet to think of.

So the first thing we went for is my DOST clearance. Good thing that getting a final clearance wasn’t that difficult at all. All I had to do was fax a letter of request and a certificate of employment. I was informed when I could pick up my clearance and when I came to pick it up it didn’t even take me ten minutes in and out of the building.

However, getting my clearance from the Bureau of Immigration is another thing. I did’t need any phentermine to make me lose appetite with how slow their service was. I submitted my clearance to them and was asked to return after three working days. So after three days, I went back and I was told that the person in-charge of it haven’t done it yet. I had to summon all my patience not to be pissed off. So they made me wait for almost three hours before I finally got the precious immigration paper saying that I am free to leave the country whenever I want.

Last week, I also applied for an NBI clearance to travel abroad and was asked to go back this Friday. I’m just hoping this one does not make it too difficult for me.

On Thursday, Ramil, Mateo, and I are scheduled for our passport application. With the posts I’ve read and the feedbacks I’ve gotten, it usually takes around three hours for the whole process despite the fact that they now have an appointment system in place. Nevertheless, I’m hoping that my pregnant condition will make things a bit speedier for us.

We have several more papers to take care of: my UP diploma (yes, I haven’t gotten it yet), Ramil’s medical certificate, and of course, Anika’s papers after I’ve given birth already. Also, we both have to get several copies of our transcripts from UP.

So we’ll still be doing a lot of paperwork in the next few days. I just hope Mateo cooperates and that my huge tummy does not become too much of a burden.

In less than a year, we will find ourselves trying to settle down once again, this time in another country. Ramil will be going to Brunei ahead of us so he can settle down on his own first and adjust to the new work he will have. I told him to give himself two weeks to focus entirely on his work. After which, he’ll be arranging everything we’ll need for when I, Mateo, and Anika follows.

One of the biggest logistic is the house we will be staying in. Although we wouldn’t be staying in anything like a Tamarindo Real Estate property, his employer gives housing allowance so we could relax a little bit when it comes to rent. We hope to find one that’s really, really close to the school, preferably one that is within walking distance especially since public transportation can be difficult there.

After finding a house, he will be doing some ‘shopping’ for the house. Since we plan to get just the necessities, at least for the first few months, I think it will be very much like how we started off when we got married – improvising with many of our things.

We’re still undecided whether we will be sending some of our stuff by crate. Hopefully, everything will be a relatively smooth transition for us.

Today, we’ve had our first ‘casualties’. Although I’ve posted the list of the items we still have to sell and some people have already committed to buying them, all of the items are still actually with us. Until today.

The microwave stand was picked up this afternoon and we spent the morning removing its contents and dusting it off. While starting on the task, I gently touched it and softly said goodbye. It was one of the first purchases Ramil and I made when we were setting up house during the first few days of our married life. Yes, it was just a microwave stand but it held a lot of promise and memories for us. We reminisced our efforts in assembling it and how I always used to designate its cleaning to Ramil (which he always dreaded).

Our little boy, who has always have high empathy, went to ‘hug’ the stand upon hearing me saying goodbye to it. We saw him trying to hide his face and his little mouth curling. He walked to me, hid his face behind my back, and proceeded to gently brush his face across my back. Ramil and I exchanged looks, sensing that our little guy was getting sentimental as well. Ramil moved closer to Mateo to hug him and upon hugging Ramil, Mateo let out a huge sigh and then tears just poured from his eyes. We could see and feel him trying to control himself as he continued his quiet sobs. And my heart was broken.

I think Mateo is understanding more than he is letting on. He feels how huge and how difficult this whole thing is for me and for Ramil. I know I can never shield him from things like these so we try to just make it easier for him with our presence and assurances.

So we had our first item off today. An unplanned sale even occurred because when the person buying the stand dropped by, she asked us what else we are selling. Upon seeing a side table, she asked if it was for sale. I said yes but that I didn’t know how to describe it in my list. She offered to buy it and just like that, we got rid of two items today.

Ramil reassured me with comforting hugs and promises that we’ll have our dream pretty soon. Maybe in a few years we’ll be able to build our house with little details that we’ll want like Grohe faucets, kitchen cabinets, and many more. I said that this whole thing is like a purging of some sort. God is really making us let go of almost every material thing that we have and worked for. To be honest, I don’t see any logic in it which makes me realize that God is simply asking us to let go of everything and to let Him.

My dad left a few weeks ago for another contract. It’s good that he was able to push for a 6-month contract from his usual 9-month contract. This means he’ll be around before we go off to live in another country.

On the other hand, his small restaurant business has been temporarily closed down for more than a month now. Business wasn’t doing well and he hasn’t had time to personally manage it since he started training with his new company. So all his plans for it has been temporarily put on hold as well. I guess he won’t be pursuing the upgrades that would be great for it like the Symbol LS2208.

My mom plans to put it in operational again in a month’s time. She just has to arrange some details with the utilities. Hopefully it does better this time around.

I now weight around 143 pounds. I’m not very shy about announcing it, I’m pregnant after all, hahaha! I started off with a weight of around 120 pounds which means I’ve now gained 22 pounds. So that leaves me with 8 pounds more to gain since I’ve imposed a maximum of 30 pounds for myself for this pregnancy.

As early as now, I look forward to losing all the weight after I give birth. Before giving birth to Mateo, I weighed around 145 pounds and two weeks after giving birth, I was down to around 122 pounds. Even my ob was shocked and was even worried with how fast I lost the weight. I attribute all of it to the persistent breastfeeding and mindless pumping I did during the first few days.

Hopefully this time, I won’t need any of the best weight loss products as well. I guess I should also be thankful to my metabolism. That, coupled with breastfeeding, helped me a lot to lose weight.

I am optimistic that this time I’m going to find it easier since I’ve been running before I got pregnant. I missed it so much that even until now, with my bulging tummy and swollen feet, I’d feel a desire to go running whenever I feel stressed out. So hopefully, I get back to my pre-pregnancy form or better yet, a more physically fit body.

Amidst all the changes that have been happening,  the one person who will be making soooo many adjustment is this little boy:

Every time I think about all the adjustments that my son will make, I feel like I have no right to complain. He’s going to have it bad the next few weeks and I’m really, really praying everything will be easy for him.

In two weeks, he will be adjusting to a new house. Given that it’s actually my parents’ house and he’s familiar with it, I know it should be the easiest adjustment. Still, I’ve talked to him a lot of times about it just to mentally prepare him. I know it’s still difficult to leave the only house he’s ever really known as ‘home’ and adjust to another one.

After the move, he’ll basically just have five days to adjust before he takes on another thing – a new school. We’ve already taken him to visit the school he will go to in the next few months. He was curious about the school, the teachers, the books, the school furniture, the fishes in the office (he misses the animals in hedcen!), and many more. Although he seems to have taken it quite easily, I am anticipating some, hopefully, very few problems once school really starts. The school is just a short walk away from my parents’ house and I plan to do the school routine with him during the first five days of our stay there, just to get him ready for the first day. I hope he likes it there because he loves hedcen already and it breaks my heart to take that away from him. More than anything, it also breaks my heart for him to be apart from my sister. They are BFFs and not being able to see each other every day will be difficult on both of them.

After the new school adjustment, he’ll be given maybe just a month before the biggest addition to our family arrives.  For months now, we’ve been ‘brainwashing’ him about the upcoming sibling. Although he seems to be doing beautifully with the idea of another baby in the family, Ramil and I know the idea and the real thing are two very different things. But I know my boy, he’ll struggle a little bit but he’s very caring and loving so although it’s going to be difficult I know he’s going to love having a baby around.

After the baby addition, Mateo will be given around five months of reprieve from all the adjustment. By December, Ramil will be going off to Brunei to start his work there. I’m foreseeing this as the BIGGEST adjustment Mateo will have to make. Amidst all the changes he will experience, this is the only one where he will not have both Ramil and me physically with him to offer him support and reassurance and I know this will be an ultimate test of his maturity. Despite their squabbles, Ramil and Mateo are very, very close to each other and the fact that everyone will be adjusting will make it even more difficult. We’re banking on the time investment we will be making before Ramil leaves, the time when Ramil and I both stay and work from home. Hopefully that time will provide more security for Mateo for when Ramil leaves.

Hopefully, we’ll all miss each other for only a month. I’m hoping Mateo will be very, very excited to see and be with Ramil so that the adjustment to a new country will just be underneath that excitement. But then again, it’s not just adjusting to a new country, it’s adjusting to a new house, a totally new environment, a new school, and many, many more.

Needless to say, the next few months will be a test on my son’s resilience. I believe that kids are good with changes. In fact, better than many adults so it just might be me talking here. Who knows, everything will happen without a hitch for him.

I don’t know whether it’s the pregnancy hormones or the sadness at leaving or the resistance to the changes or a little bit of everything, but I have been feeling a bit down lately.  I often find myself worrying about a lot of things that I might need to read up on prototype 37c reviews to prepare for the wrinkles I would surely get from worrying. There are just so many possibilities I could come up with right now and a lot of them are not so good.

It’s a good thing that Ramil is the one keeping the optimism and the faith right now. I think I’m just overwhelmed with everything that has been happening around me. Hopefully I get to shake this off in no time.

I’ve just reached the third trim and it’s an altogether different challenge for me. I feel heavier every day and it doesn’t help that I have to do a lot of moving around the house with all the packing we’ve been doing. The only good thing is that despite the packing, I’m not compelled to clean the house very much since it seems to be pointless now. Every corner of the house is slowly being set aside either for selling or for storage.

Aside from a heavier tummy, our baby’s movements are also getting stronger each day. There are times when certain movements would be painful. However, I am slowly getting impatient (how contrasting!) with the pregnancy. Although I’m in no hurry to have the huge delivery expense right now, it would really be a relief if I could move around with a non-pregnant body.

Also, I’ve been having problems with constipation. Not so unusual for me and for pregnant women. I remember considering the best colon cleansers back when I was pregnant with Mateo and having the same problems. The only way I am solving this problem right now is to drink lots and lots of water and to eat as much fruits as I can.

So I’m almost at the finish line now. I just very well might give birth after two months. So we’re rushing a lot of things as well, moving, processing as many papers as we can, et cetera. Still, I get excited every time I think about holding our baby girl soon. I’m sooo looking forward to girly clothes and shoes.

For the past few weeks, Ramil and I have been mostly earning from home. We’ve been trying to compensate for the lack of regular income since we’ve both resigned from our teaching job. This means that for most of the time we are in front of our laptops. We’ve experienced strain on our minds/brains and especially on our eyes.

Ramil has even started wearing my old eyeglasses because his eyes feel so much better when he’s using them. However, he realized that the grade of one of the lenses is still too low for one of his eyes. I suggested that he gets the lenses replaced because he cannot afford to have eye strain with the amount of work that we’re currently doing on our laptops.

However, until now we haven’t gotten around to having the lenses replaced. With all the expense we’ll be having in the next few weeks, it seems that we cannot accommodate some lens replacement. It would have been great if we could get his eyeglasses from Zenni Optical because they offer very, very affordable prices, not to mention the convenience of ordering online. The only thing that’s important when ordering from Zenni is to have an accurate eye exam so that you can provide accurate numbers when you order.

Hopefully, we can get around to finally getting Ramil his eyeglasses, a pair that is accurately measure for his eyesight. I just might order from Zenni and ask a friend to bring them home for us.

Since we will be going back to Novaliches for a few months until it’s time for us to go to Brunei, we’d have to let go of most of our stuff. It would have been great if we could bring everything to Brunei but then again, it’s not like we can easily get good sam roadside assistance. Also, ocean freight charges can be very expensive.

So below are some items we’re putting up for sale. All items are in excellent condition.

6-seater wooden dining table (malaysian wood) – PhP 6,000
Brother printer, copier, scanner – PhP 2,500
Samsung 7.0 kg diamond drum fully automatic washing machine (still with motor warranty for 4 years, parts and service for 2 years) – PhP 8,500
fetal doppler with LCD screen and gel (used only a few times) – PhP 2,500
21-speed alloy SGM mountain bike (with shimano crankset and derailleurs) – PhP 5,000
21″ JVC flat TV with sound booster, DVD player, TV stand – PhP 7,000
microwave stand – PhP 1,500
4-layer bookshelf with sliding glass – PhP1,000
small children’s cabinet – PhP1,000
2 pcs Yonex Isometric 30 (full carbon graphite shaft) badminton racquets – PhP 1,000 each

Feel free to leave a comment or to shoot me an email if you have any questions