My-SECRET-Corner

Lorenine Barbie 1 yr Old

January 1987 ~ The greatest gift to humanity is nothing else but the birth of a new life . Unfortunately, to some who where unable to continue their generation their grief is replaced by adopting abandoned or unfortunate children from poor families . I am thankful up to this day that I was one of the chosen gifted ones who can add to the continuation of life and generation of my family. It's now exactly 25 years since my 1st child was born the normal way in the evening of 9th January 1997. She weighs a little over 7 lbs and about 50-51 cms long.

I had a baby girl who's face was so peaceful in her sleep.
I named her Lorenine Barbie .
Lore ~was derived from my own name and I added the word Nine coz she was born on the 9th of January. Then followed by Barbie coz she looks like a doll.
She got long beautiful eyebrows and lots of hair with a rounded angelic face.
Her 1st smile brought me such an enormous priceless joy .


 She was brought to me from the nursery a few hours after I gave birth so I can breastfeed her for the very 1st time . Then they took her away again back to the nursery so I can rest and sleep afterwards.
It was such a happy experience to craddle her in my arms and give her a motherly kiss on her chubby cheeks for the very 1st time . She was so beautiful and smells like a bunch of fresh flowers in her baby wrap.


The following morning, the nurses came and told me I should start walking around. Get out of my bed so i can start stretching to avoid catching Pneumonia or bed sores from sweating on my back from laying down all the time. I was dizzy when I got up and felt blood coming out of me when I sat on the side of the bed. Nurses said there's no need to worry .. it's a normal reaction coz I just gave birth. So I tried to get out of my bed slowly and held on the bed rails for support. I need to stand on my own and walk around a bit. My legs were both shaking when I tried to stand up. It wasn't easy but finally did it after few minutes. I walked the hallway passing the other patients in the ward. I think there are more than 50 beds in the room where I was. All like me who just gave birth. I was in the big maternity ward of Fabella Hospital in Manila.

I had about 10 mins walk before I decided to take a rest. Baby Lorenine wrapped in her white n pink baby wrap arrived from the nursery with the nurse. It's time to breastfeed her again and keep her in my bed permanently to give space to other babies coming in the nursery.I was delighted to finally have her with me in my bed. She was hungry so I quickly fed her. But I just noticed after she had fed that she threw up a bit. But I thought it was just a normal reflux. So I just ignored it and cleaned her face. But after few hours ... she keeps giving out liquid from her mouth even thru her nose. She won't breastfeed and she keeps vomitting the milk she had before. I get alarmed. It's been all day and I got worried coz she doesn't want to feed. When the nurses came to check me & her up , I told them about the problem. They advised me to keep watching her till my doctor comes for my daily routine check up .

The nurses informed my doctor about my baby's condition. The doctor came and he immediately checked Baby Lorenine. She'd started to get dehydrated. But no matter how I try to breastfeed and the nurses' attempts to give her bottle feed she won't take any. So the doctor decided to check her belly with a stethoscope . The sound he heard wasn't good so he decided to put an intravenous drip. Baby Lorenine needed to transfer in the Pediatric ward up in the 4th floor so she can be observed more . I was in the maternity ward on the 2nd floor. So I'll have to carry and take her there myself while the nurses ready the necessary things for her. I wrapped her well I walked up the stairs holding unto her tightly while my other hand held on to the handrails while I slowly go up the stairs to the 4th floor. I suddenly feel blood coming out n dripping on my legs down to the steps when I was halfway up the stairs. I just kept moving up the steps slowly on my own with her but I got nervous after a while when i started to have blurry vision. So I stopped and waited for people to come by. Luckily, someone saw the trail of blood on the steps and alerted the nurses to give me some help. They took the baby up to the pediatric ward and a nurse took me to the 1st aid. I was ok after they cleaned me up. I asked them I needed to be with my baby so they kindly assisted me to go up. The building was an old one without lifts for the public so there's no other way but to go up but the stairs!

My heart sank when I heard my baby crying. The sound of her cry is not just due to hunger. But a cry coz she was in severe pain . The doctor assisted with 2 nurses had started poking her with the needles. She was so tiny that they couldn't find a vein big enough to put the needle in . Every poke of the needle into her pinkish skin is a poke into my heart. Oh My God it was such a horrible experience for a 1st time mother like me ! I started to cry ... it's unbearable to see my tiny baby Lorenine crying in pain right infront of me . Worst is I just couldn't even hold to soothe her . It's absolutely devastating !

Seeing me crying , the doctor asked me if I would prefer to stay outside the room while they try to put the needle in . I just nodded my head and stayed there with my baby all the time. I can't leave her alone in pain . I was there to be strong for her coz she herself was strong. She was struggling and kicking her tiny legs a lot .
Just a day old and she has to go through a lot of pain already. This is not fair !
2nd Day ~ Doctors from the pediatric ward came to see baby Lorenine in the morning. She was with the drip and not allowed to be fed . I had not slept well coz I didn't have a bed in that pediatric room. All I have is a chair beside her crib. I had been rubbing a wet cotton on her lips everytime to keep it moist so the lips won't dry and flake. The doctors told me to be ready for some tests & x-ray for her. I got even more nervous. I asked myself - "Is my baby dying ? What's wrong with her ? " She looked very healthy at that time . From the outside , she looked like she's very healthy and got nothing wrong at all . I was confused and problematic coz I was also destitute. I only have very few pesos I had saved for my child birth. In fact to even save more, I gave birth in a charity ward coz I can't afford to be in a private clinic or be attended by a private doctor. So knowing she's gonna be undergoing medical tests gave me a huge amount of stress.

Despite of everything that had happened after that 1st day of her life ...I never stopped  to find the final cure for her. I'm a mother who wants nothing else in this world but to see my child well and healthy.

Baby Lorenine about 10 months old .

We had stayed in the hospital for 2 months since she was born coz she was diagnosed with " Megacolon" and she had undergone surgery for colostomy .

Baby Lorenine 3 mos old. A month after she left the hospital

Baby Lorenine at 4 months old with her colostomy.

Lorenine was about 2 yrs old when we went to Puerto Galera, Mindoro Philippines

 Her colostomy surgery took her under the knife 5 times and it went on for 5 long years before it was finally closed in 1992 at Lungsod Ng Kabataan ( now called Philippine Children's Medical Center )  under the supervision of a well known Pediairic Surgeon  Dr. Leonardo Cua who did a charity surgery for her for free the first time she was operated.




The final surgery being sponsored by a kind hearted Australian Guy Mr. Don Mentz of CAB International who readily volunteered to support her medical expenses upon seeing her condition.. A guy with a big heart and one who acted like a father to me who passed away few years ago due to a heart attack. May his soul rest in peace.
.

Lorenine had showed me enormous anount of courage even when she was just a tiny baby. She was my inspiration in life and she had pushed me a lot to be strong and to never ever give up on hope. Have a positve way of thinking and always convince myself that there's always light at the end of the dark tunnel.

The Black Nazarene

Quiapo Church at night .

The Shrine of the "BLACK NAZARENE" inside Quiapo Church.

The most unforgettable day when Lorenine got fever after her operation. She was immedtely transferred  in the intensive care and given a lot of attention by her attending surgeon.

Recovery time for her ...

Her little brother Meier is keeping Lorenine company in the hospital during the day .

Our lives spent  going in n out of the hospitals for the first five years of her life, made both us and our bond much even stronger.



I had surpassed so much aches just like her.
We both came out as survivors.
Our struggles had paid off.
Now she even had given way to a new life herself  .

Visiting Lorenine in hospital after she gave birth prematurely to Rhendolf who stayed in the incubator for few days.

My grandson Rhendolf  was her 1st born .

Lorenine on her wedding day in Dec 2010

I was happy both of them are healthy despite of what she's been through .




Today , 9th of January 2012 is Lorenine's 25th Birthday and the feast of The Black Nazarene  !
I just would like to tell her how much I love her and wishing all devotees of the Black Nazareen a safe & wonderful day !




HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY !!!

Hello 2012 - Goodbye 2011


I'm kind of speechless today ... a new year had started hours ago greeted by fireworks seen from the 2nd floor terrace of my humble home here in the town of Sta. Cruz, Laguna Philippines .

Sta. Cruz , Laguna Philippines

This is the 1st time in 16 years that I had celebrated Christmas & New Year with my own family back here in my hometown.


Relatives from even far away places came to visit and I was able to see  them after so many years ! The best part is seeing my mom happy being with her sisters . My aunties whom my mom hardly see and be with. Even the gathering of young children in my family is fun and wacky to see ...



 I felt much happier compared to the last few years ! Indeed the feeling of happiness is overwhelmong although in a corner near my heart I have this pain knowing my 2 younger children where back in Perth away from me and were not able to join the fun.This is the very 1st time I ever left them for almost a month . Leaving them on their own with their father makes me sad coz I know it's not easy without me managing with them. Oh well .. time is moving on and they're growing up. About time they learn to manage themselves too. I'm sure they would do ok . Soon I'll be home anyways .

2011 is now over but memories of the year that had passed would forever linger and bring back  the smile as well as tears spent with certain events in my life . The last 2 years had been a constant roller coaster ride for me and I did held on tight to whatever for dear life and constant search for happiness.

My stay in Perth for over a year now yielded more struggle to overcome loneliness and stress brought about by personal problems. But as a cliche goes  " No one can put a good man down !". So I'm here proudly with my chin up high to prove that I'm still firm where I stand !

I 'm well blessed to have the strenght to keep my wits together and have my loyal good friends scattered in different parts of the world always running to my side. How I love them all dearly.

Preparation of beads for a crocheted wire design .

The finished wire crochet beaded necklace proudly worn by a good friend of mine who bought it while I was travelling in Singapore. last Dec 2011.

 My beads ... how I love my craft materials which are my constant companion in the wee hours of the night. They are my most trusted buddies distracting me from thinking about my personal problems and helping me somehow financially. Not only I gained materially but I also earned respect and admiration from friends I had known before and to new friends I meet along the way when I attended the bazaars  to sell my handcrafted jewelries.



The Australians are very nice people to hang around with . Especially those I had met during the craft bazaars and those I had come across with last November from the Living Faith community church. Somewhere somehow I felt like I had a new found family who takes me in no matter who I am . The feeling was great ... awesome .. and I enjoy coming to meet them every Sunday morning in the community church.

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Not only these people adopted me but they also supported my jewelries. For the month of Dec., I had sold almost all the angel themed car charms, key chains I had made to support some charities.


I do thank you all for your support and wishing everyone a

Happy New Year 2012.

Flowers on the front entrance of the International School Of Western Australia

Took me just a few minutes from school to reach the exact place and Stefanie was there on the side road on a verge waving at me. Pleasant & cheerful lady who I had happened to meet a few months back in hubby's office opening party in the city. She recognized me easily but it took me a while to figure out where I had seen her familiar face ... ha-ha.

She gave me a few info about the area surrounding the "Living Faith Community Church " & what the fair is all about . It's the very 1st time they're conducting a fair in there so she doesn't have that much ideas what to do and how to get more people to come into the venue yet. It's good that they have some printed flyers ready for distribution . I can have some given to parents in the school during kids' pick up in late afternoon.

The place for the fair is well lighted with ceiling fans, lots of hanging cabinets for New & 2nd hand clothings and other bric-a-brac ! It's indoor but well ventillated and has good airconditioning which I had felt while sitting there for a while talking to Stefanie . There are clean & nice toilets plus a little cooking area on the side by the end of the hall where the food for the fair would be handled for the guests & attendees. Nice grass patched areas outside on the church's front lawns where vendors' and the buying public can easily park their cars during the venue too.

I saw the trestle tables piled neatly in one of the corners and had seen some electrical outlet which is perfect for my lightings. She told me that the table would cost $50 for the day and the money goes straight into the church fund. I had decided to get 2 tables since I 've got loads of stuffs and she can as well put some of her bags for sale into one of the tables to mix with some of my bags & shawls . She only got a few pieces so I don't mind giving her some space on my table.

Based on my years of experiences attending numerous fairs, I gave her some tips on raffle draw prizes and should mandatory tell vendors for a gift donation to go to the raffle draw prizes. She was happy to learn more things from me and I was more than glad to help their community fair.

It doesn't cost much to be of help to others ...
It's always better to give ... than to receive !

So folks , again , don't forget  the date ... it's for this coming Saturday , 26th of November.
 Bring your family , kids , friends even pets along for a fun filled day full of surprises and gifts ...
Thanks again for your upcoming support and see you there !

Nov 19, 2011 -Saturday ~ I woke up this morning at exactly 9:45am and I told myself ... gee it was so quiet in the house today ! My 2 kids were off to a sleep-over and hubby had gone a long time ago for his half day office work. Hmmmm what an alone time where I can enjoy every minute of it LOL. But anyways, I leisurely took a quick shower coz I wanted to visit a fair " Craft , Antiques & Collector's Fair " in Claremont showgrounds which had started yesterday. I don't want to miss the opportunity to see the event and the numerous stalls they have in there. It must be sprawling huge having about 350 vendors with all sorts of stuffs to sell. Must be an exciting fair to see hmmmmm. Wanna have a look if they got any jewelries similar to mine too . He-he sneaky me !

http://www.treasuredcraftcreations.com.au/

Before I could get out of our house my mobile phone rang. I said oh no ! Who can be calling me on a Saturday morning when kids n hubby were not home . I answere and it was my daughter asking me to be there in 15 mins to pick her up n her brother . Oh well ... here we go again with kids asking me to go here there and everywhere aarrgghhhhh! So poor me has to go directly to them and pick them up ... got no choice do I ?
Running out of gas on the way back, I have to fill up the gas tank coz my meter was already blinking and son was nagging to take him to the skatepark nearby. I firmly said no coz now is time that I do something for myself . So tank is full and off we went to the Fair ... no more questions asked huh !

I know I would be seeing lots of interesting stuffs in the said fair coz I'd never been in any Vintage Antique fair at all. Surely what I like would not be interesting for my kids. Vintage & Antiques ? For me some are really wow ... but my kids ? They just hate it ... oh well , the new generation prefers more techno n modern look these days . Everytime I touched n looked at something ... they say oh no mom ... don't even think about it ! Oh Dear !

Browsing here & there, stall upon stall of handmade wares by local designers and artists delighted me.  I noticed several jewelry shops too. Pearls and glass beads are all over the place. But, they don't have the type of designs I make . More intricate handiwork with Swarovski Crystals like I create is not  a common site there. Most of the pieces I found are simply strung or with Focal glass pendants hung in a cord. I Love the glass focal beads and several shops are doing their own glass beads really well. Interesting pieces ! Although What caught my eye on the last row of the Arts n Crafts section was the wirewrapped pearls very similar to mine.The shop was called "KEEP UP WITH THE JONES" by Elaine & Sarah Jones. Interesting Necklace sets and the prices are very affordable. Pity I didn't take any picture in the said stall coz I'm not sure if I'm allowed to take any in the venue . I'm not sure if they have a website ... shame . They really got good stuffs in there. Their items looked very similar to mine pictured below :




A few mmore stops here n there and I discovered several beading components shops in the fair just  like Galaxy Beads of galaxybeads.com.au  which has a shop in Morley .I had already visited their beadshop several months ago. Oh wow I'd been all over these bead shops in Perth LOL.

My kids are complaining " Mom come let's go ... we are bored ! " I said " hey ... if you can help me find what I need here , then we can go home soon."  I said I need to find Pigs or Angels for my collection. So off we went to the Antiques part of the fair and started searching in all those cabinets and piles of stuffs on display. We finally came to a halt when I saw these pigs in just 1 shop ! Hurray ...

Oh I thought it's still month of October. Gee... not until I found out on my schedule two days ago that I again have to bring my jewelries for display and sales at the Parent's Group meeting at International School Of Western Australia ( ISWA) on the 3rd of Nov. 2011. Hmmmmm ... time really flies fast these days!

I still have loads of newly created beaded jewelries so I didn't worry much on creating new pieces for the event.




What I'd been worried about was the cleaning of our house the last few days coz I have the real estate agent coming over the same day for the inspection of our place.



I had swept the whole backyard garden all day exactly 3 days ago. Oh, God knows how my back ached like hell at the end of that day. Never again i will sweep that yard coz 2 days after, the dead leaves came back on the grass again falling out from the trees all around. What a waste of all my efforts. The garden was messy again especially yesterday after seeing it in  the morning littered with almost half of a tree that fell down due to strong winds during the night !  Oh My God !


Lucky the broken tree didn't fall during the time I was standing with my broom under it while removing the dead leaves from the grass. What a lucky escape for me ! I can surely say that someone up there is watching over me and it's not the end of the world yet for me ... Yeeessssss!

Anyways, I have to rush to school with kids and all my stuffs in the car at 8:15am. So no time to worry much about the fallen tree. I can't do anything about it anyways. The agent will surely deal with it and have it cleared for us.

The parent Group meeting being done every 1st Thursday of the month started at 9am. The jewelries were laid on the velvet covered table I had brought in myself and everything was fully set up when the meeting started. I even had viewers and buyers even before the meeting had started! Wow ... what a show of support . I appreciate the attention given to my creations. It's heart warming really.

2 hours of selling in the drama room where the meeting was held was again successful just like the 1st time I came to this venue to sell. I even met new parents who just arrived in Perth with their children enjoying their 1st weeks in ISWA.
Welcome again to all the new families in ISWA!
 I wish you all a pleasant stay in Perth just like me & my children do.

Anyways, I would like to thank again the organizers of the meeting for allowing me to be there with my jewelries. A million thanks again and I'm glad I can contribute a percentage of all sales to the school charity fund.

Many, many thank you ladies for all your support & patronage !


Photo courtesy of : http://www.birthstones.org.uk/birth-month-flowers/november-birth-flower.htm


November Birth Flower
The November Birth Flower is the Chrysanthemum
The meaning of the November Birth Flower, the Chrysanthemum is With Love and Cheerfulness

Information about the November Birth Flower, the Chrysanthemum
Definition of the Chrysanthemum: A genus of composite plants, mostly perennial, and of many species including the many varieties of garden chrysanthemums (annual and perennial)