happy family

papa gave mama red roses yesterday. awww...

i still cannot imagine how my parents have sustained the love that they have for each other. they still walk hand in hand on the way to Bangkerohan market on Sunday mornings, they still jog together. they still smile flirtatiously at each other. one time, i caught them stealing winks at each other during church services.

my parents have a weird love story. they only had a one-month courtship and NO friendship, contrary to what the elders keep on advising us, "Long friendship and short engagement makes a successful marriage." papa's first pasalubong to mama on his first visit to her house is camote. the next week, it's papaya. during their courtship, papa's first gift to her is a brassiere. mama's family doesnt like him because he isnt chinese. she is a daughter of a Chinese lawyer-politician from Cebu. mama was 22, papa was 24.

in one of their chats last year, they realized that they had actually met in their pre-teen years. papa was a popsicle vendor outside of an exclusive school where mama went to. everyday, mama would buy papa's products and she would always love to choose ube flavor. this is one thing that papa remembered in her a long time ago. who would forget this chubby girl who always disarranged his piles of popsicle inside the icebox? so every before dismissal time, papa would already prepare mama's favorite popsicle ube flavor. little did they know they'd meet again 15 years later.

now they have 4 children. the girls are 11 months apart from each other. the boys are 13 years apart. the eldest and the youngest have a 20-year age gap. all have straight shiny hair. hahaha!

This Feb 28, we will all be celebrating their 24th anniversarry. and i am hoping that the love that we all have for each other in the family will continue on.

their love story may not be the best story in the world but i believe that is the way God designed their love story to be - no friendship, 1-month courtship, but 100-year of companionship (who knows?). what matters is what they have established as a couple. what matters is not how they started but how they sustained the relationship up to now - with love and with God.

by the way, their love story won in the Best Love Story contest organized by Chowking last year. *wink*