Heaven Archives - Truly Rich and Blessed

OK, so I know I have TONS of overdue pending blog posts, including more contributions to the Amazing Grace for Moms series, MORE Amazing Grace Giveaways AND even more great recommendations and tips for the whole family, among others! GOSH!

Not to mention stuff I need to do for my actual job at the country’s top inspirational publishing company of all time {do I sound biased to you?! LOL!} and other writing projects! *whew*)…

BUT… I just HAVE to share what happened earlier (errr… last night!). 🙂 So, please humor me… and I promise I’ll get to all those things in a while! 😉

So anyway, we came home last night from our regular household meeting (what we call our small group prayer meetings in Couples for Christ) to find little Therese still awake (it was already almost midnight!).

Apparently, my plan to put her to sleep early so their Ate (aka our helper/nanny) would only have to wait for Tim to fall asleep backfired — she woke up while we were still at the prayer meeting and wouldn’t fall asleep again, even after her Kuya had fallen asleep! Hehe! 🙂

So we ended up playing a bit, laughing and tickling each other and reading a few books before she finally nursed to sleep. 🙂 *sighs* O how I LOVE you, our little flower! 🙂 And your brother, too! 🙂

One of the books we read was “.” I got it for only P140 at Booksale Robinsons Metro East — a good buy in my opinion, as it still had the accompanying music CD! 🙂

I first heard the song, “I Can Only Imagine,” when we were still based in Timor Leste. I remember how struck I was by its beautiful lyrics.

Anyway, when I turned to the first page, Rysse says, “I want ‘up’ kay Jesus!” (I want to be carried by Jesus!)

My heart melted at that exact moment. And all I could say was, “Me too, baby. Me too!”

*sighs* Times like these, I forget how imperfect I am as a wife, mother, PERSON (!) and can only thank God for His awesome grace! 😉

P.S. In case you’re wondering what the song sounds like, here’s a nice video from YouTube:

Oh, and if you happen to come across the book, I highly recommend you buy it for your kids (and for yourselves, too!) Here are what the other pages look like (sorry if the other photos are blurry, am not much of a photographer! *winks*:

P.S. Watch out for my upcoming posts regarding MORE fabulous giveaways and other exciting news! 🙂 Please do subscribe via e-mail for regular updates (if you haven’t already!). Thanks! God bless, y’all! 😉

The past few days have been hectic and tiring for our family. Since hubby’s lola passed away last Friday, we’ve been quite preoccupied with going to her wake in Quezon City, going back to our home in Cainta and duties at home and work (and this blog! LOL!).

She (Lola Rosario) was laid to rest earlier today, though (err.. yesterday, since this post went live a few minutes past midnight on Wednesday! YIKES! Sorry for the delay!). During the burial rites at Loyola Memorial Homes, I was surprised to find myself shedding tears — sobbing even — during the whole thing. Surprised for the main reason that when Anthony and I met each other and became boyfriend-girlfriend, I didn’t really get to be close to nor know Lola Charing very well. Things got even worse when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Still, being the compassionate (in all humility, I am quite a compassionate person) cry-baby that I am, I found myself crying at her burial. I felt the grief of my mother-in-law and her siblings and my husband and all the family members on the Bernardo side.

I guess one of the reasons, too, that I had to keep myself from bawling at Lola Rosario’s burial was that I recalled my own Lolas who had gone before us — Lola Basilisa, on my dad’s side and Lola Nena, or more fondly known to us as Ina (Tagalog for “mother”) on my mom’s side. I was closer to Ina though. And I remember that when she passed away, we were not present to pay our last respects to her and see her earthly body off to rest. We were in Timor at that time.

Seeing Lola Rosario being “sent off” — for we believe that she is just on another “journey,” now, to a far better place (Heaven) triggered my longing for my Ina and my Lola Basilisa. It also made me realize, yet again, that our life here on earth is fleeting. And that we are God’s. At the end of everything, this is all that matters.

During the last Mass before the burial, I was already feeling pensive. The words of the song, We Belong to God, just kept ringing in my head and I found myself humming them over and over to myself.

Lord, help me to remember that I must live my life as if each day were my last. May my thoughts, words and actions only bring glory to You, especially when it comes to loving my husband and children. Amen.