With God’s grace, we are united again. What a great blessing it is to experience this kind of bonding! What's up, dear hive? Are you alright? Well, me, I’m feeling more alright, and thanks to God, our beyond almighty. I am thrilled to write more blogs and share all my happenings in life, as I promised you. So here I am again, ready to share my little escapade with my whole family. But before that happens, let me commence first with their biggest plan.
Two months before our meet and greet, my brothers and sisters decided to plan for a one-day trip because my sister Merlina is planning to come back here in the Philippines, precisely in our homeland, for a one-month vacation, yet she’s an overseas Filipino worker in Israel. My sister wants to go to Simala because she hasn't been there since birth, and that was her first plan to go to Simala with a twist. You know what her twist is? Well, she wants us (the whole family) to go there also.
In some instances, their plan to have a complete family trip won’t be successful without the presence of my brother Loui, who studied at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City, where, in fact, his graduation will be on the 2nd week of May 2024. That’s why they moved it to the third week of May; hence, my brother Loui was given a one-week vacation, and he wants to spend those remaining days with us. So without further ado, let's skip to the good part: yes, a very tranquil journey among us.
The day before the trip, my parents and my siblings are busy preparing for the things that need to be on the trip, especially the main focus, which is the food (my favorite part). All we can do is help them prepare for the needs that are needed. Fast forward to May 24, 2024, and all of the members of my family are very restless due to an excitement burst within them, including my brother, sister, nephews, neighbors (whom we treated as family), and my nieces, especially my whole soul, my whole self. Who has really been jumping into the thought of what would possibly happen if we took a complete family picture? Is it successful? As we’re going to Cebu, they rent two vans so that all of us will fit in. At exactly 4 a.m.
In the morning, we are now heading to Cebu. Besides, we need to stop over in St. Nino Parish because we have to meet up with my two siblings (brother and sister). Also, we are given the chance to attend a mass in St. Nino Parish. -
A quick photo opportunity for remembrance.
Even if we are not totally complete because we need to fetch the other member of the family later on. After our first stopover, we head out to Carcar since our first brother lived there with his family. Therefore, we need to meet them and will do our breakfast since we haven't eaten yet. While we’re on the trip to Carcar, I often take pictures of the clouds, which are very fascinating and accommodating, looking at the eye-dropping, huge buildings. If I get bored, I take a nap because it's been almost two hours going to Carcar. Moments had passed since we arrived at our next destination.
I am eager to see my favorite nephew (her name is Geny). Who would have thought that having a big and awesome family would allow them to experience this kind of amazing voyage?. Well yeah, it's just a dream come true (thanks to God for hearing my prayer). After our chitchat, we eat our breakfast together, and after eating, we do chitchat again and again. Damn, it was incredibly wonderful, and somehow the photo opportunity wouldn’t be missed for documentation (lol, haha).Moments later, we are heading to our main destination, which is Simala. It took an hour or minutes to reach there.
During our trip to Simala, the weather had been awful. Well, in fact, it suddenly got cloudburst, resulting in getting petite soaked, but it's okay. We just think that maybe it is a blessing from above.Because being there to her beloved home is a great opportunity. My heart poured with love, blessings, and ecstatic feeling 🥹(big thanks and salute to my sisters and brother for eagerly pushing the plan, hehee lovelots). Despite the bad weather, we still continue to dwell in the beautiful nature, buildings, and all the beautiful places we surpass (what great memories to keep).
Photo credits: Merlina Umpad
Finally, we reached the miraculous castle church in Sibonga, or Birhen sa Simala. It was with great, immense gratitude that I visited again for the fourth time, and it made my heart absolutely pound due to my sudden outburst of excitement. I am beyond grateful to her for everything that she does and for all the blessings that come into our family with her help (no words can express how I felt as her servant).
No more errands; we just take special moments inside her miraculous home (church) for about an hour, and after that, we never forget to take a family picture together since it’s our first time to be reunited ever since. And we want it to happen in her blessed place. So here are the funniest moments when we take a photo opportunity. It feels weird because we are almost bumped into a hurricane situation knowing we don’t know who will take a photo of us, yet at the end we just had to take it by ourselves.
Hours pass, and lunchtime is the most incredible part of the trip—absolutely the most important one. So since it's lunchtime, we find a restaurant to eat at first before going to another church. My brother suggested visiting the Teofelo Camomot in Carcar City as our last destination before heading back to our home. We all agreed, since we didn't try to visit there, and as first-timers, we don't want to missed the opportunity. During our lunch break, we often make a lot of memories of the never-ending chikas of life while we're surrounded by gigantic trees and amazing places.
As I open the door, I am beyond starstruck by the place. Well, it is beyond my expectations. I am very impressed and grateful. The Church of Teofelo Camomot is quite unique yet very peaceful due to the rules you need to follow. When I began to enter his blessed church, my jaw suddenly dropped because you wouldn’t believe that there was a tree inside the church.
You can see all the things used during the Mass. The history of his becoming a priest and his autobiography. And if you didn’t ask, he was a priest way back then, and he knew that he really wanted to serve God. But due to the fact that we couldn’t prevent the unforeseen happenings in our lives. So he is one of those who died because of the accident. But unfortunately, he’s a miracle sent by God’s grace; his body never decayed. Years pass by, and it's unbelievable. According to my survey information, I found out that his body is healing. That's why his coffin is placed in the church of Carcar City, which is his homeland.
**A photo opportunity before we left.
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Finally!! After a long, tiring, enjoyable, and very memorable trip, we are heading back home. It was just a one-day trip, and we finished exploring in the afternoon. My experience and expectations are extremely satisfying; I feel like I am beyond stuck in my imagination, a dream that comes true often. This trip is what I love the most; it's very blissful. Thanks to our almighty God for granting us this opportunity. If you're planning to go on a trip, be with your family because, I tell you, it's more fun when you spend your free time together with your family. Have a great and blissful day, everyone! See you in my next blog, Adios!!