My seven bundles of joy

I have seven children, four boys and three girls. They were all raised and educated in the Philippines. They are our bundles of joy as well as bundles of challenges especially when they were all growing up! I was so prolific and my mother thought that I was made for motherhood. I was pregnant almost every other year and yet I pursued a highly successful career as public health educator in the Philippines. I was able to blend my responsibilities as a mother, as a career woman and as a church woman. Praise God for all the things He has done in our lives.
Looking back, we have very simple rules at home. Our family values revolved around love of God, love for family, respect for elders, commitment to education and love for friends and neighbors. We knew then as parents, that we can not raise our children alone. So every Sunday, we all wear our Sunday best to attend church. It was a ritual until the children started to have their own group in church or in school.
How we survived those child-rearing days was God’s gift to us. All our children pursued their respective careers and they were able to come to the United States practically through their own efforts. We’ve taught them early in life to become independent and to make their own decisions.
One of our children, BenHur, a dental surgeon and military man with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and chief of the professional Training branch of the Dental Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines told me early in his military career, when I offered to fast track his promotion through our many friends , “Mama, I appreciate your help but I would like to carve my own career path.”.
Another son, Charles Gordon was appointed Senior Planning Officer of the Department of Health immediately upon his graduation from the Philippine Christian University . I have to tell my friends never to mention my name because he felt that “your name is difficult to carry. Everyone expected me to be as accomplished as you are. I can’t walk under your shadow.”
Arwin who grew up with his maternal grandmother has a passion of helping the underdog. In college he organized the student body to challenge unfair policies of the school towards foreign students. When he came to San Diego he decried the unfair labor practices of an agency that hired him. He wanted to be an outspoken advocate for Filipinos who couldn’t get their fair share in the workplace. I told him to slow down with his radical ideas and better concentrate in providing for the needs of his own family.
Another son, Bobby, who recently became a permanent resident has developed love for his work in caring for others. He has a broad experience in diplomacy and protocol having been a protocol officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs but he told me once, “I think I inherited the genes of my Grandma Andrea (a public health nurse), caring for the elderly has become second nature to me.”
All my daughters - Mary Ann, a patient advocate and psychology major, Gia and Sharon are registered nurses – all working in the health care system. All have families of their own and they often ask me, “Mama how were you able to raise us? I would answer. “Ask God, I don’t know!” But this I know, The Bible says, “Train your child in the way he should go and he will not depart from it.”