Finding God in our Engagement Journey

I received one of the happiest “YES” in my life last March 25 on the Feast of the Annunciation. It was when Karen, my fiancée said her yes to me when I proposed to her. It happened at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish, Boracay and was witnessed and celebrated by both of our families.

Since April, we have been doing our wedding preparations one step at a time. We are very grateful to the Lord the moment we confirmed the reservation for the church, the reception venue and finalized the date of our wedding, because we know that the most important things have already been set which means everything will just follow. At first, I thought wedding preparation was manageable and not that stressful, but I was wrong. I discovered that every aspect of our life will be involved in this preparation. We must balance our schedule with work and wedding preparations, improve our decision-making skills through constant communication and prayer, listen to the suggestions of our family and friends, look for the right suppliers, monitor our budget, travel for errands, prepare spiritually, and still make time for one another. Gradually, I learned to love every step of it, especially my daily errands with Karen.

Not only are we preparing for our wedding, but we were also reminded that we are preparing for our marriage. That’s why our spiritual preparation is a big part of this journey. The Engaged Couples Retreat that we attended helped us by allowing us to communicate clearly about every aspect of our lives and by listening to the speakers and their stories about their marriage. What I found common in their sharing is that God always remained at the center of their love. Another thing that helped us prepare well is our meet-up with our Ninongs & Ninangs (principal sponsors). They provided spiritual advice and also practical tips in married life.

Karen and I are now 7 months engaged and 2 years & 4 months in our relationship. This engagement period helped us to really know and understand one another better. We came from different backgrounds but now here we are preparing to be one in sharing the same dreams and goals.

Just like the “YES” of Mother Mary to God, we are here preparing ourselves to the bigger commitment of choosing & loving one another every day, and to be a missionary family in the future. The call for us now is to surrender ourselves in this preparation and to dwell always in the presence of God. We know and believe that He will take care of everything.

Pray for us as we continue to journey towards our wedding day.

 

 

In Sickness and In Health, We Will Keep Fighting for Life

I am Roel Baldicañas, married to my beautiful wife Racel Baldicañas. Through the community, I was able to meet my better half. We became boyfriend and girlfriend for almost three years. And we’ve been husband and wife for nearly three years. We are blessed that we have been given the opportunity to serve God through the MFC community and serve as the Couple Servants of MFC Singles here in Davao.

It was not easy in our fight for life, especially for my wife. She was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, and I don’t know what she was thinking during those times when she was sick. I know she fears dying because she wants to live longer and spend the rest of her life with our future family and me. I always tell her that she will be fine and we will be together forever. I told her not to worry because I would take care of her no matter what, and I know God has a good plan for us.

Then the time came when Racel had been asleep for six days, so we were so scared because the doctors couldn’t explain what was happening anymore. On the 4th day, the IM doctor told us that 4 of her organs were affected, her liver, brain, heart, and lungs. The doctor said to us that my wife needed to be intubated. So, I decided I would disagree because I didn’t want to give her another suffering. I told my mother-in-law and my wife’s siblings about this decision. During those six days, my wife was bloated because her body was full of water since she didn’t have dialysis for more than five sessions, and her blood pressure was also unstable. We thought her condition would get complicated, but on the seventh day, we experienced God’s miracle because my wife woke up at 1 am that Sunday on the Feast Day of Sto. Niño. God extended her life, so we have the chance to tell her everything that we want and show her how much we love her. That miracle made us realize that God is in control. The Lord gives and takes away; blessed be His name.

On February 17, my wife passed away. It may not be easy for us to accept her passing, but we know that she is in good hands right now in the hands of her maker – God. We are very thankful to God and all of you who journeyed with us – the MFC Community, relatives and friends, and even those we don’t know. Thank you for supporting us through your prayers and financial assistance. May God bless you in return a hundred folds.

Racel will always be in my heart. Every time I visited her twice or thrice a week, my sadness was relieved, knowing that our love for each other is worth fighting – for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death does us part.

When God Revealed our Personal Mission to Spread the Gospel of Life

Catholic Couple

 

This year, God called me as a Pro-life missionary in Live Life. I know that it will be an opportunity to grow and an avenue to be closer to the Lord even more. Early this year as I prepared myself for the task of defending life, my wife and I encountered the Lord in a very personal way.

On January 26, we found out that my wife, Ten, was pregnant. God finally answered our prayers and blessed us with the gift of life! Truly, He is our promise keeper! Our families and some of our closest friends were the only ones who knew about the pregnancy. We were so happy and excited to be first time parents!

 

However, the pregnancy didn’t go as smoothly as we expected it to be. During our first pre-natal check-up, no sac was found in my wife’s uterus but the uterine wall was thickened. We had to waitfor another 2 weeks to see if the sac will be visible by then. During that times, we were anxious but were still really very hopeful that the baby would develop in the weeks that followed. My wife and I attended mass and prayed the rosary for this special intention. We even asked the intercession of St. Gerard Majella and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

On February 8, we had our follow-up check-up and we found out that the gestational sac was already implanted inside my wife’s uterus and it was 5W2D. We were very happy to hear this news! Though, my wife had to be on bed rest for another 2 weeks until the next ultrasound to check the heartbeat of the baby. On February 14, my wife had spotting, which was accompanied with pelvic and abdominal pain. Worried, we immediately called our OB and scheduled a check-up. During the TVS, the OB told us that the gestational sac was not growing. It was still the same size as the last ultrasound. The spotting turned into heavy bleeding and my wife was in deep pain. After 3 days, TVS was done again. The OB told us that we were having a spontaneous miscarriage in progress, as the sac was moving while the doctor was examining her.

On February 21, we lost our Baby Dominic. It was a roller coaster ride of emotions and until now we are still in pain because of what happened to our small family. Indeed the Lord gives and takes away, but still, blessed be His name. (Job 1:21)

 

Moving on in our married life, God revealed to us our calling as a couple to spread the Gospel of life. As a couple we will strive to be intentional in proclaiming the true beauty of life especially to those who are treating life as less important, to those who are having difficulties in conceiving and to those who are hopeless in life. We thank God for the gift of LCSC, for this will help us to bring other people back to Christ. We will make use of this personal mission to be holy and eventually reach heaven to meet our baby Dominic. Amen.

#CultureofLife #Prolife #ProLifeGen #FightforLife