Bittersweet Holidays of 2009

Starting this year right is the mantra of every person who had a 'challenging' (to say the least) year that was 2009.  I believe last year was just really tough for most of us.  It was a journey from which we learned valuable lessons but to relive it, I hope not.

Let me share how I spent the last few days of my 2009.

On the 20th of December, we arrive in Cebu to celebrate the holidays with my fiance's family.  It was a food fest day in day out! By the 24th, we were on the ferry to go to San Carlos, Negros, the hometown of my fiance's mother.  The next day, we ride a boat to the island of Sipaway to spend Christmas Day at the beach.  On the 26th, it was the clan grand reunion.

Sounds fun, you might be thinking.  Yes, it is, but by the 27th it wasn't fun anymore.  We had to rush my 2-year-old daughter to the hospital for fever that did not subside despite round-the-clock paracetamol.  I am a first-time mother and my daughter hasn't been hospitalized before, so imagine the amount of anxiety that was slowly killing me!  After blood test, urine test, and chest x-ray, it was found out that she had dengue fever and pneumonitis.  Dengue AND Pneumonitis?! I wanted to faint. Well not really.  I wanted to take her out of that small provincial hospital and fly home...and feel safe.

Having pneumonitis meant putting her on IV antibiotics and having dengue meant monitoring her platelet count which means blood has to be taken from her every day.  Oh my goodness! Holding her down as they drew blood from her little arm and finger was the worst part of each morning.  And every day was a wait in vain just to see if her count normalized.  It was on the fifth day that it did.  FIFTH.

So on the 31st of December, the last day of the year, we get out of the hospital.  Just in time to celebrate the New Year.  Even if it meant we had to spend it in a small room from a pension house where we were staying as she had to recover, I didn't care.  I was just really glad she's fine and well.

And so the first day of our 2010 was spent traveling back to Cebu.  We had to wait there for a couple of days to hop on a plane back to Manila, which I really missed...for the first time.  Getting away from the metro always excites me but this time was different.  I wanted to come home.

It was bittersweet.  The whole holidays, I mean.  Unexpected things occured which left me feeling more tired and weighed down than ever.  Having to travel so much and attend back-to-back activities with a two-year-old in tow definitely did it...alongside that wretched mosquito that bit my poor sweet girl! Damn you mosquito!

But the silver lining is that my fiance and I became closer than ever as we supported and comforted each other during this trying time.  Spending five days with him cooped up inside that hospital room made us appreciate one another.  God tested us and he knew exactly how to get us--through our darling little princess.

So, to the Man up there:  Did we pass our test? :)