Stories from a somewhat non-typical Saturday

Saturday afternoon. Violin music fills the house as my sister practices, diligently as usual. My father was just sitting at his computer, blasting his favorite smooth jazz - which, I don't hesitate to add, is not a favorite of Ariele's and mine. A Manila native and ever cautious, Dad shows me a slideshow about thievery at ATMs, and follows up with his commentary about how messed up it is that some people can't just make an honest living - his standard warning for us to be "wise as serpents, meek as doves," or in other words vigilant. My mother, the nurse, is at work until this afternoon. From the looks of it, pretty typical for a weekend in the Macadangdang household.

Except it's not! Received a text message from my cousin soon to be Auntie Marie this morning, shortly after Ariele and I got home from her quartet rehearsal. It said something like this: "The bun is finally coming out of the oven slowly! Christine's in labor!"

My cousin Christine notified the family via e-mail sometime in March of this year that she and her husband Matt were pregnant. (I got the news the same day that a certain Miss Lauren Milewski found out that she had gotten the Fulbright to teach English in Hong Kong, and the same day that my sister found out that she had gotten into summer music camp at Northwestern University. A fabulous day!) The baby, still affectionately known to the family as "Bear," (since the parents didn't want to reveal his name until his birth) was due to arrive in this world on September 15, 2008. I am happy to report that Christine went into labor around 5:00 AM today, and hopefully I can post pictures next time heralding Bear's birth. The reason I didn't wait to write and post pictures is because I think that Bear's history, even though he is not quite a citizen of this world just yet, is worth telling. I'm a story teller, so just um...Bear with me (hahaha, I laugh at my own bad jokes).

Once upon a time, about 23 years ago, Librada Advincula decided to visit her children in the United States. So she hopped on a plane and visited her son Mig and his family, and her daughter Emma, and son-in-law Edison Macadangdang in Kalamazoo, Michigan. During her brief time in the United States, Librada suffered a stroke. She was attended to at Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo by a Dr. Philip Green. Librada passed away shortly afterwards in her sleep, the same week that Emma found out that she was pregnant -with the author of this post. Years later, Dr. Green's son Matt met Librada's granddaughters, Christine and Marie, in the seventh grade. Christine and Matt (also known as Matt and Christine) fell in love and were a couple for approximately 14 years before tying the knot in July 2005. In March 2007, the husband of Librada's youngest daughter Grace suffered a stroke in the Philippines. Emma, the nurse, kept constant vigilance over her brother-in-law's health, and enlisted the help and advice of the same Dr. Green. In March 2008, Dr. Green's son and Librada's granddaughter announced that they were having a baby. In August 2008, Emma and her family were able to visit her sister Grace, her recovering husband, and family in Saskatchewan. Who could have guessed that twenty-three years after Librada Advincula met Dr. Green at Borgess Hospital that her granddaughter and his son would bring a child into the world at the same hospital?

2:29 pm update: as I finish this post, I am happy to announce that Bear is out! I am excited to find out his name, and will definitely post pictures soon. Inevitably, I don't know all of the details surrounding my grandmother's death, or how everyone was feeling. I'm sure that Christine or Marie could tell the story better because they knew our grandmother. I am sad that I was never able to meet my Lola Librada, but I am amazed at how the pieces of the puzzle called life come together, a beautiful and tangled web. From what I do know, a young doctor helped an elderly woman, unknowingly made contact with his in-laws years before their children met, that the doctor would eventually help the same woman's son-in-law, that their connection later in life would be a little boy known as Bear...

And right now, my sister and my dad are on the phone with Dr. Green's son and Librada's granddaughter, the proud parents, with the little one's lusty cry in the background. Can't wait to meet him!