christina angeli 🌺

  Itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.   Down came the rain and washed the spider out.  Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain.  So the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.    Trystyn and I were singing  when he suddenly blurted,. "Mom, do you think the spider was able to get to the top? Well, I think so,  because he kept climbing even when he fell so many times."     Little did Trystyn know that his words would give me a deeper meaning to this catchy rhyme.  He made me realize that just like the story of the Itsy Bitsy, our life shouldn’t be defined by the rain, the setbacks and failures we encounter but by our resilience to keep climbing despite them.   It sparked memories of my journey towards a dream – the dream of becoming a lawyer. You see,  I come from a family of lawyers. My dad is a lawyer, who by the way ranked 27 in his Bar exam, my uncles are lawyers, my cousins are lawyers. And ...

    Why won’t you let me decide?? This is my life! When I have my own kids, I will let them choose for themselves!               Friends, those were the words of my 6-year-old son, Trystyn, when I forced him to wear my hat on a trip. It was still large for him and it would fall over his eyes, but he looked so cute. No, he wouldn’t have it and he said "Mom, your hat is too big. I want to wear the hat that fits."   I was close to pinching this pint-sized philosopher but he said, "Mom, child abuse." "So now you're a lawyer?"               My son’s defiance was irritating but it revealed my tendency to dictate his life. Like when I told him I need to approve of his future girlfriend. Anyone who wants to date my only child should brace for a thorough  interrogation from his lawyer mom! “Before you proceed, do you agree to th...

  ARE YOU A DONKEY OR ARE YOU A JACKASS 2.0   Friends: I am sure we all know what a jackass is. And I wonder, how many of them are here today. Yet do you know that a jackass is a donkey? But a donkey does not necessarily act like a jackass?             To illustrate my point, let me tell you a story about a donkey:             One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway. It just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. So he decided to bury the donkey.             All his neighbors came over to help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.  The donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly… then slowly he quieted down.       ...

    One taught me love One taught me patience And one taught me pain Now, I'm so amazing Thank you, next..   Friends, fellow Toastmasters, can you think of a time when life tried to beat you down? Did you stay down? Or did you learn from that challenge,  thanked it, and got ready for the next? Ariana Grande's  song “Thank You Next” reminds us to learn from challenges as they can transform us from downtrodden to amazing.      I remember my first rush of intense, heart throbbing love when I was a young girl of 17. I met this guy who made me buy 300 peso load daily so we can text till the wee hours of the morning! It was exciting, it was exhilarating, it was EXPENSIVE! Especially for a college girl who had a very limited budget. I painstakingly ate ngohiong everyday to save up for load, coz hey I’d rather get hungry than lose him. Coz I was giddy. I was in love. Until I saw him one day, with another girl, holding her hand. Friends, believe ...

The last time I penned my feelings here was when I lost my third child. It was a pain that I continue to feel a pinch in my heart in whenever I remember it or whenever I talk about it. But after that second pregnancy loss, I have been constantly bombarded with "Pun-i" na na statements or "When are you gonna give Trystyn a sibling?" questions.  My initial answer would always be "I'm already old (turning 40 this year)." But they would always quickly reply that "That's still ok." Or "it can still happen", and some would continue saying this person or that person even had a child at an older age.  Truth be told I always wanted  to give Trystyn a sibling. Wati and I have siblings, and altho we do not always see eye to eye with them, we know we always have each other's love and support. And I wanted that for Trystyn. But as I grew older, the dream slowly faded as I know it would be hard to be pregnant when you are older. That'...

I am a mommy of 3.... 2 are in heaven. 😭💔 Around the end of February, several pregancy tests showed faint lines telling me that at the age of 38, I was surprisingly pregnant! Truth be told, I was worried at first, as I thought that I was quite old to carry another child. But the fear quickly turned to excitement especially when Trystyn was so thrilled to have a baby "sister". He would kiss my tummy so many times and one time when I got home from work he ran up to meet me and asked me if Baby Sister was out already! He was that excited! 💟 I was so excited I could imagine having a gender reveal during Trystyn's birthday in July and a maternity shoot for our  yearly family picture!  But on February 27, I noticed a tinge of blood in my underwear. I hurriedly messaged my doctor who told me to go on bed rest. But the spotting turned to bleeding.. 😭 I was so scared to lose my baby that I think I cried secretly almost every day. At times I tell the people in the house of my w...