The Waiting.

See, you remember the nitty gritty details! That's what parents are for - to worry about the ones they love. I wish you are together now, as one family in New Zealand, especially with the birth of the new bundle of joy. Congratulations. You are now a certified grandparent! Go pamper the baby with loads of love. All things come to pass when a child is born.

Yes, a grandchild indeed brings much joy to the grandparents. It’s our 4th month here and we’re coming home in January but will back again in March till June. If only we can stay here longer we would be glad but we can only stay for 6 months at a time and for a maximum of 180 days on our 3-year multiple-entry visa. Besides, my wife has always been the main keeper of her mother who is now 64. Good thing my wife’s 2 brothers agreed to look after their mom for this time that we are here.Hope you’re getting ready for Christmas. We’ll be missing the dawn masses back home this year. I used to get up at 3AM so that we can go to church at 4 and have a seat for our 5AM mass. For many years now our parish has been giving free “painit” after mass from donations of parishioners and organizations. People are overfloiwing on the street fronting our church but we have LED walls set up for free by a parishioner so the people outside can still the ongoing mass. We have as many as more than 20 eucharistic ministers giving commiunion. I will certainly miss all these.

Hehehe sorry about my long responses Ms. Eileen. I remember your daughter commenting and laughing about your long responses which I often do too to make myself clearer to the reader :)

I used to wage war, too. But it was useless. So I learned to mellow down. Yup, my daughter is on her second year of residency. The fourth cluster conference, the final conference for this year, will be on Friday, supposedly on Sunday. That is why she had to stay late, to arrange the slides and the presentation. There are plenty of obstetrics and gynecological cases that need studying. A doctor never stops discovering and learning new things.

@mlgen1037 Residency is tough. Hope your friends signs up now.

@eileenleyva I agree with that. Same with my friend, but she hasn't had her specialization.

@eileenleyva But I commend you for your dedication to your daughter that you still does what mothers do in their younger years with their young children. Most moms at your age usually stay at home and just wait for their children to be home.

A very sound advice. Thank you. Yes, my daughter texts me the 'fetch time.' There are days though that extensions cannot be avoided. This time, the slide preparation for the quarter conference took much longer, there were so many cases that must be included. Grab turned out too expensive, so we ruled that out. We are currently looking for a dorm, the third year of residency requires the resident on call 24/7. Wish us luck. Growing gold really means an ache here and there, yet, I keep young by clinging to the motherhood tasks.

@rsa101 Thank you. If I could ease my daughters' daily dilemma, so they could sleep more and suffer less in commuting, I reason that they would be able to use more time for worthwhile activities such as research and music and dining. I love being a mother. My only achievement on this life.

I did, thank you. Probably sound asleep. Didn't even wake up for my night pills, which is fine with me. A little less damage for my kidney. maezee, thanks for that response, made me feel better.

The six-hour sleep seemed not enough but I was able to rise for the dawn activity. Always a long time waiting far as my daughters are concerned but they are worth the wait.