12 years and counting.. our family's getting bigger!

Real friends are hard to find, such a cliche right? but for me, that cliche is a reality. The photo below shows me and my 4 best friends 12 years ago..  i can clearly remember the first day we all met - twas the 1st year college orientation - we were  naive and baduy and oh so innocent. 

from L-R - barbie, ME, center - Esther, seated - Gelai, chingkay

for the next 4 years of college, we were inseparable. at lunch time, we would all eat together using the meal stubs the Jesuits would give out to the scholars, after class, we would all hang out at the Ateneo Roxas gate, have our usual snacks of saging ginanggang and buko juice, and wait for uso-uso Calinan jeep that would bring us all home (well, all except gelai who lived in Bajada then). and then.. graduation came, we all vowed to keep int ouch but after a couple of years, life got int he way and we kind of lost touch with each other.

as luck would have it, a few years ago, something terrible happened (i'll talk about that more in the future, hehe) and as there is no other way for people to get back together than through a tragedy, we found each other again and the rest they say (i know, a cliche once again!) is history.

here we are now.. 12 years older, 12 years wiser and 12 years happier :) 2 years ago, we had 2 additions to the family, Barbie's husband Reiner and their son Isaac. last year, Esther got married adding Tim (her husband) to the family. and this year, we are again expecting 2 more members to join our fold since both esther and barbie are pregnant! indeed, the Lord has truly blessed us in every way imaginable!

L- R - gelai, chingkay, ME, barbie and esther