what happened during the weekend

Thursday night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to apply for yaya’s visit visa because she is not my relative. I was really upset when the lady at Immigration immediately rejected our application without giving me the chance to explain. That’s our hard-earned Dhs720 down the drain! We were left with no other choice so hubby and I headed to the agency in Deira right away. We filled up the papers, gave the lady the documents and paid Dhs850. She told us that the visa would take approximately 3 to 5 working days to process, beginning Sunday. Once we get the visa, I’ll have to go to the Philippine Consulate for the darn authentication which will take up to 10 days (5 if I’m lucky, 20 if I’m not).

On our way to St. Mary’s Church, I kept fighting back my tears while thinking about my trip to the Philippines that has to be postponed. If only they hadn’t implemented this authentication rule, Caila would be with us on her 20th month-birthday (yes, we still celebrate it...coz it coincides with our wedding and boyfriend-girlfriend monthsary). Augh!

Trying to lift up my mood, Guchi said that there was a reason for what was happening. He recalled that when we had problems before with Yaya Cha-Cha, Our Lady of Guadalupe had visited us for a week, and then he received a good job offer. And now, we’re having problems again, and the Filipino Mission is all about Mama Mary. So definitely, things will work out in the end.

Anyway, once we arrived at the church, things started to perk up. We weren’t late (which was what I was worried about earlier) and we were able to sit at our regular pew. Then, Momsie, Popsie and his mom sat beside us, and they gave me and hubby two Dubai Mall movie passes as their thanks to us for hosting their daughter’s birthday last month. Before the final blessing, the congregation prayed the rosary which ended with the final blessing while everyone was holding candles around Mama Mary’s grotto. It was beautiful, and I remembered what hubby had told me earlier, so I just let everything go and lifted up all my worries and concerns to God and Mama Mary.

Almost the entire weekend was spent with friends. Thursday evening was our regular ET gathering. After the Filipino Mass on Friday, Lhen dropped by with Mike and Tesha, and we headed to Joel's apartment in International City. In the evening, Archie and Jenny arrived at our apartment with loads of food for his birthday dinner with the ET gang. As usual, our apartment was filled with laughter, conversations, and downloaded movies and tv shows, with a fun and hilarious game of Charades. Our friends stayed at the apartment until Saturday afternoon, when everyone had to leave because of their household chores or personal errands to run. I had my driving class at 4:30pm. After my 1-hour class, hubby and I rushed to Mirdif City Centre because it was my friend’s daughters’ joint birthday celebration. Fortunately, we arrived just in time (to eat!) because it was almost about to end. The good thing about it was I was able to see my SFC household sisters (Jhan, Ivy, Sheila, Jazz and of course ‘Nay Rose) with their families. It was good to be with them again after a long time and seeing how all of us have grown in our personal lives. Hopefully we’ll see each other again soon...most probably in December when Sheila’s baby boy celebrates his 1st birthday.

When we got home, Ann and Dhenzio were there. They had just arrived from her OB appointment and found out that they will be having a baby girl! Hurray...Caila will be having a playmate!