Many of my readers are inquiring about my children. I’d like to introduce them to you in this blog.
My wife Edith and I are blessed with three children- Gilda Grace, Gil Edison and Gilary Jasmine. As you can see they are all named after me with my first name prefixed in theirs. My wife loves me enough that she allowed this “Gil thing” in her babies’ names. By the way, our names are pronounced with an “H” sound–Hil.
There are stories behind the naming of our kids and these are huge parts of our family history that my grandchildren need to know–and that’s the main reason for this writing.
In telling the story of each of our three children, I’m going to reminisce circumstances surrounding their birth and highlight the marvelous things that God had done.
Gilda Grace was born in 1985 during the height of political and economic crisis in the Philippines. My wife and I both lost our jobs as engineers. I was employed as an Agricultural Supervisor for Manilabank’s agribusiness venture in Silang Cavite. But their ambitious project of a huge mango plantation was halted by political events-Ninoy Aquino’s assassination that led to People’s Power revolution.
At the same time, my wife worked as design engineer for MERALCO’s engineering firm MIESCOR. She took part in the designing of the first phase of LRT project-the Balintawak- Baclaran segment.
She was also a part of the team that designed the structure of the nuclear power plant at Napot Point, Bataan. The project was completed but never fueled due to it’s potential danger. The Bataan Nuclear Power Plant site lies on an earthquake fault line. Consequently, the huge government investment became a white elephant for a long time.
We made money as engineers and so we decided to build our own house one year before our church wedding. The PAG-IBIG housing program easily approved our housing loan.
The construction of our house in Dos Buenas Subdivision in Cabanatuan City was supervised by Edita’s father Jeremiah. My brother-in-law Kuya Freddie was the contractor. Edita made it appear that the construction was one of her projects as a civil engineer. We want to surprise everyone about us owning a house before we even got married.
Edita and I spent many hours designing together our three-bedroom concrete bungalow- that was to be our love nest.
On our wedding day January 7, 1984, the partially finished house was the venue for our wedding reception…to everyone’s surprise and delight. We even had a ribbon cutting to inaugurate and bless our new home the same day as our wedding.
I made a reservation for honeymoon in Tagaytay but we were so excited to stay in our new house even if it was yet unfinished and unfurnished. My bride relented, so I cancelled our honeymoon reservations. That was a big mistake! When relatives and friends learned that we were home, they came by knocking at our door with food and gifts and good wishes. But all we wished for our honeymoon was for us to be alone!!! But we love our relatives and friends and we forgave them for their intrusion. (LOL)
At first, we lived in our house only on weekends because our employments were out of town. Mine was in Cavite and hers was in Manila.
Three months after we were wed, I received the biggest news of my life. I was going to be a father! But the good news was paired with two bad ones. My wife and I lost our jobs as engineers.
We had some savings and we should be fine with no income for a while. The biggest consolation was-we were together living in our new home. And what a great time that was!
Then an idea came to mind. Why don’t I work on our five-hectare rice farm and make some money? After all, as an agricultural engineer I have all the knowledge and techniques to produce a good harvest. I discussed that idea with my wife and after much convincing, she gave her blessings for me use our savings to fund the rice farm ptoject.
“Remember, the baby is coming in January. We need the money back by then.” She told me as she handed me an envelope containing our savings. “Don’t worry sweetheart, this will be doubled by then.” I responded with high hopes expectancy.
All eyes were on me when I worked on the land we inherited from our father. Everyone knew I had a degree in agriculture and therefore there was high expectations. I had a lot to prove.
With money available for good seeds, proper land preparation, fertilizer and pesticides, my rice crop was robust and very promising. I was gaining the respect of the classic farmers. Many predicted that my rice harvest would exceed the government’s program of Masagana 99–where one hectare was expected to yield 100 cavans of rice. I believed their predictions because from the looks of it, really, my rice crop was excellent. My neighboring farmers were already contracting me to advise them what to do for the next cropping season.
The much awaited day of harvest came. A lot of people turned up with their harvesting sickles. The atmosphere was festive as people were happy to take part in the abundant harvest.
On the first day of harvest, a big portion of the crop was cut and laid on the paddies to dry. Everyone was buzzing about how dense my rice crop was and how rich and full the grains were. I was anticipating that by the end of the second day, the cutting will be finished and on the third day, the crop would be ready for threshing.
I went home that night tired but very inspired. My farm helper reminded me to purchase at least 600 bags to be ready for the big threshing day. I made a mental calculation of how much I will make if I indeed make at least 500 cavans. I can easily double my investment or even triple it. Yes, we will be ready when the baby comes.
Sitting down at my porch before going to bed that night, I noticed that the wind was unusually strong. I immediately felt uneasy and troubled. I turned the radio on and my apprehension was correct. A strong typhoon was heading towards Central Luzon and will hit Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija in a few hours. The typhoon has a speed of 170 km per hour-strong enough to devastate the rice farms.
I went to bed that night holding my wife’s seven month bulging belly. I could feel the baby moving and my wife getting excited as she felt the living being in her womb. I didn’t talk to my wife about the looming storm. I simply reminded her and myself that God is good and He will carry us through. We said our prayers.
I hardly slept that night as the howling wind bothered me a great deal. When I got out of bed in the morning, I looked through the window and saw signs of devastation. The news said that the storm was there to stay for another 15 hours. I can only imagine what was happenning to my rice crop.
My wife begged me to just stay home that day. But the idea of my rice farm under devastation was killing me. I went to the farm anyway, as if I can do anything about the situation.
The farm was in total disarray. The already cut rice stalks left on the paddies to dry were strewn everywhere by the strong wind. Some were submerged under water. The uncut rice stalks were forced to the ground. The ones that were left standing had lost their grains due to the force of the wind. I stood at the edge of the farm whipped by the strong winds as I watched my robust rice crop being cruelly devastated by the storm. I dropped to my knees in agony with hands over my face-sobbing and crying like a little boy who lost his puppy and candy –with no words to say-just moaning, crying and wailing for my great losses. I just felt very hurt, very helpless, abandoned, forsaken, heavy-hearted, fearful.
And finally in my desperation, I cried out to God. “Lord please have mercy!” My wailing turned to pleading. I asked God to provide for the needs of my family. Specifically, I ask the Lord to take care of the needs of my wife and our baby yet to be born. Those are the very reasons why I ventured into farming.
When I got up from my knees, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and assurance. I knew in my heart, God will make a way. God will perform a miracle, somewhere, sometime at the right moment, at the right event. This I believed in my heart because God did it to me time and again.
The storm left a havoc on the rice crop. I had to act fast to salvage what had remained. The biggest challenge was to quickly dry the rice grains. But my best effort wasn’t good enough. Much of what we were able to harvest had been submerged in water for a long time and we couldn’t dry it fast enough. More than half of my harvest had perished. And the little that we saved was of poor quality grain.
And so here we were, two jobless engineers with lost savings, a house mortgage and a baby coming.
We desperately needed help! We prayed to God to intervene.
My college friend, my SENSE brother and fellow engineer at the failed Manilabank agribusiness- Engr. Samuel Robeniol came to the rescue. He got me a job in the Sultanate of Oman. But this meant that I had to leave my pregnant wife. Brother Sammy warned me that if I don’t accept the job immediately, it might be given to someone else. I had to make a hard decision-I accepted the overseas job and made a commitment to leave as soon as possible for my family’s welfare. I was scheduled to fly January 22. That was also the expected delivery our first baby.
Early morning on January 16, I took my wife for a walk to her parents’ house. The excercise proved to be too much for my very pregnant wife. As soon as we arrived to her folks place, she started having signs of labor. I immediately took her to the hospital. The labor was long and dreary. We’ve waited the whole day of the 16th through the night and it never progressed. The doctor advised a C-section to be done early morning of January 17. The prospect of seeing my baby before I left for the Middle East excited me.
But my wife and I were so worried about this development. We could not afford any surgery procedure. I’ve spent all our money for my travel to Oman.
That night, We found a corner in the hospital lobby where we could pray. Tears rolled down our eyes as we petitioned God to help in the situation. Just as we finished our prayers, a lady in hospital scrubs and stethoscopes around her neck saw us wiping our eyes. She came to my wife, touched her bulging belly and consoled her. Are you in pain? Don’t worry you’re in a good place. We both thanked her and she went on her way.
Very early in the morning they wheeled my wife to the operating room and I was directed to the waiting room. There were other fathers waiting. And as they waited, a nurse would come and gave a long prescription list to be purchased from a pharmacy.I Inquired from one of them about the list. It included all the necessary drugs and some supplies needed for the surgery-anaesthesia, syringe, sutures, pain drugs and the like which will cost around P2,000.00.
Upon learning this requirement I sat in one corner and prayed. “Lord, you know I don’t have money. When that nurse comes and give me that prescription list. I don’t know what to do. Please Father take over and do something.” That’s one of the most specific and desperate prayers I’ve ever said.
I waited and waited and finally the nurse came. “Mr. Valenzuela.” I immediately got up from my seat, took a deep breath and was ready to say my little dialogue of apology and explanation. But before I could say anything she beamed a big radiant smile and said: “Congratulations! You have a healthy baby girl. Your wife is now in the recover room.” I was stunned, speechless! What did just happen? I wondered. Well, did we not ask God to intervene. He did!-in a very special way!
When my wife was being prepped for surgery, the nurse told her that someone donated all that are needed for the C-section procedure and so I don’t need to purchase them from the pharmacy.
Then I heard the familiar kind voice from the nurse: “Mr. Valenzuela, you can now see your baby girl through the nursery window.”
In no time, I was by the nursery window bubbling with tears of joy as I beheld my first born for the very first time. Her angelic face was very peaceful. I saw a combination of me and her mom in her likeness. She was beautiful. I couldn’t wait to hold and tenderly kiss her tiny face.
God had been so merciful and gracious to me. He allowed me to see my baby born before I left for the Middle East.
When my wife had recovered and moved to the ward they brought the baby to her for feeding. The little one immediately learned the survival skill of feeding, and her mother generously produced the colostrum her young one needed to survive and thrive.
Watching my beloved and our child created a mental picture so vivid in my mind. And the joy that it brought me became a wellspring of inspiration for a lifetime.Carrying my little one in my arms and hands was an ecstatic experience. The tiny human being had complete digits in both higher and lower extremities. She had a full dark brown hair. Her fingers were like tiny tapering candles. I imagined them to be playing the piano someday.
On her right wrist was a name tag that says “Baby Valenzuela”. This little one needed a name. I had long suggested that my children will be named after me. “Gilda”, yes her name will be Gil-da because she is Gil’s daughter. We added “Grace” to her name to remind us of God’s great provisions, mercy and grace. She will be called Gilda Grace Valenzuela.
We were ready to be released from the hospital one day before my scheduled flight. Anticipating the hospital and doctor’s bills, I prepared a promissory note explaining why I couldn’t pay. I proceeded to the administration office to plead, but after I introduced myself the lady at the reception told me that there was a note from my wife’s doctor that she was not charging us any fees for the procedure. Additionally, the hospital fees and prescription drugs used had been underwritten!
“God has paid it all.” This was the moment and this was the event when God’s gracious hands were at work.
“Please tell the good doctor I said Thank You”, I told the receptionist.
“Mr. Valenzuela, if you want to donate any amount of money, please drop your donation in that box.”
I took my only P50.00 bill from my wallet and dropped it in the donation box.
I left the administration office feeling humbled and blessed. God works in mysterious ways, and He’s done it again as He marvelously did it to me many times in the past! I praise the mighty Name of Jesus!The day of my flight to the Sultanate of Oman was a dreadful day. I had to leave my wife who was still in pain from the surgical procedure and my five-day old baby. But emotion must be ruled by reason this time. I needed to to this because my family needed it.
When the airplane bound to the Middle East took off. I felt a searing pain in my heart. I was torn apart. I left my heart in the Philippines. I could not control my tears as the jumbo aircraft took me away from my loved ones. When will I see them again?
The picture below was taken when I got reunited with Gilda Grace, one year after I left her.
Next Issue: God Did it Again Part 2 will feature the birth of our second child: Gil Edison Valenzuela. Thank you all for reading.
