Loddy Doddy.

A rockin gift from Tita Crees.

Dada All Day Every Day.

There are many things that Julian is good at: making a mean marinara from scratch, busting out old school lyrics and trivia, falling asleep at any time in any place in any position, mastering the done-yet-not-done hairdo, preventing any leftovers, making sure no one is left out, awaking from a deep sleep just in time for his stop on the train, choosing the perfect dessert for a meal, speaking truth with love, encouraging the discouraged, and providing a worthy competitor (or unmatched partner) in all games.

Above all, he's a faithful lover of Jesus, which then makes him a wonderful husband, which then overflows to our beloved Evangeline.  He gets sad when she often lunges towards me, but we both know she's totally a "Daddy's girl."



My heart melts watching him swoon over her and vice-versa.  She looks at him and smiles her wide toothless smile because with him she feels loved and safe.  My hope is that the security in her daddy points her to the greater security in her Heavenly Father.



What a blessing you are to us.  So thankful that you love the Lord, so that you'll better know how to love our family.  No wonder Evie has been constantly singing your praises these days!




A very happy Father's Day to you, my dear.  We love you!  Now let's get some ice cream! 

Deuces!
- M & e

Evangeline’s Tips for a Happy Life.

I’m almost eight months now and I can honestly say I’m living the life I want. Here are a few tips I’ve come to find work for me:

Eat well. It’s simple: eating well makes you feel well. Make sure you have an on-call mommy, one who is available in the wee hours of the night but will still get up at the crack of dawn to break your fast. When she knows she’s going out, she prepares meals in advance. She works very hard to keep my cheeks looking their fullest, even if it means cutting back on sleep.

Baths are essential. I take a few a week to keep me feeling my best. Mommy always makes sure the temperature is just right. She puts my favorite toys in and chats with me while she scrubs my head and back. She finishes with an oatmeal lotion and a massage. She delivers every time and is never tired!

Play! Games are vital to keeping a healthy brain, so make sure your mommy knows how to make a game out of anything, everything from putting on clothes (the worst) to making old toys feel new again. When your mommy is as clever as mine, you know you’re making the most out of playtime. (Note: I also recommend a mommy who can think of songs on the spot, like her surprise hit “These Are My Toes.” A diverse playlist makes even the toughest days fly by. Have your mommy learn to incorporate tickles and kisses to up the fun factor). Where does she even find the energy?!

Travel often. My mommy takes me on walks almost every day. My favorite is the carrier, she leaves me things like her necklace or her hair within reach for me to pull on if I get bored. She says running used to be her “me time” (I don’t understand…is there any other kind of time?), but she started taking me with her. It’s like she doesn’t need any rest at all!

 
                       

When I wake up, she’s there. When I go to sleep, she’s there. She knows what I need, often before I even know it, and always before Daddy knows it. Life for me isn’t always easy (sometimes it’s very easy), but she’s definitely the reason my life is a happy one.

- E

A Mother's Day Special.

Every Year.

Engagement, Dec 2010

“Every year has been different,” she said. This is why vows are so important--Our first year was job, then no job, then job, then no job. Our second included surgery and a return to school. Our third (it goes without saying) a wrecking ball to life as we knew it--and more than just convention, because every year is different, circumstances subject to change, but for a marriage to flourish devotion must stay the same.

-J

Plans and Providence.

Over the years, increasingly, Thanksgiving has been a holiday not of thankfulness but unthankfulness. That is, I’m reminded how positively unthankful I am. Not only did I demand the money I justly deserved (it was right to hold her to the original agreement), but even the money I didn’t deserve I treated as mine. It would embarrass me to admit how much has been handed to my family this year, you would think we didn’t know how to be on our own. So when the voice finally chimed in "After all I’ve given you, do you think I won’t continue to give?" I decided to forgive the debt, and she kept the money. The reality is our home these three years hasn’t been a result of plans but of providence.

-J

A Distant Past.

I can recount it all...the shock of my water breaking at 4:00am, the confusion about whether or not it was time to go, the anticipation during the drive to the city, the anxiety of only being 1cm dilated at my initial exam, the discomfort of being induced with pitocin, the silent plea for an epidural (“I've known you for a year now and you're always smiling," Dr. Ferber said gently, "but I can see it in your face that you're going to need epidural.”), the panic when my blood pressure (and baby’s) made a drastic dip, the exhaustion after varied attempts to rotate the baby; and above all, the terror before pushing, the fear that anything could still happen.

The doctor’s signal. The nurse’s instructions. Each encouraging one-liner Julian could muster. “You can do it!” “You’re doing great!” “Almost there!” “Keep going!” All the pushing, wincing, crying, joined with the hectic hours at the hospital, and even the nine months of carrying her, fused together, leading up to that single moment our darling Evangeline Kyle, a vulnerable 6lb and 8oz and 20in, was laid across my chest.

It’s been said that when a woman goes into labor, she’s in anguish, but after the child is born, she forgets her suffering. And that is what happened when she was handed to us.  As we gazed upon her, the memory of any pain became a distant past.  The sixteen minutes, the long hours, and the nine months, overcome by a single moment of incredible joy I will never forget.

 

- M

Evangeline Kyle.

“Now I know why they’re called ‘a bundle,’” I whispered to my beloved as our baby lay leafed up like a cabbage in the swaddling that garnered our nurse’s praise: tight, secure, previously unknown yet welcomed like a fond memory. Over the last several hours came an outpouring of texts, emails, messages, comments, and phone calls; amidst which we shared Evie’s sense of calm, surrounded by a presence pressing, tender, and almost unbearable. Even her name, a tribute to those before her, as if by christening her with the invocation “You are your kin, your kin is you,” she really would continue the character and qualities of her legacy, cradled in them like the swaddling clothes. Angelina, Great Grandmother, Iron Matriarch of the Farol Family, Major’s Wife, mother to six sons and one daughter raised in the same stalwart respect and loyalty, such that in her last days they were all there, children having moved from the same home in Batangas to live in the same area of Southern California, children with children’s children and children’s children’s children, all formed in the same living reverence. And Kyle, Dear Cowsin, Forever Young, with his indomitable smile, who in teaching his younger brothers to be older brothers themselves shifted the paradigm for brotherhood: not roughness, not dominance, but with humility and gentleness he taught them to stand on their own feet; Kyle, who joined his grandmother before starting his first day as a UCI anteater, ending his lifelong battle with lupus. Together, Angelina the Iron Matriarch and Kyle the Forever Young, Kyle and Angelina, Angelina and Kyle, they gird her, establishing the principle by which we intend to raise her, that love is given before it is known.

- J