My youngest niece, on my wife's side of the family, was born on the 29th of September. She's the daughter of Armen (my brother-in-law, or bayaw) and Corazon (his wife, or my bilas). I ended up footing the hospital bill for the childbirth because the parents failed to pay the health insurance premiums. It took me some last minute financially wrangling to accomplish this particular feat, but I made it happen despite my tight budget. I have learned to frequently expect the unexpected.

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Today is me and my wife's 22nd wedding anniversary. If you take into account the number of marriages that fail within the first few years and couple it with the fact that I'm Caucasian and my wife is Filipino, you can say that we tremendously beat the odds. Don't ask me for marriage advice though, because I really can't tell you how we beat those odds.

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