I think having birthday parties is just an excuse to eat, drink and be merry at the expense of the person whose birthday is being celebrated. Why do we celebrate birthdays anyway? Do we really have to be reminded that we're a year older? Nowadays, my own birthday just depresses me and that's about it.

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If you've followed along since my post on a possible disappearing act, you'll know that this year's wedding anniversary (today) is less than a happy one.

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Update: The "Donate" button has been removed. Please read The Circle of Life to see why.

As I wrote in my previous post, "A Possible Disappearing Act", the possible is now definite. I will be flying from Manila, Philippines to Phoenix, Arizona, USA, prior to my wife's dual tonsillectomies, which should take place sometime between the middle of February and March.

All of my life, I've been taught it's always better to give than to receive. In fact, one of the reasons I gave up my second good job (after military retirement) and turned down a promotion that would pay me more than $60,000 in US dollars per year is because I needed to be in a place where I could do the most good.

After being on the giving end of the stick for so long, you can't imagine how hard it was for me to put up the PayPal donation button (upper left sidebar). It just feels so wrong. Nevertheless, I'm in a position where I need the financial help for the first time in my life. Please, I don't want you to consider this a gift. I want you to consider it a loan. A loan that will be paid back, if not financially, in many different ways.

I and my wife will be celebrating our wedding anniversary apart on January 25th for only the second time in our marriage, the first time being when I was in Saudi Arabia just prior to the first gulf war in 1991. This will be our 23rd anniversary. Take a look at the picture below and you can understand why I consider Josie the most beautiful woman in the world and a person I want to protect with every asset at my disposal.

I want to thank Vic of Blogger Unleashed for kicking my virtual ass and making me consider this as an option with his post about a blogger in need. I would also like to thank Darren Rowse of ProBlogger for following up with the post to help a blogger in need.

And Even More Well-Wishers

• Naomi of IttyBiz posted her instructions to help out a fellow blogger. Such a nice lady (and a nice family) with an awesome blog. I'm sorry if this is the first time I've seen it.
• Garry Conn of, what else, Garry Conn dot Comm chimed in with an addendum to "John Chow Is Getting Fat!". He's right about John. He's turning into a porker before our very eyes.
• Costa of Blog Gigs wrote his own version of my predicament with "A Blogger In Need, Needs A Blogger Indeed". He's right too. I have never seen this level of generosity before, except when pushed by large websites (like BlogCatalog).
• Monika of The Writers Manifesto Blog did her part with "The Power of Blogging to Help a Blogger in Need". This is another great blog that I don't remember seeing before.
• The doughgenerator at Making Money Online – Starting Out posted "Blogger In Need.".
• Rocky of Blogging Mix, from my neck of the woods but going to college abroad, wrote "Help A Fellow Blogger In Need".
• Hock got me twice. First at Money Making Blogs with "RT at Untwisted Vortex Needs Your Help" and second at Marketing Tools Review with "Your Chance To Help A Fellow Blogger". I believe I still owe him a blog review for Marketing Tools Review.
• Jackie of Internet Marketing for Mommies wrote "Blogger In Need" (dead link). "The outpouring of support from bloggers was amazing." I can't agree more.
• I think Don at Making Sales Making Money made a small error and linked to my previous post in his WWSGD plugin which appears at "Social Media and the Power of Giving", but it could be intentional.
• Stine at Mother's Got A Dot Com told me I was writing nonsense of "having a limit" with her "Rally Round!" post.
• SOB at Think Like An SOB wrote "A Fellow Blogger Needs Your Help".
• Court of Court's Internet Marketing School wrote "Help A Blogger In Need". He's one of the 3 blogging musketeers you'll see me write about on occasion.
• Admin (and that really should be changed, Lisa) at Got No Dough – Saving Money in Slim Times posted "Please Help Our Fellow Blogger".
• Hyder at Everybody Go To included a paragraph for me in the "Ask Me Anything, January: Answered" post.
• Ellie of thepinkc included a special note with her tips to get more out of your WordPress blog.
• Jeremy of The Consumer's Corner asked people to lend a helping hand….
• Sue of Blogging Sueblimely emphasized the support I've received with "Bloggers Unite to Help".
• Rodelio of Lagahit.com, a Filipino living in my neck of the woods, wrote "A blogger in need".
• Razlan of Viral Voices wrote "Help a fellow blogger in need".
• Markk of Common Sense with Markk wrote "C'mon Guys, Let's Do It For RT".
• I almost missed Himanshu's "Help A Blogger In Need".

My reading list is growing. I apologize if I'm missing anyone. I'm going through pingback notifications and Google Alerts. Some of the pingbacks had to be despammed from Akismet before they appeared. I assure you, I submitted them as "not spam" and hopefully, Akismet won't do it again.

***

I wanted to quickly mention why I said "tonsillectomy" above when there's much more to it than that. Josie has been to doctors many times since she left here in May of last year. So far, this is the only thing she's having surgery for. I tried to convince her to do all of this here in the Philippines, but she doesn't trust the local Filipino doctors. Besides, health insurance here is a joke. She's had mammograms, sonograms, pap smears, and other tests I can't even remember. I attribute most of her problems to her life before we met, but I can't get into detail with that here. It's just too personal.

I've mentioned it before, but others in her family were either murdered or wounded a few years ago. With the streak of bad things that have happened in her life, she's justifiably afraid of being alone for the surgery, especially after she learned that one of my grandfathers died on the operating table for a much more minor operation. Mere words cannot express the gamut of emotions both her and I are going through.

I'm going to attempt to put aside those emotions so that I can continue to do the things I normally do when I'm blogging. Some of you know what those things are and some of those things are quite invisible to the casual observer. That's the way I prefer to do things; shameless self-promotion just isn't my cup of tea.

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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