Look Who Joined Our Family

By: Maria Girlie Pascual

 

When my son Kristoffer Wolfgang Wildoer was born, it seemed to me like I was part of something miraculous. Even if he made me go into labor for 13 full hours with half an epidural shot (only the left side of my body was numb so I felt all of the pain on the right side) administered in haste, when Kristoffer made his entrance at 3:30pm on April 18, 1986, I knew my life would never be the same. Fast forward 33 years later, I received the call at 3:30 in the morning of November 13, 2018. “Mom, we just had a baby” rang like a church bell in my ear. Why, it only had been a matter of a few hours when I dropped Kristoffer and his wife Svienna off at O’Hare airport to catch a flight back from Chicago to Los Angeles the morning of November 12, and Svienna was not due for another 4 weeks. But Kenzo Kristoffer Wildoer could no longer wait, so at midnight that same day, Svienna started experiencing contractions. Being the millennials that they are, my son waited until the very last minute to rush Svienna to the hospital in Palm Springs because in the mind of this first time dad, he was thinking “It can’t be, the doctor said the baby will be born in December!”

So my beautiful, “preemie” grandson Kenzo was born on November 13, 2018, a tiny 4.25 pounds with a lot of hair and very powerful lungs. They had to keep him another two weeks until the doctors were satisfied that he was okay, and even asked Kristoffer and Svienna to stay an extra night before they took him home so they know how to take care of their premature son.

Kristoffer asked me to wait for the baby to come home before I flew out to see the little prince. By the time I made it to Los Angeles, and eventually to La Quinta where they lived, I was so overly excited that I could hardly control myself when I finally held my first and only grandchild in my arms. Oh my, I didn’t quite understand the wave of emotion that took over, and strangely enough, it was more powerful than when I first laid eyes on my own son Kristoffer. I guess it was because my heart was in the way of processing the fact that my own child now has a child of his own, and it moved me to the point that I felt like I was in a bubble of joy the whole time that I held Kenzo.

I waited three weeks to see my grandson because I wanted to stay the whole month of December and half of January so I can help take care of my grandson, and to manage the arrival of my family from Manila who flew all the way to California to spend Christmas with us. My eldest brother, along with his three kids and his sweetheart a few days after I did, and then my brothers from Chicago followed suit thereafter. It was certainly a full house of relatives, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandpa, grandma who were all there to welcome little Kenzo just to make it one grand Christmas for all. Never mind that it was a blur of activities in the next four weeks, a loud, boisterous and happy get together for us siblings and our families, with meals planned and cooked to suit an army of hungry youngsters and a schedule filled with activities to showcase the best of what Los Angeles and Palm Springs had to offer our guests that season. The weather was unusually cold, but thankfully dry. During this time, Disneyland became the highlight of our reunion, rekindling in us the sense of awe and wonder at all things magical as we saw fabled characters again through the eyes of our children.

We were happy to take turns in watching over Kenzo as he slept blissfully through the din of pots and pans as the meals were prepared, as he snored and cooed through the laughter and the raucous storytelling between cousins and friends, as he wolfed down his milk in measured bottles seemingly to grow larger and more beautiful everyday, right in front of our loving gazes and watchful ministering to his every need and whim. Yes, he was indeed the jewel of our reunion, the blessed gift that a loving God gave to our family, just in time for Christmas.

But all good things must come to an end, and after four weeks of fun filled, crazy days and nights, one by one I shuttled each family off to the airport, the hallways getting less crowded, the rooms looking bigger as their occupants started dwindling. Soon, the only ones left were the Los Angeles and Palm Desert residents including Kristoffer, his wife Svienna and baby Kenzo, our Los Angeles host Kristoffer’s Dad Wolfgang, and me. From a crowd of 17 which included us, my brothers Docboy and his partner Noemi, with his children Adam, Kenneth and Annika all from Manila, Brent his wife Dodjie, kids Miki and Mika, Bently and his wife Pie with daughter Sabrina, all from Chicago, Kristoffer’s good friend Phil Roldan from Reno, now the four bedroom home was once more empty except for our dogs Zeus and Tao, and even they looked sad when everyone left.

It was the best Christmas ever! And I do thank my brothers and their families for making the long trip just to welcome Kenzo, to give thanks for Wolfgang’s successful heart surgery, and for always being there for each other in this amazing journey through all of our life’s ebbs and flows, raising each other up when needed, celebrating when the occasion calls for it, and sharing with one another everything and anything that we can because at the end of the day, we are all legacies from our past, and guardians of our children’s future.

Special thanks to my aunt Pet Roxas, my cousins Reyza and Reyda and their families from Carson, my cousin Kim Lorenzo from Orange County, Lito Robles and his family, and everyone that went to visit us on this happy occasion. We may have different addresses, but our hearts all met to rejoice in the birth of my grandson right before the birth of our Saviour on Christmas Day last year.