The Day I Became an OFW's Wife

My husband and I have been married for more than ten years already - quite a feat these days, I believe. This I owe to the fact that we both share a deep connection with a common God. The God we worship wants us to be together and that has always been our conviction. So as long as we worship our God, we will have to live by this conviction. There's nothing I can complain about this arrangement as our marriage is tranquil and is a haven for both of us.

But there are some things in life that are bound to change and one of these is our comfortable arrangement of being together everyday, with very seldom physical separation from each other and our kids. But on June 1, 2006, my husband flew to the United Kingdom to work there as a Mobile CT Scan Technologist. It was the beginning of another phase of our lives - and the ending (thankfully, temporarily) of leisurely weekends and long FX rides going home on Fridays. For our kids, it marked a temporary respite from wrestling and boxing with their Papa.

My kids and I had different reactions to my hubby's departure that day. My bunso, who was ecstatic when we boarded my sister's car to the airport because he thought we were just going out for fun, was shocked, speechless and on the verge of tears when he finally realized that Papa boarded a plane to go to the UK. He was so quiet on our way home. My panganay was less discreet with his grief as he was openly crying and saying to me he won't have a Papa to greet on Father's Day. As for myself, well, I did not get to cry until I entered our room upon arriving from the airport and finding a deep and profound absence of somebody so dear.

We have survived the first month, by the grace of God and we are taking each day at a time. Technology has been most useful in bridging the distance as we regularly text, call and email each other. During the first five days of his stay in a hotel where he was billeted until he has been formally inducted, he would call the house up to four times a day - thanks to a generous telephone allowance from his company. He would cry over the phone and I would do my best to sound strong. Somehow, his homesickness has eased and he is now busy working.

We plan to join him next year. Meanwhile, I am doing my best to play the role of a dutiful OFW's wife by being faithful and true (as if I have reason not to be so!), by being an efficient NaTay (both Nanay & Tatay) to our kids and being a good steward of his earnings. We are both determined to be debt free by his third month there. From then on, we would not allow ourselves to be financially indebted to anybody again.

Thanks to a much generous pay for his expertise, we can now easily achieve this. However, nothing comes for free these days. And what high a price we have to pay for it: enduring the separation and exerting vigilant effort not to blow this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of making it big - for our family, our country and God's glory!

Ah! the life of an OFW's wife!