My brother's wedding, some advice and hopes on moving-forward

Some updates of late:

It was my brother's wedding last Saturday. Boy was it an emotional day for me! I cried twice during the ceremony and again during the reception when I gave my speech as matron-of-honor. I couldn't help it - I kept getting overwhelmed by the fact that my baby brother was getting married, and that things are not going to be the same. Granted, they will change for the better, but still, I guess nostalgia is really a huge-assed tearjerker.

The wedding was beautiful! I can't sing enough praises about my new sister-in-law, who was really a master organizer. Every little detail was accounted for and thought about, and she made sure that suppliers really made her dream a reality, all within reason, of course. She's such a joy to watch and to observe, and I really give it to her because I think most of the wedding was prepared by her and not my brother (really, it's brides in charge of the wedding for the most part :p)

It was also a day marked with lots of "are you pregnant yet?" questions. Of course, I expected these and hence was able to take them in stride. I think Atty didn't though (I guess coz boys don't really think of that consciously) and hence was getting agitated whenever a well-meaning (or otherwise, as he would sometimes insist) relative or friend would touch my belly and ask if there's "laman". Sometimes, just to make light of the situation, I say, "oo, may taba". Hehe.

We also got very good advice from the sister (and brother-in-law) of the bride, whom incidentally are also good friends of ours. The BIL of the bride is actually Dennis' good friend from law school. They talked about their journey to parenthood and gave us lots of insights to chew on. Really helpful perspectives, especially coming from a couple who struggled for 7 years before finally conceiving. She's due on Friday. So excited for her!

It's also been a really grueling past couple of days at work for me. These few days were also marked with lots of realizations, on top of lots of stress. My boss is currently on maternity leave and as a result, I am filling in for her as OIC and am getting lots of upper-management exposure. Some people would term this time as a good opportunity for me career-wise. Generally, I would agree. However, with what I've seen these days of what upper management is really like, I think I've most much of my innocence in terms of shedding any romantic ideas I may have had before about our bosses.  And I am now even more hopeful and anxious regarding the next path that I can take, given what I have seen and how I feel about those things. Sorry for not getting into much detail, but just be content in knowing that I am very disillusioned. And I've always said that career movements always have 2 components: a push and a pull. There is a force that is pushing you away from your current capacity and there is another force that will pull you toward it. Simply put, you often have a reason to leave and a reason to join. I'm hoping that the latter can be crystalized soon, as the former is definitely in the bag after what I went through these past 3 days.

Please!!!

That's it. July is about to be done, then it'll be August soon, and then... the BER months will be here! Time flies! 2012, I have high hopes for you! Please bring me everything I wish for!!!! :)

Oh, wait, one more update. This year, for Atty's birthday, since our trip was really ultra cheap (less than 2k for our tickets and free hotel accomodations), he decided to further celebrate by doing a life-changing good deed for someone. So we decided that it will be a child, and the life-changing help will be in the form of sponsoring his/her operation to take out a cleft lip. This led us to Operation Smile, to whom we donated 15k for the full sponsorship of 1 cleft operation. We're expecting the full report tomorrow or Friday, and I can't wait to see it and see the face of the little kid whose life has been improved vastly through our donation. It feels really good to bestow a gift as life-enhancing as this, to a child who does not have the financial means to have this corrective surgery. I also cannot think of a better way to thank God for having brought Atty into my life. Without him, I really cannot imagine how life would be like.

:)