Blaze

In early January 2007, my then 21-year old daughter Kristine, who was going to school, working part time and living with us, invited the family to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. She does this once in a while - to our delight - which is great, but the only thing is, I always end up paying the bill, which is not so great. During the course of the dinner conversation, she nonchalantly confessed that she was pregnant. It went something like, "Mom, can you pass the Phad Thai, I'm two months pregnant, isn't this spicy lemon grass soup delicious?" I said, "Woo, wait a minute, what did you just say?"

"The soup is delicious?"
"No, the one before that."
"I'm pregnant."

We all got quiet. The drive home, which normally takes 10 minutes, took forever. Nobody said a word. The kids got out and Tess and I were left in the car. Then we both started talking. "How can she do this?" "What's going to happen with her schooling?" "You shouldn't have been too lax with her boyfriend." "Too lax? I think you were too strict!" "What are we going to do?"

We finally walked into the house and into the living room where our three kids were huddled on the couch. The Pinoy macho father in me wanted to say, "Kristine, I want you to call Jacob - your boyfriend - here and I'll knock some sense into him. You two should get married tonight! Ricky, go fetch Father Tom!" But for some reason, what came out of my mouth were these, "We are going to make sure that your baby is OK. He is a gift from God and we'll do everything to ensure he gets born to a loving family. Everything else is secondary."

Blaze was born on August 1, 2007 at 2pm. The attending nurse, while cleaning him up, described him as "a perfect little man." I will shamelessly admit that I've never been more nervous and excited on the birth of a child, not even with my own kids. Words cannot describe the happiness I felt when I first held him in my arms. It is true: to grandparents, the birth of the first grandchild is very special.

Blaze is now two years old. He brings so much joy to those around him. Kristine and Jacob are wonderful parents and they're doing a fine job raising him. He likes all kinds of balls - football, basketball, golf ball, soccer ball, baseball, you name it. As a matter if fact his first word was "ball." I kid you not. He is also a very funny kid and loves to amuse any audience. He loves to strum the ukulele, dance, and sing.

And his name is so cool. I didn't think of it that way at first. When Kristine told me what she and Jacob were going to name their baby, my first reaction was, "Blaze? Like one of the X-Men?" But now I just love to say his name - Blaze. It reminds me of the chorus in one Church song:

Shine Jesus shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit blaze,
Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word
Lord and let there be light.

As we commemorate Jesus' birthday this Christmas, I also want to thank God for giving Blaze to us. Blaze who sets our hearts on fire.

Hej from Copenhagen!

Hello from Denmark! Tess and I have been in the capital city of Copenhagen for three days now and are just having a blast. Tess is attending a two-day conference on hospital Rapid Response Systems and I'm here as a tag-along. We had a full day on Sunday to sightsee - we crossed into the Swedish town of Malmo then came back and spent the afternoon at the world-famous Tivoli park. Yesterday, while Tess was in the conference, I got on a double-decker and did the city tour. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking but here are some of my impressions.

Denmark is a monarchy and has a long colorful history. Copenhagen, just like many European cities, has many beautiful ancient architecture, mostly Gothic, to include buildings, castles, churches, and towers dating all the way back to the 14th century. The majority of them were built during the reign of King Christian IV in the 16th-17th century.

One of the most famous residents of Copenhagen is Hans Christian Anderson. Among the many pieces of literature he wrote was The Little Mermaid, which many of us know from the Disney movie. A statue of the little mermaid can be found in the harbor and is a big tourist attraction - claimed to be the most-photographed lady in the world. The statue itself is nothing fancy but I learned that what draws people is the story behind it, which by the way, is different from the Disney version. Makes you want to check out the original book from your library, doesn't it?

Public transportation in Denmark is very reliable. The trains and buses are always on time. One fascinating thing we observed is that the train stations don't have turnstiles where you insert your spent tickets when you exit. They don't check them on board either. The system trusts all passengers do the right thing. What a concept!

Thirty-six percent of Danish people commute on bicycles. Bicycle lanes are integrated into the road network. No wonder you don't see too many obese people here - they get plenty of exercise from walking and riding their bikes. Parking for bikes are always packed and hardly anyone locks their bike. Again, the trust concept.

I'm not very impressed with the food, however. Lots of bland meat and their favorite delicacy - pickled herring. I tried it; no thanks. Even their version of Japanese ramen, served at a local chain called Wagamama, leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe we've just been too spoiled in Hawaii with the many world-class culinary choices available.

Did I mention this place is very expensive? And this is coming from someone who lives in Hawaii. For example, the hotel we're staying, (courtesy of the US government), is supposedly rated 5-star but I don't think it's quite up to par. Obviously this is no Manila Shangri-la, San Francisco Fremont or Kauai Princeville but for the price, we would have premium accommodations on one of them.

Speaking of par, I tried to book a tee time to play golf today but it seems Copenhagen is just not into golf that much. At least, my experience is that they don't make it easy for a tourist to play golf. No rental equipment! OK, granted I'm left-handed, you would think there's at least one set in one of the seven golf courses nearby!

But overall, Copenhagen is a very nice cool place. Low crime rate, very clean, modern, and eco-friendly. The people are happy, hospitable and they speak very good English. No wonder it's rated one of the most-livable cities in the world. So far, we're enjoying our stay here. Click here to view pictures.