The Storm

I was soooo excited to see my favorite place, the place where I went to school, where I found new family and friends and the place where I met my husband. This place is TACLOBAN CITY.  Nov.6 the last day of the renewal of Caleb's visa, we packed were ready to go to the place of excitement. Oh Wait! my wallet, I counted all the money we had and  for some reason I brought just enough for us to pay his visa and a Medical check up. Caleb was sick, so we had to bring him to our doctor to see what was up with him. When we arrived to Tacloban we went to the doctor right away and he did some tests. The tests showed that Caleb had a UTI but nothing else was found. Then we went to immigration right after and did his visa extension. The immigration officer told us that Caleb had to leave the country because he had stayed to long. 

We then pleaded with the officials for another 2 month extension, which thanks to the Lord they gave us.  Walking on the road, I was sad because I was not going to be able to get my requirements before Caleb would have to leave the country. knowing that my Caleb needs to leave without me, made me sad and scared. We headed back to the Hotel in frustration but then I told my self "no need to worry, the LORD knows what He is doing". Exhausted, we lied on the bed and turned the tv on. Same with what I usually do, I went to watch a Filipino channel and smiled at Caleb's pouting face. He hates Filipino channels, but he had no choice that time. There is a "Super Storm coming" said the reporter! Right that second my younger sister texted me to come home.

We both agreed that we will go home early morning Nov.7 the Day of the storm. 5:30 in the morning NOV.7 we hurried to the terminal to get a van to go back to Eastern Samar and we found the terminal flooded with people waiting to catch a van. Caleb asked me if we could stay another night cuz he was sick to travel and there is no way we could get a van to go home cuz of all the people waiting before we came. We can't stay here cuz I didn't bring all our money! I brought just enough for us to do what we came here for, I answered. He was sooo frustrated and that was the first time I did that. I always bring money for emergency but for whatever reason I didn't, so we had no choice but to go home. We went to the lady at the front desk who is our good friend to ask if there are available seats. Good news! We can go home. We got the last two seats in the last van going to Borongan.

Rain started to fall and wind started to blow while we're on our way to Borongan Eastern Samar. 6:00pm We finally made it home!!!  Caleb sent me to town to get supplies. People were still driving there little motorcycle happily without any hint or worries about the coming "SUPER STORM". I asked one driver why he is still driving instead of preparing for the Storm, He answered me with a smile " WE ARE USED TO HAVING TYPHOONS, NO BIG DEAL! " He was right we are used to having typhoons, we experience it twice or more in a year. So I walked and got a ride home with rice,noodles, crackers and canned goods. 8:00 pm the storm started to get harder, so Caleb and I decided to call my parents and the kids to come to our house cuz we know it would be safer for them to stay with us. We all ate dinner together and went to bed. 3:00 am NOV. 8, I went out to use the bathroom and I found my mother awake, the wind was unstoppable!!

In my curiosity, I  tried to look outside but my mother told me to go back to sleep.  Because of exhaustion Caleb and I woke up at 7:00am. I went outside to see what was going on and Dang I was shocked!!! I was shocked at what I saw! Our yard was full of debris , our neighbors' house 50 meters away was gone, coconut trees were all cut in half so I looked around to see what our house looked like. Amazed! I stood in awe when I saw our house untouched, our little old hut made of sticks was still standing, the LBC boxes  outside were not even moved. I kept looking around then I saw our neighbor's huge thick wall knocked down. Amazing!! Our house is 100meters away from the ocean and the water went up almost 150 meters that it reached the houses on the other side of the road. But what happened to our house and our best friend's small nipa house? They were untouched!!!!!! How can that be? LORD! WHAT SHOULD I SAY? Word's are not enough to express what I felt that time..

I got hungry and my siblings too, but wait a minute we have no power and we cook on an electric stove. How can I cook? I sent my brother to get charcoal and I borrowed my close friend's little furnace made of cement. Yeahhhhh! Breakfast was ready, the kids were soo excited and so was I. I went to our room and told Caleb that I made a way to cook food and that we can finally eat breakfast but he said he wasn't hungry, so I ate sitting next to him while he was reading a book on the IPad. The storm calmed down a bit and I was relieved. A few minutes later while I was enjoying my breakfast I heard Caleb drop the iPad, thinking it was a joke I asked him "WHAT's UP WITH U?"  but he started shaking and his body was stiff and frozen, with  foam coming from his mouth.

I was scared and shouted for help and my mom came over. We didn't know what to do so I kept shouting for help 'till the students next door and our neighbors came to help. The Boys carried Caleb out of the room and they put him on the mat in the living room  where he could get some air. Our old lady neighbor told me to put some type of herbal ointment on his nose and put a spoon on his mouth. A minute after, Caleb got up with a blank look on his face, I tried to hug him but he punched me on the face and kicked me on the leg. He kicked everyone who tried to get near him. Me and mother, for the second time, tried to approach him but he punched my mom on the nose. We all knew that he didn't know what he was doing so we left him for a few seconds 'till he calmed down.

I asked my sister to get Ate Ella and Kuya DanDan our family. Caleb was still out of his mind, he still had the blank look on his face. Mom got him water and I put him to bed. We kept asking him if he knew us but he wouldn't answer. After a fee minutes his eyes opened wide as if he woke up from a deep sleep. Ate Ellea ask him again if he knows her then he finally said, "yes, u are ate Ellea"..he kept Asking what's going on and I demanded on taking him to the hospital.  The road was full of trees and posts so no vehicle could get through. Lord what should I do?,I cried..After several minutes Ptr. Lem came with his motor bike and gave us a ride to the hospital. On our way, I saw houses on the road and trees everywhere. My heart sank while watching the destruction of our home.

We finally reached the hospital and the doctor came and checked Caleb's vital signs and they were fine. The doctor wanted Caleb admitted so I went to the admission office to get my husband a room. The doctor did all the tests he could possibly do and told us to stay at the hospital while waiting for the results  so that they could monitor him. Evening came and Caleb was deep asleep, tears fell from my eyes knowing that we didn't have enough money to pay our hospital bills. I had $175 in my wallet and it included food and rent. "Deep Breath!" That's what Caleb used to tell me when I started to doubt God's ability to provide for our needs, I hate doing that but I did it this time. Deep breath Cris Ann..hoooo haaaaa.... I did it! I did it while crying " LORD HELP MY UNBELIEF". I couldn't do anything but trust God on this one. Days passed by and additional bills kept coming but I was at peace because of the assurance that God will take care of my husband. Helpless! I hugged my husband tight and told him everything will be alright. We were alone in the hospital because all our friends and family were busy fixing their houses and were trying to find food.

I had to stay up all night because I feared that Caleb might seizure again and I wanted to be ready. It's our third day in the hospital and the doctor came over to tell us that he found nothing on the test but the UTI and told us to go to tacloban for MRI so he discharged Caleb since he couldn't do anything more.  It's now time to pay the bill! I was walking slowly praying that the owner of the hospital would allow us to do 2or3 payments because I know we would have to pay more than 400 dollars and we only have 175 with us. Deep breath again......... I approach the lady at the billing station and ask how much our bill was. Caleb has no insurance so we have to pay the full amount. Shaking, I took the bill slip out of the lady's hand and look at the total amount. I was speechless when I saw $150 as our total bill. My heart was rejoicing and I ran to Caleb's room to tell him the good news. We hugged and thank God for his goodness. How did it happen?

When the minimum charged of the hospital is $100 per day and we spent 3 days there. Oh yeah, God worked it out again. We are going home! I took my wallet and counted how much we had left. We only had $25 left and I need to get some medicines for Caleb. We went straight to the pharmacy and got him medicines which will only last for a couple days. What should I do? We have no contacts, we can't borrow money from friends because they also need money and I can't run the Internet cafe cuz there's no power. Deep breath again...."Don't worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about its self" I was reminded, HE took care of our bills so HE will take care of the rest. We went home peaceful without thinking that we have no money left to survive. Everyday we have to live in faith, we have no money left to buy anything but thankfully we have rice and canned goods with us that will help us get through a couple days. My mother brought us vegetables everyday 'till "OUR RESCUERS" arrived. Our worries turned into joy when Ptr. LEM told us that dad (GARY) was coming. My heart was full of joy knowing that our father  is coming. I kept telling Caleb How excited I am to see my father in law. We have to mention his coming almost every hour. Yeahhhhh!!! He's here! We both left our bed in such a hurry when we heard a motorcycle in  front of the door. Hugged...hugged....hugged..tight, it's been a year and a half since Caleb got to hug his dad and it was my first time. We sat and talked about bringing Caleb to Manila in the morning for further examination. Morning came and we packed ourselves ready. We went to the van station hoping that we could get a ride to Calbayog City and fly to Manila. It was a tough day, we went to three different van terminals but no van was available for us to ride. We waited at one of the van station hoping that we could get a ride but no van came. I decided to check the bus stations but only one bus was available and they wouldn't let me get seats so I had to go get Caleb and dad (Gary) to help me get the seats.  Thankfully we were able to get the last three seats at the back, dad's feet won't even fit cuz of the distance of our seats from the seats next to us.

That was the most miserable 28hr bus ride that we experienced and we can't stop talking about that ride. Caleb was sooo sick before we reached Manila, we don't know the place and we don't know where to stop. We met an Australian friend who also is a victim of the typhoon and he leads us where to go, him and dad (Gary) became friends. Are we in Manila? Yes we are!, after seeing those huge buildings that we passed by I figured we're in Manila. Nervous, I still didn't know where we should stop. Caleb was losing his breath so we have to take him to the nearest hospital. I finally got the courage to ask the people on the bus where the closest and best hospital is and they gave me a lot of names. I remember dad ( Gary) told me the name of the hospital where we should go, it was ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL so I asked the old man behind us where St. Luke's is. It close from here! We stopped the bus and rode a taxi to St. Luke's. We went straight to emergency room with our dirty clothes and faces.  People kept staring at us because we looked like street people. They checked Caleb's vitals and put him on IV and gave him a room.

The doctor did tests including: MRI, EEG,ECG,CT SCAN and more but they couldn't find anything that would cause a seizer or the other symptoms. We waited till Caleb was well enough to be discharged and we met a friend at the hospital who's son was also admitted in the bed across from Caleb. His name is Anthony and he was a loving Christian brother who was a joy to have around. While Caleb and I were moved up stairs for more testing Dad and Anthony had a time of prayer for their sons.  The next day his son was discharged from the hospital and so as Caleb. I was greatly encouraged by the faith of this man, he believes in his heart that God will heal his son and will heal Caleb also. I was reminded again and look up with faith that God will heal my Caleb. My husband is out the hospital now and recovering well. Each day I pray that God would always remind me of who He is and how GREAT He is. Most of the time we think some things are impossible until it's done. Every time I recall all this life changing experiences and I always find myself amazed in the presence of this Great God!! I'am not the same woman now after the storm. The Lord showed me how small I am and how big of a GOD He is.
 
Thank u everyone for being a part of our journey! Thank u to my best in laws GARY and DAWN who never get tired of guiding us and supporting us in every way. We are sooo blessed to have u guys. Thank u to our grandparents there, aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, nieces and all our friends. Your prayers give us strength, courage, comfort and encouragement go keep going. Every post on posthope Is greatly appreciated cuz u let us fell that we are not alone. Blessings to all!!!