Well, now that my daughter is home from her US trip, (May 17-June 10) things are now back to normal.

I am not used to being away from my daughter. True, she sometimes joins her classmates at sleep overs and has gone for a week sojourn in Cebu and Bohol the other summer for a national convention of the Filipino Chinese Catholic Youth, but hey, three weeks is three weeks! And to think she was thousands of miles away from us here!

Everyday during her US stay, my mind would wander off - what could she be eating? Could she do her own laundry? Won’t she get lost, separated from her group? And when she called up and her voice sounded sick with bad cold, my heart jumped, my mind raced - oh my poor baby! Please Lord, heal her!

Those were the longest three weeks of my life. I am happy for my daughter - for being able to take part in the Milpitas, CA-Dagupan Sister Cities Student Exchange Program. In my heart though, the days of waiting for her return dragged on. At the airport when we met her last June 11, it was a happy reunion - and I knew, my daughter was more than happy to be home!