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WAITING AND WAITING |
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Since I first met Mavel, I have spent about a total of 6 months in the Philippines, all with her 24 and 7. Actually, I've spent more time with her than I did with my ex-wife before we got married. And things just keep getting better. For over 2 years now we have been waiting for her annulment to be finalized. Normally it takes less than a year, but I got Mavel pregnant in July of 2000. The Philippine Family Law will not grant annulments for pregnant women because of the question of paternity, so we had to postpone the annulment for almost a year. The bad news is that our child, Joshua, only lived for 2 days. He died of heart-lung complications. But even through times of great sorrow, our relationship has remained strong. The good news is that the final hearing was held in March, 2002. Now we're just waiting for the judge to issue the final decree. Knowing the Philippine judicial system, I expect this will take a few more months. But it has gotten to the point where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The following picture are Mavel's nieces, Wilma and Betty. You can see that beauty runs in her family.
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Mavel has a 16 year old daughter
(would you believe, Mavelita) whom has accompanied us on many of our
trips. She will too will be coming to America once the visa is
finalized. Mavelita even has her own website. We spent
Christmas of 2000 in Butuan, Mindinao where I met the rest of Mavel's
brothers and sisters, and all (almost) were very friendly and accommodating.
Even my 72 year old mother flew to the Philippines in June, 2001 and we all
spent a week in Borocay together. In December of 2001, Mavel's sister married her long time boyfriend. I was very flattered when they asked me to be "ninong" (sponsor, godfather, something like that) at their wedding. That was the first time I ever wore the Filipino traditional formal wear called a "barong".
Update: Mavel and Mavelita arrived in USA in 2003. Mavel has settled in quite well and has lots of friends here. And Mavelita is now finishing high school. Anyway, thanks for visiting the Chicken Lodge, Cletus & Mavel |
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