FDIP Toastmaster Club -- Member's Corner -- Featured Speech of the Week

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Featured Speech of the Week
This site area is created to give special publicity to our member who was voted as the Speaker of the Day. It is published here to highlight the key strong points of the speech in which the speaker was able to meet speech's objectives.

First-Time Father
Rico Abibas
Date presented: September 13, 2002

“This is a very important part of my life. I can’t wait to hold my baby. I was only 17 when I first became a father. Now I’m sure it will be thrilling to experience fatherhood all over again.”
- This was a comment by Actor Cesar Montano when he wheeled into the labor room his wife actress Sunshine Cruz last year at St. Luke’s hospital.

First-time experiences were the most memorable part in our historical life. We started from nothing and ended-up as first-timer. I have had wonderful, weird, worst, sometimes-wild first-timer experiences and one of the most unforgettable to me, was when I became a first-time father.

Most of you here are certified parents. That’s why being a first mom or first dad fulfilled God’s true purpose of marriage that is, of building a happy family. For those planning to get married soon, you find it more meaningful to hear stories from experienced parents the joy of becoming the first-time mother and father. Like Cesar Montano who was very excited to experience fatherhood again, my second baby, my junior who turned one year-old last July added the vivid account of my being first-time father to his Kuya Kevin.

When was the first time I felt I was a real father? My wife was four-month old pregnant then, we have our common monthly pre-natal check-up with our obgyne. With an amplified stethoscope connected to a small speaker, the lady doctor tried to locate the heartbeat of my baby. At first, I heard some hissing sound, then afterward a bubbly water sounds that seem like coming out from swimmer’s fart. Then finally, after so much trial and error methods, my baby grabbed the microphone and started pounding his heart. Rapid heartbeats sound filled in to the air, conquering the room’s atmosphere. I jumped for joy when first heard my baby’s heartbeat. Every visit then the heartbeat became music to our ears, even playing our theme song.

{singing One Friend song}
“...if i have only one friend left, i wanted it to be you..."

The great day arrived on January 13, 1994, Friday the thirteen. I saw my wife lying on the stretcher. She was more relaxed than her mother who keeps on kissing her face until I wheeled my wife to the delivery room. I stationed myself to the waiting room. After awhile, the doctor came out. “How’s my wife? How’s my child? How’s everything?” I worriedly asked these questions then he smiled back at me, “You’re wife is in good shape!” “Then how’s my baby?” I cut him off. The doctor put his left hand over my right shoulder, “Mr. Abibas. Don't get shocked. You're baby has no arms and legs." I just couldn’t believe what I heard. I don't know what was going on. Then I composed myself and said to him with a soft voice, “Ok, I’ll accept it though he is like that, I'll still love him because he is my son." "What's really the looks of my son?” I asked him again. The doctor again put a little pressure on my shoulder and said, "Your baby is nothing but a big ear.” “What?” I shouted back. “Yes! A very big ear!” the doctor repeated. I shook my head in disbelief, I really don't know what was going then I composed my myself again and said to the doctor with a crying voice, “OK, I’ll accept it though he is a big ear, I will still love him because he is my son”. Then the doctor smiled back at me and said, “Kahit na siya'y bingi? (Even though he's deaf?)”

Somebody tapped my shoulders, which awaken me. “Mr. Abibas, Dr. Gotauco wants to talk with on the phone in the nurse station.” My lady doctor announced excitedly over the phone, “Mr. Abibas congratulations! Your baby is a boy! We have to do a caesarian operation because your baby is almost 9 pounds!” “Can I see my baby? I just want to make sure that my son is not a big ear.” I asked her. “What do you mean, a big ear?”, the doctor's voice puzzled. To which I answered, “Ah, forget about it Doc!”

I tapped the nursery room glass and showed this little paper “baby boy abibas” to the attending nurse. She immediately looked for him, held him out from his crib went over and showed my baby to me. Finally, the fresh of my fresh, the blood of my blood, he was so cute and handsome! I just couldn’t contained my emotions, they says it was a “bugso ng damdamin”. I asked the nurse to get out from the cubicle and went to the window so I can see him more. I touched his flawless skin. I could smell his freshness. He had these little pinkest marks around his nose. He was so pure and simple. He had a very long hair that you could mistake him as a girl. He was balbon too like his mother. I whispered to his soft small ears “Anak”. He responded and struggled to open as if he was doing beautiful eyes, maybe because he wanted to know for sure what his father looked like.

I will never forget the first time that I picked him up for my first night feed but still I was anxious about picking up this tiny, fragile, and little human. I held him at arm's length away from me as if he was a priceless crystal vase that might break at any moment. A warm sleepy voice came from the depths of my soul: "Not like that, hold him close, take him in your arms, look into his eyes." So I did, and from that moment on I have always held him close, even though he is 8 years old now and he was nearly as tall as his mother.

Though there is a seven years gap between the two, I saw how happy my first son Keivin is, for being the first-Kuya, especially when they played together. Being a first-time or even second-time father has a lot of adjustments to make… changes that seem endless and later you find out that the process was just looping around to the beginning. I know that I have more first-time experiences waiting in the future. I am ready to face these challenges again even though it hurts to be of old age.

"Good Morning, Lolo Rico"

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