Hey Moms! Keiki here! I am a mother of two living in the Summer Capital of the Philippines. I have two beautiful kids, Kian and Kali. My husband and I have been together since 2009.
My family’s house here in the Philippines is in La Union, but I lived in a convent in Vigan City, Ilocos Sur for four years to attend high school. I attended a catholic school in Vigan City, and it was there that I met Ivan.
He was two years older than me – I was a freshman and he was a junior. It was your typical high school crush – the lovestruck girl playing “FLAMES” to see if the guy she liked “matched” with her. Well, that was me.
I was very shy when it came to courtship. Our first date was at a fast-food restaurant where we didn’t even talk to each other or make eye contact, then a visit to our church to offer up some prayers. We did not say more than 10 words to each other for the whole date, but I was so kilig nevertheless.
Every day since our courtship started, Ivan would pick me up from the convent and we would ride the same tricycle together going to school and after school.
Even though we spent time together, we wouldn’t talk to each other or even say hi when passing by in school, but whenever we texted each other, everything just felt right.
Start of the long-distance relationship
It wasn’t until summer vacation that we became more comfortable around each other. As Ivan was two years older than me, he started college before me.
When I started college in 2011, I decided to move to Quezon City, while Ivan studied in Baguio. We were in a long-distance relationship for 4 years.
It was challenging, to say the least. Our schedules weren’t the same, so we didn’t have much time during the day to talk to each other. But even though that was the case, we always made it a point to video (or voice) call every night as much as possible.
We would also take turns visiting each other – Ivan would come down to Quezon City for a week in between his semesters (he went to a school that was tri-semester) and I would visit him in Baguio in between my semesters. Ivan would also go the extra mile of making surprise visits during long weekends just for some extra time together.
Being in a long-distance relationship was hard, but we were able to make it work with all the video calls and visits. Although to be honest, long-distance communication was quite costly.
We then decided to “move in” together in Quezon City. This wasn’t the legit move in though. This was more of a supervised live-in together situation.
We lived with my younger brother in a house that my parents rented for us since my brother and I were still studying at this time. I spent more years in college since I shifted courses, so I was still under my parents’ wings.
Fortunately, they agreed to let Ivan live with us since Ivan was already working and he would be paying our utility bills while his rent was free.
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LDR no more
Once I graduated college, I decided to take up my master’s in Public Health in Baguio since this was the closest prestigious school near my parents. Since Ivan’s family had an apartment for rent, my brother and I rented it out with Ivan.
We had the same living situation as we did in Manila. Ivan and I (now that I was working, too) paid for bills and food while my parents paid for our rent since we were also taking care of my younger brother.
During my first semester into graduate school, Ivan and I started trying to make a baby (with our parent’s knowledge) but it wasn’t until my second semester in February that we got pregnant. Once we confirmed my pregnancy, we all decided that it was finally time for us to get married.
We got married in June 2018 in Vigan City, where it all started. Fast forward to 2021, we now have two kids and are still in love with each other.
Being in a long-distance relationship isn’t easy. But when you want something to work, you find ways to make it work. As they say, “You like because, and you love despite.”