by Elpidio Estioko
Yes, Christmas is the year-ender month for bonding and fun!
It can mean different things to you and me. Of course, it means a religious celebration of the birth of Jesus, but mostly it is a time for family and friends. A season of gratitude, hope, bonding, and generosity.
For some, it’s about traditions and it can also be a time of reflection on the past year. Ultimately, what Christmas means to you depends on your personal beliefs, experiences, preferences, and cultural background.
While Christmas gives us many things to enjoy like parties, carols, and decorations… for my wife Delia and I, the true and lasting joy of the season comes from the hope of Jesus for a lasting family together… as one!
Our family comes first. Family above all things!
In the past, every year on Christmas day, we spent our holidays with my children coming to our ancestral home in Milpitas, a modest house we purchased where we lived and enjoyed together.
My wife Delia and I brought with us five of our six children here in the U.S. when we immigrated in 1997 wanting to seek the American dream.
It was a challenge for us to start the family, a family of seven (5 of my 6 children, my wife and myself) in a country which is strange to us.
While I have four of my siblings in the Bay Area who may be able to support us in our initial years, this didn’t happen because we have to start on our own… unfortunately.
Through hard work and perseverance, we survived our difficult years until we were able to stand on our own and in our fourth year, we were able to buy a house which became our ancestral home.
It was hard but we were able to weather the storm through thick and thin, just like any of the ordinary immigrants seeking the American Dream.
So, we thrived and survived the acid test to become US citizens and lived a comfortable way of life. Our journey to citizenship was captured in my memoir which I wrote entitled “Unlocking the Chain of Poverty: In Pursuit of the American Dream” available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
It was hard, difficult and very challenging, but we made it! We made it through a lot of Christmases and New Years in our journey to being naturalized citizens.
While Christmas gives us many things to enjoy, it’s important to remember and reflect that the true and lasting joy of the Christmas season comes from the hope of Jesus, our Salvation.
Our treasured Christmas traditions, such as exchanging presents and sharing a meal with loved ones, all beautifully remind us of the gift of Jesus Christ, our savior.
After waiting for almost 20 years for our visa to be approved, we finally got them but unfortunately, our eldest, Ma. Edelgrace, who was the only child when we were petitioned by my brother under the 5th preference, is no longer qualified because she turned 21 years old. So, we brought in five of our six children to the US without her.
While our children are dispersed in various parts of the country, Edelgrace “Gigi”, our eldest, is in Sydney, Australia with her husband Eric; John Edward is in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife Alvi and their two children, Kayla and Bibay, both in college; May is with her fiancée Steve Law in Manteca, California; and my youngest Paul is in Kapolei, Hawaii and so with Tweety with his husband Sergeant First Class Jonathan Rasay with their 5-year-old daughter Ellie, also in Mililani, Oahu, Hawaii. Well, Charles Jayson is with us in Milpitas.
Every year, they come visit us in our ancestral home in Milpitas and spend Christmas with us.
This year, however, we will be spending the holidays separately in their respective homes with us travelling to Sydney and spending our Christmas with our eldest child Gigi and her husband Eric.
This is our second time to be in Sydney. The first time was in July, 11 years ago, during the winter season. This time, we will be spending summer in Australia.
Sydney is home for a lot of Filipino nurses and the rest of the medical profession.
In fact, my daughter’s husband Eric was a recipient of the nursing program of the government so many years back during the infancy of the program. His sister took advantage of the program ahead of him, so upon the prodding of his sister, he likewise took advantage of the program.
He applied and went to Sydney and completed the three-month training and at the end of the training took the government test and passed. That’s it!
He immigrated to Sydney as a Registered Nurse, now duly accredited by the city government of Sydney, and only after six months, he was able to petition his wife, my daughter. In just a few more years, they became Australian citizens.
Many of his friends also followed suit, enjoying the same program, but now, they are stricter and instead of the three-month program, applicants now need to take the four-year course before they become eligible in taking the state test, and if they pass, they will be accepted as immigrants under the medical/nursing program.
When we were there 11 years ago, those recipients of the program were already gainfully employed and enjoying the richness of life having steady and comfortable income, luxurious cars, and plush homes.
This must be the equivalent of the “American Dream’ in the US, the Australian way!
I was told that the program is still on but it’s already very stiff and now very competitive and even more expensive for those coming in, unlike before about 15 to 20 years ago.
My son- in-law was very fortunate he was able to join the program at the time that it was still at its near-mid-stage.
This December, we will be enjoying summer in Sydney, the city of kangaroos and koalas dubbed as the city “Down Under”!
ELPIDIO R. ESTIOKO was a veteran journalist in the Philippines and an award-winning journalist here in the US. He just published his book Unlocking the Chain of Poverty: In Pursuit of the American Dream which is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Xlibris Publishing. For feedbacks, comments… please email author at estiokoelpidio@gmail.com.
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