Adoption Facts

According to DSWD, from January to November 15, 2012, a total of 457 cases of children were issued with certificate of a child legally available for adoption (CCLAA). RA 9523 requires a certification of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to declare a “child legally available for adoption” as a prerequisite for adoption proceedings. From 457 cases issued with CCLAA, 24 cases were matched to local families. Another 38 cases matched to local families whose CCLAA were issued in previous years. A total of 62 cases were matched to local families from January to November 15, 2012. But more than the facts, I guess, we can't really measure the emotional joy or anticipation that Filipino adoptive kids have in their hearts as they wait for families to open their hearts and homes to them. Sec. Dinky Soliman says, “There are so many children in orphanages and other child-caring agencies waiting to be adopted. But families hold back on adoption because of its stigma.” If you want to share love this Christmas, just call KBF at 9121160 / 9121159 and their team will be more than willing to help you through the adoption process. It is really worth every minute and peso spent for opening up our homes to adoptive children.

Photo shows DSWD Usec Parisya Taradji explaining to print and broadcast media the important message to reduce the stigma of adoption.

The story of Justin and Ashlyn

Through our own journey in this advocacy campaign, it is very inspiring to meet other adoptive families and hear their own stories. As fellow adoptive parents, I see and learn many similarities and differences in our journey. Meeting Craig and Michelle and their adoptive children, Justin and Ashlyn, is a blessing that we would like to share in this blog. The Craigs are among the many foreigners who have adopted Filipino children. They have lived in the Philippines for nearly 24 years. They first learned about KBF through Chosen Children, an orphanage for special children. They adopted their first child named Justin.

“Our first response was pure joy in our hearts when we heard that we had been matched with a child. We wanted to jump in the car and drive the 5 hours to meet our precious little one right then and there. Of course, we followed procedure but the excitement grew by the day!” says Michelle. Recently, Ashlyn, 2-year old girl joined their family. “We are always encouraging others that have a desire in their hearts to adopt to go ahead and take that first step. The first step is always the hardest, not knowing what you may be doing. Once we contacted KBF, we were encouraged as they led us through each step and informed us what would be next” adds Craig.

Ogie shares his voice to Adoption

I have never really met Ogie Alcasid before. I only see him on TV as sometimes, Cecile and I would watch "Bubble Gang" on Friday nights. Then, a few days ago, we finally met at Loud Box Recording studio, where, together with the McCann Philippines team led by my wife, Cecile and my Comm Arts thesis team led by Rachel Ching attended the recording session of the adoption song, "I Love You Anak."

“I love you anak” sung by award-winning artist Ogie Alcasid, hopes to change the mindset of many Filipinos about adoption and encourage families to open their homes to adoptive children. Ogie prides himself as being a family man. He is married to Regine Velasquez, with whom he has a son, named, Nathaniel James. Down the road, we envision Filipino musicians and talents, from various genre, whether pop, rock or jazz, to all get-together with adoptive and their kids to sing many songs about adoption! Would that collaborative work be a beautiful and meaningful experience? Together with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Inter-country Adoption Board (ICAB) and McCann Philippines, and all its partners and friends from Center for Family Ministries, Kaisahang Buhay Foundation, Dominguez Marketing Communications, Adoptive Families Foundation and others, this Advocacy Campaign on Adoption entitled, “Love Sees Beyond Differences” will go further that anyone really expects. Like what Ogie said during the media launch,"I'm glad that they've used music as a start, as a kick off for the campaign because music is very powerful. We always say that music is the language of the soul.”

Yes, this campaign has soul!

Loves Sees Beyond Differences

It all started last February when Cecile and I attended a media event as part of "Adoption Consciousness Week." This program was held at Sulo Hotel in Quezon City. Cecile and I have never really been to this hotel and we were on the road early enought to attend this media event. During the program, I sat besides Atty. Abejo of ICAB, which stands for Inter-country Adoption Board. I had mentioned that Cecile and I were communications practitioners, doing advertising and PR work. And Atty. Abejo and I came to the conclusion that we could develop an advocacy campaign on adoption. Today, that small talk is now a full blown campaign that brings together, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Inter-country Adoption Board (ICAB) and McCann Philippines.

Picture shows Cecile and Jen DeVera-Paraiso of McCann Philippines talking to Bobby Tinio of ICAB during the media launch of "Love Sees Beyond Differences. Yes, we finally launched this adoption campaign entitled, “Love Sees Beyond Differences.” This campaign seeks to let more Filipino and foreign adoptive families like the Villas, Logans and Skopakow share their stories and their adoption journey. Hopefully, this will inspire more Filipino families to open up their hearts and homes to thousands of adoptive kids waiting in various child-caring agencies and orphanages around the country, very much like Rafa and Angel who are now part of our own families and Greenhome. “We have long sought to undertake a communications campaign give a new, more relevant perspective about legal adoption. Now, the Department, together with ICAB and McCann Erickson has finally made this possible,” says DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman. "

Yes, that is award-winning songwriter and singer, Ogie Alcasid, listening to Cecile as my wife explains the role of communications in creating positive impact on everyday lives of Filipinos, specially, adoptive families!

Angel’s 2nd birthday

Our little daughter, Angel, celebrated her 2nd birthday weekend in many ways. Whatever the way, form or manner of our daughter’s birthday, what counts the most is the family being together on this weekend. We opted to spend a whole morning at Active Fun Bldg at Bonifacio Global City (BGC). Cecile has been very proud of this building as this is where the new McCann WorldGroup offices can be found and directly below their offices is a new playground, Active Fun. The moment Rafa and Angel saw the play area, they were pulling us to get inside the place. But there was a line of kids with their parents who were all eager to enter. The Toys R Us store directly besides Active Fun would provide temporary relief but still Rafa would run around the place.

We joined our kids for an hour inside the playground. Rafa and I took a few turns going down the slide, which was relatively high, but very safe. Rafa would attempt to climb up the slides. But he would slide back. Angel was too small to slide down and could only watch her brother. Initially, she was afraid of the pool of plastic balls but after a few minutes, she would swim through through thousands of plastic balls. Dad got drowned here too. Often, we can’t imagine where Rafa and Angel would get all their energy and stamina. Where? But I guess, they, too, want to spend as much time with their parents as we would like to spend as much time with our kids. And on Angel’s 2nd birthday, time was the best gift we could give our daughter! Happy birthday Angel. We love you!

Pictorial at Kraft Philippines

I know that back in the late 80s, Kraft was one of the clients of Cecile when my wife used to work at J Walter Thompson. I remember, during those days, I would call, 574681 and Zeny Toledo would answer. Zeny was Cecile’s secretary back in JWT. She is still with JWT and my wife is now with MWG. But this blog isn’t about advertising agencies but about the pictorial of our kids, Rafa and Angel, for a feature article at “Working Mom” Magazine for their June 2012 “Father’s Day” issue. Yes, father are being featured next month in a mom-centric magazine. And today is the day we openly declare to media that Rafa and Angel are our loving adoptive children! Am earlier pictorial was scheduled at the grounds of Mirriam College, but agency work tied me down. Yup, sorry, this isn’t about agency work. It’s about a pictorial on the week of Angel’s 2nd birthday.

Lola Meya joined us for this pictorial, together with Yaya Salome. Like my kids, it was my first time inside the Kraft Philippines compound. And my mom had some good memories of Kraft too, back when she was working for the Manila Chapter of the Phil. National Red Cross. But really, it was time spent with our kids that made this day another milestone on this birthday month of Angel. I really wasn’t prepared for this pictorial, even, my experience. Luckily, I brought an extra white colored shirt. Cecile prepared two sets of clothes for our kids. Unfortunately, work tied down Cecile at MWG. Chester, the photographer, was good with our kids. Using the leaves that Rafa would play with as a toy to get the kids to smile! Good tactic! Thanks Chester! I only wish that my wife, Cecile and mom could have been part of the pictorial. She would say, “Matagal pa ang paghintay natin kaysa sa actual na pictorial.” She was right. We arrived on time, around 4:00pm and got the lights and camera running around 5:00pm. But I was used to these delays. Nothing new for me. And the kids were having fun too!

Our playpen

We have a little playpen in our Greenhome in Legaspi Village and for the past few months. This playpen has become their little kingdom and it is from here, where they would watch "Toy Story."

According to Wikipedia, the earliest use of the word "playpen" was from the Oxford English Dictionary back in 1902.

Our playpen is square-shaped and has vertical bars, which so far has withstood the pressure of our kids. Often, Rafa would be climbing in and out of this playpen. Soon, Angel would have her way in and out too of this playpen. We have not attached anything that moves or lights on this playpen! It has no side pockets.

It should have less obstacles as possible. And best not to have too much pillows or kumot inside the playpen. Chief's keeps this stuff to a minimum as our kids could get entangled with the kumot or sleep with the pillows over their own faces.


Once, I slowly got into this playpen as Angel was watching tv. But I remained at the center. Chief was a little worried that it couldn't support my weight. And once Rafa saw me inside the playpen, he quickly jumped over and joined Angel and me.

Now, I had to get out. Sometimes, I wish, I could with our kids inside this playpen.

Extremely Close, Incredibly Loud

Last Friday, Chief and I caught the movie, “Extremely Close, Incredibly Loud” at Greenbelt Cinema. Yes, it was Chief’s birthday and we both blocked off work schedules to spend the day together.

It started with our gift for Chief. A Nestle Dolce Gusto Coffee-maker that Chief had always wanted. I got that gift from SM Makati. Just buying that gift can be a whole blog as the promo merchandiser from SM Supermarket and SM Appliance Center had different “pitches” for the same product.

Then, we had lunch at Italiannis Greenbelt. We have been here a few times and I have always enjoyed the unlimited bread, which often gets me “full” even before getting the main course.

Chief wanted to watch “The Vow” but Tom Hanks pulled us to watch “Extremely Close, Incredibly Loud.” The first scenes alone gave us some jitters. Thomas Schell, played by Tom Hanks was being buried. He died during the attacks at 9/11.

A series of flashbacks establish a scavenger hunt between father and son (played by Thomas Horn), who should have been nominated for a Best Actor Award in the recent Academy Awards. Thomas says, "if things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding." Oskar explores his father's closet, breaks a vase and finds a key in an envelope that is labeled with the word "Black". The scavenger hunt for “Black” will take him three years, but I wouldn’t reveal how the hunt ended in this blog.


It released a few tears for Chief and I after the movie, which we will probably watch when Rafael is old enough to understand the words "if things were easy to find, they wouldn't be worth finding."

Learning from The Descendants

Last Saturday afternoon, Chief and I, together with my mom watched “The Descendants.” And we all liked the movie. Nothing fantastic in terms of cinematography, but the storyline would touch anyone’s heart. And the Hawiian music which featured artists like Gabby Pahinui, Ray Kane and Keola Beamer playing slack key guitar. Wikipedia defines slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. The style originated from the Mexican cowboys.

George Clooney has clearly transcended himself from being the young doctor in ER and even once, putting on the cape as Batman.

Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, the story revolves around the challenges of Matt King, played by George Clooney. He has to take care of his two daughters, Scottie and Alex and the family estate which has been passed on to him by his descendants. His wife, Elizabeth, suffers an accident and won’t recover from a coma. Matt is sole trustee of the estate includes 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of Kaua'i. Reminds me of our own property in Catandunganon, Camarines Norte.

The story gets complicated as one of the buyers is connected to Brian Speer (played by Matthew Lillard). Matt learns from Alex that his wife and Brian had a relationship.

Won’t reveal the ending as Matt and his daughters tracked down Speer through island of Kaua'i.

The movie serves to remind us on the challenges of parenthood. How we should balance work and parenting responsibilities. How we should spend more time playing and talking to our kids who are growing up fast and right before our eyes. Matt called himself as a “back-up parent” which we hope we won’t call ourselves in the future.