The Sweetest Gift I Ever Had, It came from God, I call him Gab

Gabriel is the youngest of my three sons, he will always be my baby even at 18 or 80 years old.

Gabriel is caring and thoughtful.

Every morning before he goes to school, he will come to our bedroom to wake me up and his dad to kiss us goodbye. Boy & I and I will get up to pray over him before he leaves our home.

After sending him to the door. We will go back to our bedroom to look out the window and watch him. He will always look up to wave at us. While holding out one hand to bless him and everyone walking around our whole neighbourhood and one hand holding a crucifix on my chest, I will say my prayers until he reaches the train station which in my estimate takes about 12 to 15 minutes.

He always sends me a text message whenever he’s leaving from school to go home.

This is what my phone looks like, day in and day out

He makes a card for every birthday of each of us in the family for everyone to write our greetings and wishes, for mother’s day and for father’s day.

Here’s what he made for me on Mothers' Day!

He also writes love letters to me and his dad every now and then.

I was touched by this letter when he graduated from Secondary school “Thank you for loving me and for working hard since before I was born to give our family a better life”.

My heart melted away when I read this after he attended a church retreat... “There isn’t really much that both of you do that actually hurts me, but if there is something you would ever want to apologize for, my answer would probably be along the lines of “I forgive you” or “It’s okay”.

Gabriel is responsible and is careful not to disappoint us.

He is diligent in his studies and his teachers always praise him for always doing his works well, paying attention to details . Since primary school, I remember his teachers describing him as quiet and unassuming. But when he speaks everyone stops to listen to what he’s going to say.

At Secondary School, he made us proud when he became the Section Leader of the Military Band. At the school concert, He didn’t tell us that he had a solo part and we were in awe to see and hear him play his clarinet with poise. Until this day, The music that he played still resonates in my ears. My heart leaps for joy each time I watch this video.

Recently at a parent-teachers meeting at Singapore Polytechnic where he is a Freshman in Architecture, we were the last to be called. His teacher remarked, “Save the best for last”. I thought it was just a consolation for making us wait for long hours to take our turn to meet with him, but Boy and I were surprised when the teacher told us that Gabriel is number 1 in the whole college of Architecture for that school term!

Gabriel is helpful and dependable.

He is our IT guy, our Tech Support. Whenever I have a new device, he will do the settings and transfer all my applications and contacts from the old one. Each time my desktop computer fails to start, he will readily perform the troubleshooting. When I spilt water on my MacBook, the Apple Service Center advised me to get a new one because it will cost more to change the motherboard, but my private Tech Support fixed it at no cost! Mr Fix-It as we call him, is also our handyman, our tool guy! He can change the broken bathroom shower and spray, and even the busted light bulbs. He repairs my favourite pair of shoes. And he glues the hairline crack in my exquisite teapot. He also fixes the leg of my wobbly bread mixer, and so much more!

Having a flair for writing, he is my blog and speech editor. Except for this one, he doesn’t know that I am talking about him here! (so pardon the grammatical errors!)

A true gentleman after his dad and two older brothers, he carefully picked each of their good traits and packaged himself as a masterpiece! This grown young man carries everything for me when we go shopping, but I will forever carry him here, in my heart!

I thank God everyday for the great goodness of this sublime gift that He planted in my womb 18 years ago!