Since my friend can only accommodate me for a limited duration, I started to look for a place to move in. I have fallen in love with the suburb where she lives that I decided to hunt for a room within the area. Within a week’s time, I was able to find a big enough room for myself in a 4-bedroom house being leased out by this amazing couple who became my landlords. I was so lucky to find landlords like them. They were like parents to us. My landlord Erik would go every week to clean the house, get our mail and tend the mini-garden patch at the back of the house. I was shocked by the idea that there’s still a landlord that does that for his tenants.

During those times, I was able to concentrate more in planning for our wedding.

The day after I flew back to the Philippines for our wedding, which was around the last week of April, I received an eviction email from my landlady. She and Erik decided to rent out the whole house to two of my housemates, who are both Italians and are cousins, along with some of their friends.

Aaron and I had already planned that he will come to Melbourne with me and stay there for about a month after our wedding for our honeymoon. And though my landlords were adamant at first that Aaron could not stay there because he has to share the bathroom with the other female tenants, they eventually gave in to my request.

I was able to breathe better when her email specified that Aaron could still stay within the duration of his visit and she’ll give me until the end of June to find a place to move in. At least I still had an ample time to look for another place.

When Aaron and I flew to Melbourne, our supposed honeymoon turned into a rental-hunting spree. We still wanted to stay in the same suburb and so did our arduous search for an apartment within the vicinity began. During weeknights, we flicked through rental websites and during weekends, we would go to inspections of those apartments that got our liking. We searched for hours and we found two that we loved within a week.

We visited both of the rentals but ending up loving this particular two-bedroom apartment that had a nice balcony, a great view of the park and is close to the stores and public transport. We knew that it would be far-fetched since we were into a lot of competition. There were around 20 people who had inspected the property with us that fateful day. Nonetheless, we still tried our luck and passed all the requirements after two days.

The next day, I got an email from the agent thanking me for submitting. She told me that they were already assessing an application of a guy who submitted prior us and they only do assessments one at a time. “If the guy won’t be approved,” she said, “then we’ll assess your application next”. In short, his application should be rejected before they’ll even consider us. I told you it is far-fetched, but we still hoped.

The next day, we got a call from the agent that the guy’s application was rejected and they were then moving on to our application. That was fast. My prayers last night were granted the next day. We communicated back and forth and clarified things that needed clarification. Two days after, she called up again telling me that our application was accepted. Moreover, that night, Aaron and I found out too that I am pregnant.

A week after, we moved in to the new house. Two days later, we were able to transform the little apartment to a lovely and comfortable abode that we could call our own. Aaron assembled our furniture day in and day out. Since I was not allowed to do much heavy lifting because I am pregnant, I assigned myself to do the small tasks of washing the plates, utensils and pots that we just bought, organizing all our stuffs and finding homes for them in our new home. The timing was just right as Aaron was then flying back to the Philippines a week after.

Going back to work after my mini-vacation in the Philippines, I was also given a customer service job which only requires me to be in front of the computer all day. It is a lot easier and less physical compared to what I was doing before I left for the Philippines. I did not know yet that I was pregnant then but God had already provided for me in advance. This is another instance of His goodness. I just thought that time it was some kind of promotion in terms of duties and responsibilities but I did not know yet how that small change would affect me greatly as a soon-to-be mom and how that transition would fit into the bigger picture.

More than this, I had a new coworker who offered to pick me up and drop me off from and to our new home since he’s just living 5 minutes away from me. Because of this, I did not have to commute everyday anymore which is such a real blessing for me who will soon be having a hard time commuting due to my growing baby and belly.

Whenever I am in a stressful or unfavorable situation, I usually find myself caught up in between the worries and doubts and the unfairness of life. Most of the time, this will leave me feeling sad, down and frustrated. I think these are normal reactions. This is human nature. What is not normal is letting those feelings eat me up until I could no longer move. Sooner or later, I have to dry up the tears, sigh everything out, pick myself up and move. However, there are also times when the blessings just pour in even though I do not deserve them.

Looking back, I was able to see a pattern of His goodness in my life. We may not see the reasons behind our heartaches and failures at first. We may feel we owe our successes only to ourselves and no other. One thing is for certain though. During ups or downs, we can always be assured that He will provide.