The day after Frenchesca Love was born, the pediatrician of the hospital where I gave birth to her told me that I cannot bring Love home because she was so weak, wouldn't feed on my breastmilk nor any bottled milk, and was always vomiting. The pediatrician added that Love has to stay in the hospital so that her condition can be observed.

The night before we were going out of the hospital, I and my husband prayed humbly that the Lord Jesus may touch his frail body and healed her of whatever sickness she had at the time. On the morning after, the nurse told us that the pediatrician has agreed to let us bring Love home on the condition that if there's any unnatural thing that we'll see from the baby, we should immediately bring her back to the hospital.

We brought Love home that afternoon, and whatever the problem was with her body, it was healed by the Lord as everything in her was just fine and normal for the succeeding days that followed.

Here are some pictures of Love when she was a baby...

My husband is one of a kind and for that I love him more.

He's a computer lover ever since he bought his first Desktop PC on year 2000. I remember he would stay awake during those long nights when he was still trying to figure out how the thing works. I remember him looking at me with smiles and shining eyes whenever he discovered something new about his PC. He learned to make documents, do graphics, edit videos, use church software and Bible software, surf the Internet, and even studied programming languages. He also learned about games like Red Alert 2 of which we had late night fights. (I'm laughing out loud right now for confessing this...)

As time progresses, he began to mature with his computer habits. He also look at it as an added way of making money and extending his ministry as a pastor. Today, his the most often sought "computer man" in our district and has helped a lot of pastors and brethren when it comes to their computer problems. He has also started a faith, technology, and news blog called Pinoy Apostolic.

Our house is filled with his computer gadgets. From old ones to new ones, and from small ones to big ones. His fully dependent on his laptop for Bible study and even uses it while his preaching and teaching at our church. His cellular phone of choice should always have 3G or HSDPA (what is that?) for Internet connectivity. He says he always should have the capability to be online even when his not in our house to keep his blogging updated.

Whenever we go at malls, his first destination would be computer and gadget stores. And even though he has a laptop, a Pocket PC, and a Nokia N Series Phone, he's always saying that he has to get 1 of those UMPCs (again, what is that?) as it is more suitable for his computing usage than his laptop. Well, he can have it for all he wants if he can afford it, but he should just make sure that I'll get his laptop when that time comes! That is if he wants to avoid World War III!

Here's a picture of my husband at home and some of his toys.





So, would you call my husband a geek?

My eldest daughter Micah is a sweet thing to behold especially when she was in Kinder. The girl shows so much emotion on a lot of things that she's focusing her attention into. She cries when her baby sister cries and she cries more when I am crying. She has the loudest laugh whenever her father throws out some jokes to us.

She loves her Grandma so much and she told me that she could almost feel the hurt that Grandma's taking when my mother had a cataract operation. At 1 year old and a half, she was beside her grandfather when he died of stroke. She was joining us in trying to wake him up and was crying all the time as if she already understood what was happening.

Even at school, she easily pities a classmate who's in trouble or is crying. Sometimes it makes me think on how easily her emotions can be affected by anything around her. I just pray that she would grow up emotionally strong and not be a slave to her emotions. I'm asking God to make her strong in all things and that this trait of her would turn out to be a positive thing rather than a negative one.

These are some of her pictures when she was 5 years young...

Here's a picture of me with 4 other Pastor's wives from Bataan singing at last Sunday's Bataan Holy Ghost Explo 2008. Standing at far left with her blue toned uniform is Sis. Loida Lachica, wife of Pastor Robert (Benson) Lachica from Dinalupihan, Bataan. Next to her with a pink toned uniform is Sis. Lot Famuleras, wife of Ptr. Edward Famuleras from Balanga, Bataan. Following with a yellow toned uniform is Sis. Rona Bruno, wife of Pastor Rodney Bruno from Abucay, Bataan. Next is me, the one with the red toned uniform. Have I mentioned from my previous posts that my husband's name is Pastor Felix Ortinez and that we're ministering at the town of Limay, Bataan? Lastly is Sis. Ella Yukong with the green toned uniform, wife of Pastor Jerry Yukong from Orion, Bataan.



Although we respectfully know that each one of us is quite different from one another, we also know that we pastor's wives have many things in common. We know that we have the same hopes, the same dreams, the same prayer requests, the same day to day challenges, and most of all, the same desire that we may be able to fulfill our roles as "help meet" to God's chosen men without loosing our own God given vision of what we can be in God's Kingdom and in the Apostolic Movement.

We're home and we've just arrived from attending the Bataan Holy Ghost Explo for August 2008, a quarterly activity of the United Pentecostal Churches in Bataan. I have always loved attending this activity since the day my husband became a UPC pastor in the province of Bataan. All the churches in our province are always present and revival time during these Holy Ghost Explos is one of the best I have ever experienced.

Today's attendance is around 230. The venue was not enough to accommodate all the attendees from the 8 churches in Bataan. 14 souls were newly baptized in the Holy Ghost and everybody has a great time with the presence of the Lord. God has never failed this activity because every time we met, there's always someone who's receiving the Holy Ghost for the first time.

My husband leading the worship service

A part of the congregation just before revival time

These two photos show how long are my daughters' hair. While most women today do not place great value on having long hair, I am one of those who still places great value on women that do have long hair.

There are two reasons why I let my daughters grow their hair long. First is for aesthetic reason. No offense to women with short hair, but I do find long hair more attractive for women. I firmly believe that having long hair is very womanly and is something that can greatly enhance a lady's personality. Long hair, with proper care and accessories, is really a beautiful thing to behold.

Second, and more importantly, is for spiritual reason. I and my family are Apostolic Christians. It is a part of our faith system that women should have long hair. It is Biblical as it is written in 1 Corinthians 11. While I do avoid debates as to this matter, I am pretty sure that the Bible, which my family believes to be God's Word, do solemnly declare that women ought to have long hair. Some would think this to be an old culture that is not applicable in our times, but I believe that all truths in the Bible are applicable to any point in time.



My elder daughter Micah who is now 8 years old, has recently won the Longest Hair Contest on our United Pentecostal Church Philippines, Central Luzon District, Kiddie Camp. Her hair has never been cut since the day of her birth.




Frenchesca Love, my younger daughter who's 4 years old, also has hair that has never been cut since she was born.

Here is my younger daughter doing her school homework. She was unaware that I was taking some pictures of her while she is busy studying.




Having two daughters that really love school brings me a feeling of relief. I am really thankful and overjoyed whenever I see my two daughters this way because I know that fewer and fewer Filipino children are enjoying school these days. Watching them sacrificing some Primetime T.V. shows just to finish their assignments brings joy to me as their mom. Add to that the fact that nobody forces them to do what they are doing everyday. It's a voluntary thing for them when it comes to school tasks.

The Philippines has a very high literacy rate but also has a high unemployment rate. The competition to get a decent job is really high and there's virtually no opportunities in our country for someone who hasn't got a college degree. I know that the best tool in life that my daughters will have is applied education. It always brings pain in my heart to see street children in our city out of school and begging for pennies. I couldn't imagine my children doing the very same thing.

Here's two more pictures of me and my younger daughter. These are taken when we attended a wedding in Angeles City, Pampanga. I was one of the "ninangs", a Filipino word that means a female primary sponsor in a wedding or child christening. Filipino weddings often begin late than the announced time of start and ceremonies often consume a lot of time because of speeches, songs, and presentations among other things. But the atmosphere is one of joy and pleasure as Filipinos love doing weddings this way.



A typical Filipino wedding would have 20 to 30 primary sponsors, 16 - 20 secondary sponsors, and a whole army of relatives are often present on both the bride and the bridegroom's side. The processional march alone takes time and the programs after the ceremony are always too numerous that guests often leave the occasion without finishing it.

This particular wedding we went to was supposed to begin at 2PM but started at 4PM. We left the place at 8PM while the program is not yet finish.

Here are pictures of my two daughters. The elder is named Micah Faith while the younger is Ma. Frenchesca Love. Micah is 8 years old and Love is 4. They are both in-love with sweets and wishes that every Saturday is a trip to the shopping malls.

Micah is in grade 3 and is yearly among the honor students of her class and grade level while Love has yet to prove herself as this is her first year in school as a Kinder student.

Micah Faith

Ma. Frenchesca Love

Hi reader...

My name is Maritess Ortinez and I am a Filipina. I've created this blog as a medium of showcasing my family online. I'll be posting photos, videos, and other things as well so that friends and relatives online can be updated as to how my family's doing...

To start off, here are some photos of us during the last All Saints Day 2007...





On the first picture, the woman in the pink and white striped t-shirt is me with two of my cousins standing next to me. The woman sitting below me is my mother. This place is my father's grave. Filipinos are somewhat fanatical when it comes to remembering their dead loved ones. We usually spend All Saints Day at the cemetery from 2:00 in the afternoon till 2:00 in the morning. We also usually bring foods and do have some kind of feast in the cemetery. The general atmosphere is somewhat more of a joyful celebration rather than a solemn one.

The next picture is me with my youngest daughter. She's trying to wear some kind of a Halloween mask and was trying to scare her smaller cousins. She end up getting scared herself when an unknown guy who was wearing another mask walked past by us.

I'll be posting more as soon as I can...