Recent challenges continue to make us stronger & better

The past two weeks have been extremely challenging for us & we continue to be strong despite the adversities & situations we are currently facing. After the huge amount we spent for the 1st birthday of our second son JIM last September 20, we are now facing other problems. We know these trials will continue to make us stronger, better & faster but we need to face it and continue to ask for God’s guidance as we conquer these situations.

Faster, Better, Stronger

1. One of our teammates (Lyn) is in the hospital for almost 2 weeks now, suffering from a weird blood-related sickness. She has night sweats and occasional fever and until now, the doctors are not able to conclude what kind of problem she is facing. Her chest and back x-ray are OK but the results of her blood tests are sporadic. The hospital bill increases every day.

2. Because another teammate (Bie) is the one who takes care of Lyn in the hospital during nighttime, she is also suffering from fatigue for 2 days now & need a full day of rest to get back to her healthy self. Hopefully, she can return to work tomorrow.

3. Our store manager (Lai) is in Iligan since last week to celebrate the Diyandi Festival. She is the main person who takes care of the walk-in clients. Aside from doing the balloon decoration packages, Lyn and Bie assist on the sales. Without her, the owner (Lis) is forced to stay in the shop allowing me (Mark) to work solo on the actual setup.

4. Together with Lai are our Mother & our second son JIM, will stay in Mindanao for 1 month. Because we miss our baby boy, we get lonely at times but we think we’re now starting to get used to it after a week.

5. Since September, we have been getting demand letters from PAG-IBIG. Because we are a DTI and BIR-registered business, we are required by law to register all our employees as “employees” and not just pay it directly to PAG-IBIG as a “voluntary member”. Last week we were able to process the papers and went to a public notary. Just yesterday, this problem was solved and we were able to acquire a clearance from this government institution.

6. Together with our staffs we pay our SSS and PhilHealth as “voluntary members” but because of the previous problem, we have decided to process our company’s Phil Health and SSS starting next week before we get a demand letter from them. As a legal business, we are doing our best to avoid any problems and comply with everything that the law requires from us.

7. Tomorrow is another challenging day for us. We need to delight the BIR with our Balloon Decorations to make sure they continue to order from us. It will be their “RDO turn-over” tomorrow morning and we will conceptualize and do a nice design tonight to make their venue more festive.

Right now, the other members of the team are doing their best to continue to provide an excellent service without letting the clients know of our status. We strive hard to give our best foot forward to all the customers we are serving. We really hope everything will be fine next week so we can avoid further stress. Just like everyone else, we do not love challenges, adversities, trials and problems but we accept them. If ever we encounter something bad, we always reflect on “Philippians 4:13” – we say, BRING IT ON!