Philippines

Our Starter Home

By Nina Joan Aquino

Many people would love to buy a home but worry about having money for the down payment. Fortunately, there are programs that can help people with their down payment if they qualify. My husband and I were not sure if we would qualify for a program because we only have Green Cards, but it turned out that we could. Because of this program, we were able to buy our starter home last year, and the process was not that hard.

When we started looking for a house to buy, we found out that there is a required down payment. We told our agent that we didn’t have a large budget and couldn’t afford a down payment. Our agent informed us that there were financial assistance programs and loans that we could apply for. We looked at some programs and discovered that the USDA Home Loan had a program that fit our situation. Immediately, we applied for their zero down payment loan program and enrolled in their required seminar.

Next, we attended the seminars that the USDA required all loan applicants to attend. We were surprised by the number of couples that attended the seminars to find out about the program. The seminar was done by a professional educator. They explained to us the whole aspect of the home buying process including setting your budget, working with your lender, and when to start house hunting with your agent at your side. The seminar took five hours, and it was really an informative experience.

The next day, my husband and I started looking for houses with our agent. 2021 was a seller’s market, which means there were a lot of buyers wanting to purchase a house but very few people were selling their homes. In order to have your offer accepted in a seller’s market, you have to make a generous offer. After having our offers rejected several times, I had an idea. On our last open house visit, I had a personal letter for the seller. In the letter, I let them know that we sincerely wanted their home, which parts of the house we liked most, how much we could stretch the offer, and included my family picture with the letter.

We were overjoyed when we got the news that our offer was accepted by the seller. Finally, we made an offer that was accepted. Our motivation and good positive thinking lead us to our dreams. Now, we can start to put down roots in our very own home. We are forever grateful for all the blessings that we have and thankful to those people who helped and supported us to reach our goals.

My First-Time Experience While in the US

By Maria Lovie C. Ligasan

Many people have different experiences while in the U.S. I for one could think of many places that I had gone to when I went here the first-time. Of all those places that I had gone to, there was a place that I liked and cherished the most. It was snowtubing in Snoqualmie here in WA state. At first, I didn’t know what snowtubing was, so I researched it to know what it was and it looked thrilling on YouTube. I am a “thrill-seeker” and sad to say, my sister was a “scaredy-cat” [it was a personal word for me and my sister when we were scared of something]. She was afraid of snow and ice and that she was worried we might fall and tumble down and break our bones. Finally, I gave her my “beady-eyes” and she couldn’t resist me so we went on with our adventure.

My experience trying snow tubing in Snoqualmie Mountain: This tour was run through by Lacey Parks and Recs. We bought our own snow pants at Big 5 and paid for everything. The next couple of days, she paid for the ticket, brought the ticket with us, arrived before the time, showed our ticket to the organizer, waited for the driver and also the people who paid for the trip. Before they arrived, bad news hit us. It rained that day. But that didn’t deter us. We went ahead with the trip even though it was raining. When we reached the Summit, people with machines that plows snow were plowing the ice in the middle of the rain and told us there isn’t any new snow that came that day. The driver parked the van. The organizer who was with us too went down and all of who paid went down. The rain made the snow become ice and slippery so I was trembling when I started walking. My sister made the way for me and I followed her every instinct but my nerves were still shaking. Before we arrived to the starting point, I was still crying because my nerves were trembling and I saw the people taking the snow like it was easy. Finally, we arrived at the starting point and I had to get my muscles relaxed because they were still twitchy. My muscles never stopped being quivery and I was trying to relax it but to no avail. Then, the line started to pick up the pace and we entered the gate, looked at the people first how they did it to get a gist of it and after watching a few people, we got the gist of it, got our tubes and rode on it. It was fun riding down in a tube. Then, the problem steps in. If we want to go up and try it again, we either climb up or use the conveyor but there lies the problem. I don’t know how to use the conveyor. When I stepped on it, I fell down on my butt and I cried. At the end of the conveyor, I stood up without anyone’s help and went on tubing again for the second time. I didn’t use the conveyor anymore because I was so scared to use it. We headed on back to the van and as usual, my muscles were still the same as before so I told myself “Few more steps, few more steps and you’re in the van”. Then, we went to the van, arrived, and waited for everyone. Then, when we got everyone inside the van, we headed home.

Despite the fact that that was a bit hard at first, my sister was there, who supported me, encouraged me so I endured it and, this was why, I enjoyed, liked and cherished it the most. My first time while in the U.S., and all that I did and all those memories that we shared is embedded in my memory and will continue to live on. I intend to preserve it the best of my ability by remembering it and cherishing it. If you have loved ones that you wished to share your memories with, spend it with them or write them something from your experience and in that way, they too will cherish it even though you were far apart from them and they were apart from you.