Beaut.Thingz

Love is in the air… and so are the discounts! 💕
Enjoy 10% OFF on all Beaut.Thingz products this Valentine’s Day!🌹❤️

Limited time only, until supplies last!
Hurry and grab your favorites now! ✨

Full interview is up!!! 🥹🤍

Against All Odds “Wala nay mopunit nimo. Anakan naka’g tulo.” These words came from my ex who betrayed me while I was pregnant and raising two toddlers alone. At that moment, I felt like love was truly over for me, and that marriage was never meant to be part of my story. But God had a different plan. My name is Clarice Ann Tavera Betingue. I am 31 years old, a business owner and a mother of three from Hilongos, Leyte. My partner, Pacifico Ybañez II, is 33, originally from Hindang, Leyte, and now living in Winnipeg, Canada. Our love story is not perfect or easy. It is a story of pain, healing, faith, and perfect timing—an invisible string that connected our families long before we even knew it existed. Both of us were broken before we found each other. I was betrayed while I was still pregnant with my youngest child, left to take care of two toddlers alone. Phics went through his own heartbreak too. His marriage ended because of betrayal. Two people deeply hurt, just trying to survive life separately—until fate slowly pulled us back together. Our families were connected long before us. My late grandmother, Lola Rosa, and Phics’ grandmother, Lola Nocen, were best friends. They used to walk together to Saint Michael Parish Church in Hindang, praying the rosary side by side. Faith tied our families together even then. There’s more to our story. Phics late father, Papa Zaldy, and my grandmother’s youngest sister, Mema Emy, were high school sweethearts at Saint Michael College. But life was never fair to love. Mema Emy had to work because she couldn’t afford to go to college. Papa Zaldy, on the other hand, (Apo sa tag.iya sa SMC) had a future already planned for him. Still, none of that mattered. He chose love. Gisundan jud niya si Mema Emy sa Manila, kay gusto jud niya ipaglaban ang ilang gugma. They tried their best, but when Mema Emy moved to the US for better opportunities, their love slowly faded. It wasn’t because it wasn’t real—it was because life demanded more than love could give. Before Phics’ father passed away, he was able to reconnect with my grandmother through social media. When my lola learned that Phics and I had found our way back to each other, she shared their love story with me and said words I will never forget:�“Kamo gyud sa usat-usa, dai. You will finish the love me and Zaldy started.” Our own story unknowingly started years before. When I was nine and Phics was eleven, we were at the same coronation event. My sister was the queen, and I carried her scepter. His cousin was first runner-up, and he was her es**rt. Same place. Same time. We didn’t even know fate was already at work. Years later, we became schoolmates at Saint Michael College. He was in third year, and I was a freshman. I fell in love with him from afar—my first crush. I tried everything just to get his attention magpapansin, waiting in the lobby just to see if he was around. I even joined the band as a twirler because he was the drummer. Sometimes, I’d sing at school events, secretly hoping he’d notice. Pero wala gyud—, pakyas akong beauty, dzai. �After graduation, he left for Canada, and I thought that was the end of our story. Years passed. He got married and had two kids. As for me, I thought I was already building my own family too. Then life became heavy. I found out my ex was cheating on me while I was still pregnant—on our eldest child’s 4th birthday. Everything crashed at once. I was fighting depression and anxiety while raising two kids on my own. He was working in a BPO in Ormoc but never gave proper nga sustento, kulang pa iyahang sweldo sa iyahang bisyo. So I worked nonstop. I sold whatever I could, even handled paluwagan, just to survive and make sure my children had what they needed. Then fate stepped in again. On May 7, 2022, I was at Saint Michael Parish Church—pregnant, exhausted, and emotionally drained. I was there with my ex and our two kids to have his motorcycle blessed. I had bought him that bike, hoping it would make him stay. Martyr pa kaayo ko ato nga time. I held on because we had kids, and I still believed he would change. What I didn’t expect was to see Phics there too. Beside me was my high school best friend, who happened to be the partner of Phics’ cousin. I whispered, “Naa diay si Pico no?”�She nodded and quietly said, “Oo, naah! luoy baya na siya. Mao na niuli kay iyahang asawa nikuyog sa lain.” As she spoke, I found myself watching him from afar. Everything seemed to slow down—tinuod gyud diay na sa mga movie, no? In that quiet moment, I realized something. We were walking through the same kind of pain, carrying different stories, but hurting in the same way. On June 27, 2022, he sent me a friend request. I accepted but kept my guard up. �On July 1, I gave birth—alone, scared, and completely drained.�No hand to hold. No one waiting outside. I went through labor without a single cent from the man who should have been there. He disappeared. He ghosted me and my children. I was left to carry the pain, the shame, and the responsibility all by myself. What made it harder was that no one knew.�Not my parents. Not my siblings. Not my friends. I kept everything inside because I was still holding on, naglaum pajud tawun ko nga ma-okay pa mi, nga magbag-o pa siya. Every time they asked, “Asa na si J?” I would just say, “Busy ra sa work.” �There were days I thought I wouldn’t survive , days when I barely wanted to move, when continuing felt heavier than everything else. At night, I cried myself to sleep. Pag buntag, bangon na pud murag walay nahitabo. I had to be strong, kay naa koy mga anak nga gagmay pa kaayo. Unsaon nalang sila kung mawala ko? I tried everything to save what was already breaking. I even went to Ormoc many times, commuting with three kids(two toddlers and one newborn) just to see him. Lisud kaayo, but I didn’t care. I begged him, not even for me anymore, but for our children. I told him, “Bahala’g naa nay lain, okay ra, Basta ayaw lang pasagdi mga bata. Di ko ganahan magdako mga bata nga walay papa.” But he did nothing.�He still chose to leave us. That was the moment it finally hit me, my children don’t deserve this kind of love. They don’t deserve to see their mother begging for the bare minimum. Then, on August 16, a message came. Simple. Unexpected.�“Hi Ann, kamusta? Congrats sa imong baby girl.” To be honest, siya ra gyud ang nangumusta nako ato nga time. Of all people, it was Phics. We started talking every day despite the time difference. I opened up to him about everything, about what was really going on in my life. He stayed up late just to talk to me before work, and even after work, bisan kapoy na, tawag gihapon siya. At that time, my family didn’t know yet what was happening between me and J. He helped me find the courage to open up to them about everything I had gone through. Honestly, kung wala siya, di ko kabalo unsaon nako pag-handle sa tanan. That man(once someone who didn’t even notice me) became my strength, my safe place. On November 4, 2022, my birthday, he came home from Canada and surprised me outside our house. Just him, his luggage, flowers, and two promise rings—one for me and one for my children. A promise not just to love me, but to stand as their father. From then on, every 7 or 9 months, he came home. No excuses. Always showing up. Then came November 4, 2025—a night I will never forget. Bagyong Tino was raging. Everything he planned seemed ruined. But sometimes, the most beautiful moments happen when plans fall apart.�Exactly at 12:00 midnight, inside a quiet room, with rain and wind crashing outside, it was just the two of us. No audience. No decorations. Just love. He knelt down and proposed. What I didn’t know was that he had already bought the engagement ring five months earlier—right after he received his divorce papers, even before coming home. Everyone knew but me. Ako ra jud ang wala kabalo. My parents and siblings were already in on it, especially when my parents had to fly to Dubai for my sister’s graduation with Emirates. All along, while I was clueless, love was already being quietly planned. 💍✨ In that moment, I realized something: love didn’t forget me. God didn’t forget me.�I understood then that everything happens for a reason, and just as Scripture says, His plans are to prosper us and give us hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). �From a promise ring I once thought was the most I would ever receive—to an engagement ring I never thought I deserved. It wasn’t extravagant. It wasn’t perfect by plan. But it was perfect for us. Hangtud karon, consistent gihapon kaayo siya. He is the father my children always needed. Our love is healthy, calm, and steady—even across oceans. We wholeheartedly believe we deserve this wedding. We have been through a lot of pain that most people can’t even imagine. But even with all the hard times, our love has grown stronger. The hardest part? We’ve been in a long-distance relationship for almost four years. Miles apart, yet unlike the generations before us(like his papa and my lola)we fight for this love every single day. Our love grows deeper and more steady with each sunrise, and honestly, sometimes I still can’t believe a love this pure and consistent exists. I remember the words that once nearly shattered me: “Wala nay mopunit nimo. Anakan naka’g tulo.” But Phics(the love he has for me and my children) proved those words wrong. I never thought I would find love again after the pain of betrayal and raising three kids on my own. From a promise ring to now an engagement ring, I see clearly: I deserve this love. Our story is not perfect, and it’s not a fairy tale. We faced heartbreak, distance, and many hard times that could have made us give up. But through everything, God’s plan and perfect timing brought us back together. Two broken hearts found each other again, with faith and patience. We chose to heal and grow stronger together. Our love waited. It healed. It never gave up. This is the power of God’s plan.🤍