Ready or not, here I come

Alaska becomes 49th US state, Charles de Gaulle becomes president of the 5th French Republic, Motown Records is founded by Berry Gordy, Jr.,Sleeping Beauty is released;

Swiss men vote down female suffrage, Buddy Holly et al are killed in a plane crash, termed The Day the Music Died, Fidel Castro takes over Cuba;

Barbie Doll debuts, the Dalai Lama flees Tibet and gets asylum in India, Hawaii statehood is approved;

NASA introduces first US astronauts, Japanese Prince Akihito marries Michiko Shoda, Stephen Harper is born;

Soviet forces arrive in Afghanistan, two monkeys successfully return to earth from space;

Singapore becomes a self-governing British crown colony, US sub first carries ballistic missiles, the first telecast is transmitted from England to US;

Canada and the US open the St. Lawrence seaway, Cayman Islands separates from Jamaica, Indonesia restores constitution, Great Britain starts using postal codes;

I am born.

Right time. Right place. Right circumstances. Everything about my birth was just the way God planned it.

It didn't matter what was happening with the rest of the world. I was destined to be born for such a time as this.

Even when some adults joked that I was picked up from some banana grove ("Napulot ka sa sagingan"), or worse, from the dump ("sa basurahan"), mean but common jokes back then, I felt welcomed and special.

But I used to wonder where I was before my birth. Some joked, "Diyan sa taas ng mga puno (There at the treetops)." Ah, things adults said. I often ran to my parents to check them out.

So really, where was I before my conception?

I know. In God's mind.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; 

you formed me in my mother's womb. 

I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! 

Body and soul, I am marvelously made! 

I worship in adoration—what a creation! 

You know me inside and out, 

you know every bone in my body; 

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, 

how I was sculpted from nothing into something. 

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; 

all the stages of my life were spread out before you, 

The days of my life all prepared 

before I'd even lived one day.

Psalm 139: 13-16, The Message