03/02/2021
Yen Cabag is the Senior Writer at Brave. She is from Iloilo, Philippines, and loves writing and telling stories.
Check out the third quick interview in our "Meet the Team" series, with more to come soon!
𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.
As the mother of a foster and adoptive family, my husband and I currently have three boys. A 12-year-old biological son, an 8-year-old adopted son, and an almost 2-year-old foster son.
We started homeschooling when our first son was 5 years old. Since then, I’ve become a staunch believer, advocate and coach for the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason, a British educator-reformer in the 1800s. As an avid reader, I have a burden to raise up a generation of Filipinos that loves reading and learning, and who, by learning a wide variety of subjects, such as world history, literature, science, poetry, art, and music, can lead and impact our city and nation.
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦.𝘪𝘴?
From a young age, I’ve always loved stories. This includes hearing them from other people and reading them. Ever since I became a Christian, I’ve loved hearing about God’s work in other people’s hearts and how He transforms us. So when Daniel asked me to be a writer on Brave, a platform that highlights risk-taking adventures with God, it was the most natural thing in the world to say yes!
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰?
I think the bravest thing I’ve done so far, with my family, was saying yes to fostering. When the Lord spoke to us about adoption, we believed in the value of a permanent home for a child. I didn’t particularly want to foster, but that was the route that our social welfare recommended when we started off. We were eventually able to adopt the first baby boy we fostered. While we were processing his adoption, we were allowed to foster again, but not yet adopt. The second baby boy we fostered was matched with an international adoptive family. Having come to us at 3 weeks old, he left when he was a little over 2 years old, and it was the most heart wrenching time for our family’s life.
Another area of fostering that comes to mind was when we took in two siblings. Up to that point in our fostering and adoption journey, we had already taken in 2 babies. But as we contemplated the orphan crisis, knowing that babies and toddlers usually have a better chance of getting adopted, the Lord gave us a burden for the plight of older children in institutions. We fostered a 7 and 11 year old with the hope of adopting them, and they stayed with us over the course of eight months before they got moved to different families. It was a challenging but very growing experience for all of us.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 3 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶?
1) I’ve been writing songs since high school. It’s been one of my primary ways of processing emotions, thoughts, and struggles, along with other kinds of writing, such as journalling and writing poems and stories.
2) One of the transformative seasons in my life as a Christian came through an online Bible study, on a website that had a set of lessons you go through per day, and the opportunity to converse over email with a “mentor/accountability partner” I never met in real life.
3) I’ve always wanted to publish a novel, from way back when I was in second grade. Since then I have self-published three devotional books and two novellas, with a few more novels in the making. So, watch out!
Check out the full profile of Yen at the link below!
https://www.brave.is/meet-the-team-yen-cabag
