PinoyBuilt — Stories of Filipino America

When DNA Finds You: A 49 cM Filipino Match, an Adoption, and the Manong Generation By J.F.R. Perseveranda for Pinoybuilt.com When I uploaded my DNA to Ancestry, I expected numbers, percentages, and maybe a few distant cousins. I did not expect a message that would quietly open one of the deepest and most emotional doors in Filipino American history. Her name here will be “BK” . That is not her real name. She is a real person, an adoptee, and someone still searching for where she truly comes from. This story is not about exposing anyone. It is about honoring how DNA reconnects Filipino families that history tried to erase. Reaching Out Across DNA When I saw BK’s name appear as my closest DNA match on one side of my family tree, I did something simple but brave — I sent a message into the unknown. “Hi! I recently received my DNA results and it looks like we’re distantly related. You’re actually the closest match I have on one side of my family tree. I was wondering if ...

Akira & I have been together for 11 months I brought home Akira from the shelter on May 21, 2024. It's been a great eleven months learning about Belgian Malinois, to say the least. The shelter was actually hard on me when I went to get her, asking if I had done my research on the breed -- on Belgian Malinois . I was thrown aback. Now I now why. Prior to Akira, I had gotten most of my knowledge on the breed by watching one of my favorite shows " Person of Interest ." John Reese got a Belgian Malinois named Bear in the second season. Bear is the name of a Belgian Malinois attack dog trained to "understand only Dutch" commands. John Reese befriends this military dog and he, Bear, and Fusco escape captivity in the second season's first episode. Akira, by the way, is named in honor of my favorite director Akira Kurosawa . When I lived in San Francisco back in the mid-90's, I borrowed and watched all of Kurosawa's movies from the San Francisco Main Lib...

Available at Oakland Animal Services. I've followed SteveLach 's YouTube channel for the past four years. His YouTube videos are all "videos for shelter dogs."  His video posted on Facebook was how I found 'Sierra' (whom the kids and I adopted; the kids renamed her 'Ciara'). I had followed all the animal shelter Facebook Pages for one whole year, each one a 'favorite' so that the first things I would see on my Facebook feed were all the posts by the animal shelters near me. I instantly fell in love with Ciara when I first watched her online. For available dogs at Oakland Animal Services , please click the link. I had to post this video since it uses one of my favorite songs, " Modern Love " by David Bowie . 🐶 It's not really work It's just the power to charm I'm still standing in the wind But I never wave bye-bye  Please click to follow our website/blog PINOYBUILT.com .  

#AdoptDontShop We adopted Stoli years ago. We loved him so much, we adopted a second cat, Chewie, to keep him company.