“I THINK I have so much love to give.”
These were the words of Claudine Barretto when asked what made her decide to adopt children.
In an interview with ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Karen Davila, Claudine shared why she chose to adopt.
“Kumbaga my cup was overflowing pa rin ng love and I wanted to share it,” she remarked.
“Also I believe there’s no difference ‘yung love ko kay Santino (biological child), kay Sabina, Noah, and Quia. They are all the same,” the actress, dubbed as the country’s Optimum Star, added.
“If you can love your husband who’s not your own blood, how can you not also love these children unconditionally?” she continued.
Claudine first became an adoptive parent to Sabina.
“Ako I always say it’s meant to be, we were meant to be. ‘Di ba parang God has a blueprint sa life mo and kasama ‘don sa blueprint si Sabina,” she said.
She continued: “When I held her in my arms, I can’t explain it parang this is mine, this is for me. I’m gonna keep you safe. The moment I held her, I swore that I would do everything in my power to make her happy and to give her a good life.”
After Sabina, Claudine adopted two more children. The second one after Sabina was Quia.
“They really wanted the sibling (referring to Santino and Sabina), that’s one of their prayers talaga and of course ‘di na pwede kasi wala na kami ni Raymart (Santiago) nun when they wanted a sibling,” she remarked.
“Parang I told them sige let us pray if in two weeks we don’t get a call or whatever that means it is not for us kasi we visited orphanages eh kasi I used to do social work for DSWD,” she said.
“Of course, you don’t usually get calls [saying] ‘There’s someone here you can adopt.’ But mag-two-two weeks, we got a call, and I was like talaga this is really for us,” she added.
In the case of Noah, Claudine shared that her kids wanted another sibling, this time a boy.
She revealed that they waited three months before she got to meet Noah and welcomed him into their family. (PUSH)
