a miracle in japan

let's continue praying for more miracles like these.



Amid the silent corpses a baby cried out—and Japan met its tiniest miracle.

On March 14, soldiers from Japan's Self-Defense Forces went door to door in Ishinomaki, a coastal town northeast of Senda, pulling bodies from homes that had been flattened by the earthquake and tsunami. More accustomed to hearing the crunching of rubble and the sloshing of mud than sounds of life, they dismissed the baby's cry as a mistake. Until they heard it again.

They made their way to a pile of debris and carefully removed fragments of wood and slate, shattered glass and rock. And then they saw her: a 4-month-old baby girl in a pink woolen bear suit.

A tidal wave literally swept the baby from her parents' arms when it hit their home on March 11. Afterward, her parents — both of whom survived the disaster — took refuge in their wrecked house, worried that their little girl was dead. Soldiers managed to reunite the baby with her overjoyed father shortly after the rescue.

"Her discovery has put a new energy into the search," a civil defense official told a local news crew. "We will listen, look and dig with even more diligence after this." Ahead of the baby's rescue, officials reported finding at least 2,000 bodies washed up on the shoreline of Miyagi prefecture. How the child survived drowning — or being crushed by fallen trees and houses — remains a mystery.

Source: http://newsfeed. time.com/ 2011/03/15/ miracles- in-japan- four-month- old-baby- 70-year-old- woman-found- alive/

my italian connection

it wss the second time our boss told us pregnant ladies (there are 2 of us in this small office of 7) to take it easy and take a day off here and there if needed.

he has been very supportive from the very start. i guess he understands, as he has 2 little girls himself.

lately i have been taking time to be grateful. thankful for the little things.

yesterday, i was thankful for giving us a cool boss. he is quite easy going - he jokes around at work, and is seldom serious. he goes to divisoria on his own and knows his way around metro manila like a taxi driver. seriously, i think the guy is having way too much fun in the philippines! :D

oh, and did i mention that he brings in his own olive oil (from his own olive trees) from italy?

and we get a steady supply of parmigiano on every trip?



viva, italia! :)

you've got a friend

old friends are for keeps. :)

teray, carm and i met in grade school and became the best of friends.

teray moved to a different high school; carm and i stayed.

we parted ways in college. but our friendship remained.

now, we get together again after many, many years.



carm came from the US for a vacation with her husband and daughter (my inaanak!) nia. she's been living there for 15 years or so. we managed to meet twice during their stay.

it was a lot of fun catching up with my bestfriends. we realized, we are getting old haha!

now, carm has gone home to LA. teray and i are back to our daily grind.

it's always nice to see old friends, albeit rarely. our friendship is still very much alive, and even though we are apart, we know we are always there for each other.

@ 16 weeks

hello there! :)

i'm 16 weeks old. and 16 cm long.

daddy and mama heard my heartbeat today - @ 150, it was pretty strong!

the doctor could not tell yet if i'm a boy or a girl, so i guess they all have to wait for the next ultrasound! :D

photo of the day

blech. ugh. :)

@ 12 weeks

according to babycenter:

Your baby's face is beginning to look more human, even though she is only about 2 inches/5.5cms long from her crown to her rump and weighs slightly less than half an ounce/ 14 grams. The eyes, which started out on the sides of the head, have moved closer together. The ears are almost in their normal position on the side of the head. The liver is making bile and the kidneys are secreting urine in the bladder.

The fetus squirms if your abdomen is prodded, although you cannot yet feel movement. Fetal nerve cells have been multiplying rapidly and synapses (neurological connections in your brain) are forming. The fetus has acquired more reflexes: touching the palms makes the fingers close, touching the soles of the feet makes the toes curl down and touching the eyelids makes the eye muscles clench.

Your doctor can now feel the top of the uterus, also known as the fundus, low in the abdomen. As you enter the second trimester, you may find yourself donning looser, less restrictive clothing. Soon you won't be able to fit into your regular clothes any more.

are you kidding? i don't fit in most of e'm! :D

still nauseous.

still have difficulty sleeping.

able to eat better, though.

bulge emerging. tummy expanding. pants don't fit anymore *eeeekk!*

so far, so good. :)