our wedding is on Martha Stewart Weddings Philippines!

I remember it was a busy day in late November. My mind was still bent on figuring out the depressuring calculation for the LNG service at supercritical phase when the lights were turned off for lunch break. Mind wholly preoccupied, I was like a zombie when I opened my gmail and logged in. Then I saw Martha Stewart on my inbox. And thought that it was a spam mail. I almost tagged it as spam mail. And then the zombie me decided to open it. Of course from thereon I wasn’t zombie mode anymore! Suffice it to say that every part of me was tingling with excitement! πŸ˜‰

Back when I was still doing the preps, I had dreams of our wedding being featured on a bridal magazine (mostly I dreamed of MSW haha) or bridal websites like Bridalbook. But after the wedding, I decided not to submit our photos in bridal magazines or websites. Was thinking that posting photos of our wedding on our blog was enough. Hence MSW emailing out of the blue was much sweeter and thrilling. πŸ™‚

Liezl, the section Editor was really sweet with her email saying MSW is interested in featuring our wedding in their March issue and that they were wondering if we were willing to be featured. Of course we are willing! πŸ™‚ it’s a dream come true! She then replied how they loved our sweet details especially our little girls in kimono. Knowing how they probably encounter many ΓΌber sweet and cute wedding details everyday in their work, my heart glowed with pride when I read how the MSW team loved our wedding details.

Leizl then advised me that I’d later be contacted by their writer who’ll be covering our story. True enough, a couple days later, sweet Mimi emailed me introducing herself before getting on with the interview. Because we are based overseas, our interview was by email. Mimi gave us quite a set of questions and well, me being more expressive in writing, our answers were quite lengthy. πŸ˜€

The feature was really a great blessing and a bride’s dream come true, especially now that it came out just when we are celebrating our one year wedding anniversary. But there was one boon with the feature aside from it being a venue to reminisce – it provided us a venue for Atsushi to express some more what he felt during our wedding. Because of the nature of the questions, it made us reveal some more what we felt, hence hubs expressed what he felt then. And even for that alone, I am already very thankful for the feature. Yes, I was kilig to the bones with Atsushi’s answers. πŸ™‚

March rolled by however and MSW still wasn’t out. If truth be told, I was already having doubts that our feature pushed through, afraid they changed mind. I was already convincing myself (and I really am convinced!) that the special moment Atsushi and I had when we were answering the questions was a blessing enough already and of course the thought that we were considered to be featured out of the many weddings last year.

April rolled by and still nothing. My friends Kat and Rey were already checking the magazine racks everyday – haha, thanks guys!! And finally, all the waiting and checking bore fruit yesterday.

I thought we’ll just be designated half a page or one whole page at most. Was so amazed we got four whole pages!! πŸ™‚

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The cover in this issue.

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What better way to reminisce your wedding day on your anniversary than seeing your wedding featured in print – and in a Martha Stewart magazine at that?! Thank you Martha Stewart Weddings Philipines! πŸ™‚

Can’t wait to see the actual print next week!! πŸ™‚
—-
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. – Over the Rainbow, Wizard of Oz

30 March – things to be thankful for today

1. Thankful for a very kind Area lead who understands when and why I get angry at work. He totally gets me.

2. We had a project party to welcome the new comers. But it was also some sort of milestone party. In it, our team’s top boss announced and gave prizes to the team who performed best during last month’s HAZOP. And yep, it was our team! I keep on saying though that it’s mostly due to my other teammates’ units, which diluted the recommendations on my unit. Haha. Nevertheless, I’m happy we got the award!
My prize.

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3. Somebody gave up her seat for me in the train this evening. Yey! πŸ™‚ it’s getting more frequent.

28 March – things to be thankful for today

In order of events.

1. Thankful I didn’t blow my top
2. Thankful I wasn’t discouraged despite meeting overly sarcastic people
3. Thankful hubs and I were able to go to office together and walk home together
4. A guy gave up his seat for me in the train when he saw my badge. A rare occurrence!
5. Thankful to see this early bloomer. I hope to post the morning version soon.

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6. Thankful about the good news that Hubs’ parents told us. Thankful for hubs’ sis’ generosity with her time. πŸ™‚

By the way, here’s the morning version of the early bloomer sakura.

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turning 32

And the leaf has just turned. I’m now 32!!! Albeit nowadays when I’m asked of my age, my instant (innocent) reply is that I’m 29. And then a pause. And then I say “wait”. And then I think about my real age. Haha. It’s not that I dislike having birthdays, reminding me that I’m getting older. In fact, quite the contrary. I’ve never really outgrown that childlike attitude of looking forward to my birthday, all giddy and excited. It’s just that at some point, I stopped counting the age, it’s just a number!

But what I would count though are the blessings. There’s been lots for the last year! Let’s count shall we? πŸ™‚

β€’ March 5 of last year, I officially became an immigrant. The process was tedious! And the CFO (Center for Filipinos Overseas) experience was both humiliating and utterly infuriating. But am still truly thankful that I was able to travel to Japan and be with my husband on my birthday without any hassles

β€’ because I was able to fly to Japan for my birthday, I was with hubby during one of Japan’s most difficult time – the March 11 debacle. I couldn’t imagine how lonely and depressed hubby could have been had he been home alone. And I couldn’t imagine how paranoid I would have been had I been in Manila at that time, far from knowing the real situation Hubs is in! Of course I’m not thankful it happened! But I am thankful that we were together during that very trying time and that we survived it.

β€’ we had a very beautiful wedding. Civil marriage here in Japan is totally devoid of any ceremony or emotion. And so we’re truly thankful for our beautiful Church ceremony. And we’re thankful as well that we’ve given our families a memory that they’d always cherish. Even now, almost a year after, when I recently heard our Ninang tell her friend that ours was a very beautiful wedding, my heart warmed and I feel jelly-like all over. πŸ˜€

β€’ thankful for the gift of friendship. Our wedding wouldn’t have been that beautiful if not for the help of friends. For old friends albeit far and rare to see, still we’re able to foster a friendship that would (hopefully) last a lifetime. Thankful for new friends as well! πŸ™‚

β€’ Thankful that I was able to work. Thankful that I was able to keep my position and career and work in the main company. Thankful that I’m now working on a very interesting project, with my work scope being one of the plant’s core, both a challenging yet very interesting experience. Thankful.

β€’ thankful that this last year, we were able to travel to very beautiful places! – El Nido, Vienna, Cesky Krumlov, Prague.

β€’ thankful that we were able to spend the New year with Atsushi’s family and where I experienced for the first time the true and very interesting Japanese New Year festivities. But most of all, I am thankful for the kindness Hubs’ family had shown to me. I’ve heard “horror stories” from other people about other people’s experiences. Hence I am truly thankful of the kindness Atsushi’s family has shown to me

β€’ thankful for my family’s good health back home!! πŸ™‚

β€’ thankful for that lovely surprise request although we are yet to know of its outcome

β€’ thankful, thankful, for this little wonderful person growing inside me. Thankful for this miracle of life. My morning sickness is truly bad, yes, and it can sometimes last till midnight. But what’s surprising is that whenever I’m in a meeting and couldn’t get to the toilet for hours, I don’t feel the urge to vomit at all. Even when still inside the womb, I’ve an ace baby already πŸ™‚

β€’ of course, thankful for my husband. Our blogsite has been witness to how great a husband Atsushi is. Of course he’s not perfect, I’m not blind with his faults. But he’s “perfect for his imperfections” and perfect for the imperfect me.

β€’ all of the blessings above only came from One, Who has been generous to me. Thank you Lord, for all I’ve just mentioned, for the gift of life, for the year to come, for the blessings we’re about to receive, for taking care of all our loved ones, for your patience with me. Thank you for empowering me πŸ™‚

Have a blessed day everyone!

and so we’re ready to share our great news

Absurd as it may seem to some, I’ve known I was pregnant since week 1. When I suffered from gikkori goshi back in first week of January, I told the physical therapist to take care as I was pregnant. By week 3, I was starting to get nauseous and I was thinking at that time that if I’m not pregnant, I can’t imagine how difficult it can get since I was already uncomfortable with the nausea. Little did I know that my nausea at that time was really just the tip of the iceberg. It-can-get-really-worse especially when the vomiting kicks in.

Come week 4, it was just a matter of waiting for my monthly as I am pretty regular. When the day passed by and I didn’t get a visit, I was already looking forward for the weekend to have the test. But in that week 4, the sleepiness and tiredness has already kicked in. Imagine having fatigue associated with pregnancy and yet having had to be mentally alert during a series of difficult HAZOP meetings!! I remember whenever we have breaks and my tummy would hurt, I talk to baby in the toilet and say “baby, please be with mommy on this. Let’s answer their questions even when the going gets tough already”. Imagine talking to your baby even before taking the pregnancy test! Haha. That’s how confident I am that our little one is growing inside me already.

When Saturday rolled in, first thing I did was take the test. Of course the line was there, albeit really faint still.

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But the next few days, there were a series of mishaps that got me really fearful for baby – I had some spotting (read a lot about this being normal but still it’s worrying), we fell down a flight of stairs because of the snow, we met a witch ob/gyn who coldly hinted, with her back facing me, that I might have ectopic pregnancy. All of these prompted me to test almost twice a day, morning and night. I think I had at least 10 tests in that my hubby was already laughing on how addicted I was with the testing. Haha. I finally stopped the tests when I had consistent result like this.

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And of course I was praying unceasingly as well whilst taking the tests.

Looking for an ob/gyn was quite tough though. I’ve read a lot of gaijin blogs complaining how there is a world of difference between ob/gyns here in Japan and on the West/Philippines. Honestly, it took me a long time to accept that things are really different and that I just have to try and make up for what’s lacking. The moment I did this, things certainly got better – which was what happened last Saturday.

Now, much as we wanted to share our happiness the moment we knew about our latest great blessing, we had to have some restraint. It’s a big oxymoron, we wanted to share our great news but we need to keep it to ourselves for the mean time because even the doctors cannot confirm yet if my pregnancy is healthy. And I realised why things are so. Apparently, we went to the doctor way too early, just when I was only 4 weeks and barely 6 weeks when usually pregnant women have their first check at 7 or 8 weeks. Since my baby is still very small, doctor couldn’t measure yet and since they don’t have a record of my basal body temperature, they couldn’t give us any assurances. And what we can only do is pray.

Lat Saturday though, after measuring baby and showing me baby’s heartbeat, the doctor looked really happy to tell me baby is normal. He even looked really happy to show hubby baby’s photo.

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Doctor must have seen the worry in our faces. He looked really happy he himself inserted our baby’s photo into the birth album that their hospital gives to pregnant women.

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Even when we’ve visited their hospital twice before already with ultrasounds on each visit, it was only this time that they really considered my check as an official one, noting it so in the birth album record.

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They also instructed us to go to the ward office to ask for the boshitetcho (母子手帳) so we can get some benefits and also register my pregnancy.

And so because of how the doctor’s visit went, we decided it’s time to share our joyful news.

With this sharing is also a prayer that this is a harbinger of more blessings to count as we witness the growth of this miracle inside my womb. πŸ™‚