May 20, 2008

38w5d - 1w2d to go (12 days to induction)

I'm taking my wise mother-in-law's advice, given in the last post, and only counting the days to June 2nd - because otherwise I'll be agonizing over that due date. So, 12 days to go (and you're so right, too - girls have such a mind of their own!!)

I have an appointment at 1:30 today, so I don't have any news just yet. I just wanted to share a sad and touching story coming from the earthquake in China that was posted in one of the pregnancy message boards I go to - I've always heard my whole life about the power of a mother's love, but now that I'm actually a mom (well - almost anyway) I truly understand how something like this could happen.


It was the third day after the quake already.

The rescue workers were still looking for survivors. They knew with each minute passing by, the chance to find someone alive gets slimmer. They were overworked. Since the quake, many of them had been working constantly, without having any good sleep. The roads to these mountainous towns and villages were destroyed by the quake-induced mudslides. They did not have machinery to work with. All they had were shovels and their bare hands.

But they were still looking for survivors.

"Come here, come here! There is a body! " Shouted a rescue worker. His fellow workers rushed to the spot. Under a big chunk of roof was a woman. She was lying with a strange pose - she kneeled on the ground with her upper body stretch forward. Her head was on the ground as well. As if she was praying for her survival.

The nurse in the rescue team struggled to reach her through the debris. It was difficult. There was no space. The woman was not responsive to any call. However, just to make sure, the nurse still tried to test her breath, to see if she was still breathing.

Not really. She was breathless, and her body was cold. She was dead. Praying or not, it did not help. The team moved on. There were other people buried. They could not afford to spend time in retrieving a dead body.

When the team reached the next collapsed building, the captain suddenly ran back to the woman, as if he realized something. When he reached the spot, he lay down, put his head next to the roof, and stretched his arm to touch the space under her abdomen. Once, twice. His forehead was locked, just like he was solving a mystery.

"There is a baby! And he is alive!!!" He cried out to his team members.

It was a newly-born. He was neatly wrapped in a red blanket decorated by yellow flowers. Miraculously, he did not even have a scratch in his body. When he was taken out from the rubble, he was sleeping, peacefully sleeping.

The nurse took the baby from the rescue worker and started doing routine exams. When she unwrapped the blanket, she found a cell phone tucked between the baby and his diaper. It had a text message written on the screen, read

"My dear baby, if you can survive, please remember mom loves you."
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-23029

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