buckle up, little one!

You are a child borne from much travelling.

Your nonno (Daddy’s father) came to Australia by ship from Montefredane, Avellino, Italy (just outside of Naples) in February 1955. He was only 19 years old when he sailed to Australia.  Your nonna (Daddy’s mother) also came by ship from Summonte, Avellino, Italy, around the same year. Your nonno and nonna, while almost neighbors in Italy, got to know each other only in Adelaide.

Your lolo sa tuhod  (Mommy’s paternal grandfather) came from China to settle in a fishing village called Villareal, Samar, which is in the southern part of the Philippines.  Here he would marry a Filipina and they had six sons and one daughter. Two of the children would become lawyers; another two, engineers; and the other three would become a doctor, teacher, and an accountant. Their youngest son was Mommy’s father.

Your other lolo sa tuhod (Mommy’s maternal grandfather) was a Philippine war veteran who fought the Japanese in World War II.  His wife had to take care of their seven children while he was at war.  This lolo sa tuhod, when Mommy’s mother was a little girl, went to Manila (the capital of the Philippines) to prepare and take the bar exams so that he could be a lawyer. Your lola sa tuhod (Mommy’s maternal grandmother), who was a very smart, creative, and industrious woman, would thereafter move to Manila too and stayed on there even after your lolo sa tuhod passed away. Mommy used to visit her on weekends when Mommy went to Manila to study so she could be a lawyer like her grandfather.

Your Daddy has travelled a lot:  Europe, Canada, and the US.  Mommy also has travelled a lot too, most of Asia and parts of Europe.  But guess where they’d meet... in Adelaide, just like your nonno and nonna.  When Mommy looks back, she finds it interesting that the first picture of Mommy and Daddy together was in a German village called Hahndorf, somewhere in South Australia.

But the travelling didn’t end there. Since Daddy met Mommy six weeks before Mommy had to fly back to the Philippines (she was in Adelaide only for a year to get her Master’s degree), Daddy had to fly to Manila several times to make sure that Mommy didn’t forget him.  Mommy also would keep flying back to Adelaide so she can sit in Daddy’s kitchen to watch him cook Italian food (as you will soon know, little Pebble, Daddy is the Master Chef in our house).

Mommy and Daddy married in 11 November 2011 (how cool is that, 11-11-11!) in Adelaide at 3:00 pm. A few months later, Mommy and Daddy had their marriage solemnized in church in Manila on 29 February 2012 (that means, they celebrate their Church wedding every leap year).

Daddy lives right now in Adelaide while Mommy (and you of course, since you’re inside Mommy’s tummy) lives in Manila.  But don’t you worry dearest Pebble, one day you will wake up with both Mommy and Daddy beside you already. In the meantime little one, you’ve got to get used to a lot of flying.

If you announce to Mommy and Daddy over dinner that you want to spend a year in Tibet, we don’t think we will be very surprised.