My sister, Myrna de Vera, sent an announcement in Facebook that she had won the “Mother of the Year” Award. Curious, I clicked on the link — and was totally enthralled by the present being given to mothers worldwide.

See for yourself how Filipina moms were honored. Click here — and enjoy the positive power of media:

My own Facebook greeting was also tongue-in-cheek:

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers with biological children, adopted children, and would-have-had-children-but-made-the-worlds-children-their-children! Including the men who are “Mr. Mom!” Gotta be inclusive in my greeting!

I also received an email from the organizers of THE MOTHER OF THE YEAR AWARD.

From: Joan Blades, MomsRising for CNNBC
Date: Sat, May 9, 2009 at 9:53 AM
Subject: Making the day of millions of moms
To: Lorna Dietz

Thanks for sending the “Mother of the Year” video to some of your favorite moms. You’ve really been part of something big: already the the award video has been sent to more than 4,500,000 moms! And we still have today and tomorrow to get this video to millions more.

We’re setting a goal of sending this well-deserved award to an incredible ten million moms.

I’ll bet you know more moms who’d love to see themselves in this video. Or more friends who’d like to send it to moms they know. Can you send it on again? Just send on this email or go to:

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com

We’ve been flooded with notes about how much people love getting the award video. A mom wrote us to say, “I don’t know what was funnier, the newscast or my son repeatedly asking, ‘Is that real? Is it real?’ while I’m wiping tears from the corners of my eyes.” Another wrote, “I sent to my best friend. She’d had a breakdown on an L.A. highway and she said it made her horrible day GREAT.” One prominent blogger wrote, “Honestly, this video is beyond a home run. It is the first thing in a long time I’ve wanted to send to each and every person I know!”

And if you’ve run out of great moms to send this award video to, send this link along to friends who might not have heard about this yet, so they can make sure their moms and moms they know are honored on Mother’s Day.

It a win/win—make your friends and family laugh and blush while you help us grow this movement for moms and families.

Thanks so much,

–Joan, Kristin, Mary and the whole MomsRising team

Like what we’re doing? Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible—and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts. Donate today on our secure website:

http://www.momsrising.org/contribute/

Every now and then I will post emails from FilipinaImages.com. This one is from Lan Tait, an American and married to a Filipina. He has had an amazing life on the cutting edge of computers and the Internet for more than 3 and a half decades

Here is Lan’s story:

To me, when I think of being a Filipina, I think of my deceased wife, Bhabes Gelito Tait.

http://bhabes.t8s.org/

Bhabes was 27 when she married me. The first kiss she ever received from a man was right after the minister said, “You may kiss your bride.” When we dated, we sometimes went as far as to hold hands! (Gosh!) In the presence of her parents, I was allowed to give her a quick hug when I arrived and another when I departed. The reason was that she was saving herself for her “God’s Best” husband! Let’s see, that was me!

Eight years later when Bhabes died in a car crash, she finished the course of her life having only kissed one man… Again, that would be me!

That’s The Filipina!

Bhabes was a real lover, a lover of God, a lover of Country, a lover of People and of course, a lover of me!

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Tags: The Filipina

(Photo Courtesy of Philstar)

I am very impressed with Timor’s First Lady & Professor Jacqueline Aquino Siapno-De Araojo. Like a typical balikbayan, she together with 5-year-old son Hadomi in tow, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport more than a week or so ago and was met by her mother. After exchanging greetings, they took a cab and headed to a bus terminal in Pasay City where they boarded a bus bound for her native Dagupan.

Now that is very humbling. No airs! No pretensions or feelings of entitlement! I am absolutely charmed by her humility. I would rather focus on her as a person.

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Tags: Jacqueline Aquino Siapno, Jacqueline Aquino Siapno-De Araojo, Timor First Lady

I read it a few days ago in the Inquirer. It’s a good thing Carlo Ople, a friend reminded me of Our women, their slaves by Susan Ople. The problem here is that women who seek employment outside the country keep on getting victimized by illegal recruiters. They end up working in a distant land, cut off from their family, and what’s worse is they get physically abused – sometimes molested… and they don’t even get paid. It’s literally modern day slavery. Here are two case studies of Filipinas caught in the web of modern day slavery.
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Tags: slaves, Susan Ople