Welcome to my blog!

Features of anything worth sharing for.



About Me

Kailua, Hawaii, United States
I was born in Claveria, Philippines on September 6, 1984. Presently, I live in Kailua, Hawaii. I'm happily married to Bryn Kaufman and loving being a mother of our son, Zachary Kai. We have a very energetic and very cute Maltese dog, named Snowy.

Search This Blog

The Man and the Windsurfer

The Man

He is the gentlest man I have ever known in my life. His gestures and actions are just fine respectable. He talks very calm though he knows how to raise his voice when he lost his temper. He doesn't have patience like heaven but he's willing to go along. He just can sit all day long in front of his computer as his jobs demand it, but of course he still takes breaks for meals and nature calls. He walks our dog as a neccessity, and to smell the air outdoors and during the evening, to star gaze.

The Windsurfer
When the sun is out, the wind is blowing and feels like summer, he checks the wind forecaster to decide which sails to use. He packs his foods, he prepares his gears in his car, he kisses us goodbye and off he goes to the beach. At the beach, he assembles his sails and everything. He has the strenghts to lift his board and sail to the water and jas the courage to prepare himself to explore the ocean. Sometimes he's goes slow, like my man in his daily life, sometimes he has a blast like a windsurfer. Appreciating the beauty of the ocean, having an exercise, having fun, sharing surfing stuffs with other beach mates, he's just as cool as he can be.

My husband, is the man and the windsurfer.

US Healthcare issues - my personal experience

You may click on the link if you would rather watch the news right from KHON2 Hawaii News
Insurance, Immigration Split Couple for Baby’s Birth

Posted using ShareThis

A windward Oahu couple anxiously awaits the arrival of their first baby, but immigration and insurance issues will split them up for months approaching the birth and after. The mother can't get maternity benefits in time so she'll be having the baby in the Philippines and they want other international couples to learn from their experience.

When Ellen from the Philippines met Bryn from Kailua, they had a lot in common, including what they wanted in a family.

"I knew right away I'm going to have a baby, so we even talked about it online already, you know, 2 kids," Ellen Kaufman said.

They married last year and sure enough…

"After 8 months then it was, ah!, honey, I'm pregnant, so it was just like that," Ellen said.

But they hit an unexpected roadblock -- they say they can't get coverage for maternity benefits until a year after Ellen's green card comes through, and they've been waiting for the green card since last June.

"We didn't find out that we couldn't get maternity until we knew she was pregnant," said Bryn Kaufman.

That means paying out of pocket for the birth which could hit tens of thousands of dollars if there are any complications. The same would cost just a couple thousand in a Philippines hospital. So she leaves next week for the Philippines to await a Sept. 6th due date, by coincidence, her own birthday.

"I's kind of ironic that you have to go to a third-world country in America because the health care is so difficult and expensive to get," Bryn said.

It'll be weeks more after baby Zachary is born before he can come home to his nursery and their puppy, Snowy.

"She can't come back right away because then we have to get a passport for the baby so they allow the baby back in," Bryn said.

"Snowy, you know I cuddle him every morning, I play with him, so I'm kind of just worried,” Ellen said. “Just me and the baby, and then without Bryn."

They say they understand insurance companies may be wary of opening floodgates of immigration just for birth if coverage were more quickly granted, but…

"When you're married to a U.S. citizen that's been paying taxes paying insurance for 20-plus years, then it should be looked at differently," Bryn said.

In the end they say they just don't want to see other couples have to go through the separation they're about to.

“If other people knew that this was the situation then they might do their family planning a little differently,” Bryn said. “I guess the lesson is to check into it before you even start thinking about having a baby and know, what’s going to happen, and are you going to be able to get insurance? It would be nice to see the system change, but that's not easy.”
The state's largest health insurer HMSA says there are waiting periods for this and other certain coverages. They say read the guide to benefits and know what is covered so you select the plan that is best for you. They can only insure residents of Hawaii, and someone is not a legal resident until he or she has a green card.

Absences

For two days, I couldn't log in at blogger.com. Happy today finally, I'm online again. I didn't know what's wrong. Blogger.com has a bunch of explanation for that but there's so much information that I got tired figuring it out. Yesterday, I tried to open my blog, it didn't work. I thought, I'll give it more time to fix itself. So today, boo yah, it opened!

Also one thing, I tried to add a Live Traffic Feed widget on my blog but it seemed kept having a problem. I tried adding it, once i'm done, nothing happened, nothing added. "sigh" I will try again and hopefull can find one that will work.

Hooked on Facebook

My husband kept asking me, "I still don't understand Facebook," and I replied, "You don't have to understand it, just make use out of it." It's been 5 years since I was a member of facebook, but it's been 2 years since I have been really using it. I noticed that it's much useful, when my friends and family signed up as members of this social network.

I believe I understand Facebook, more even now that I am married. When I was single, it didn't help me much, in terms of 'dating' or 'making friends.' Because of Facebook, I can communicate with my long distance friends and families, like every minute of the day, online or offline, as long as we check our Facebook. It helps my friends and families to know what's going in my life, through pictures and 'status' and some long lost friends found me there. These people just can message you anytime and you'll know it right through you inbox email.

It's more fun because you can state "What's on your mind?" and your friends can just say anything about it. Some people make funny statements, some people vent and let it out, some people tell their moods, some brag on their achievements, some share their words of wisdoms, some express their undying love to their lovers, some comment on what's going on the world and some introduce their newborns to the world and some just plain and simple and jut put some emoticons or mood symbols and etchetera. You just learn from them, if you let it in. Then you find yourself smilling, laughing, amazed, surprised, almost cried, angry, sarcastic everytime you read these different statements on "What's on your mind."

So, you don't have much to do and need to kill a time? Hundreds of games and applications on Facebook you can just join and start being a fan and addicted. You'll see, time will fly fast for you. Like to chat? u don't need a messenger, just click on the friend online and start a conversation.

I love Facebook, it's just very helpful for my online personal use (or even professional).

A baby can just get away with anything!

Babies are born cute so we can just love them to death and when they get older, not a baby anymore, we have instilled that love they would always feel everyday of their lives. Anyway, babies stay cute whatever they have gone through compared to older people. \

Babies are born with no teeth, but when they smile, just melt your heart and is like a sunshine that makes you smile too. However, older people with no teeth, admittedly, is just funny-looking, that's why sometimes they appear in comedy tv shows. Some babies are just bald, or with tiny hairs, yet it doesn't matter, still cute with their skin head showing off. Some older people are not happy being bald, except for those who are fashionable about it, though they still get a lot of funny tease.

Babies pee and poop in their diapers yet mommy or daddy, or sister or brother or baby-sitters, find it fun to wipe those little tush and change new diapers. But when you're older, you really don't want do that that's why there are comfort rooms.
There are so many words that you can describe to a baby, but one word I always heard about my little boy:
SQUEEZABLE!

Zachary Kai on his walker!


Baby Zac is not so fond of laying down with stomach. He always has trouble everytime we do a tummy time with him. Eventually, we noticed that he likes to stand up and tries to walk. At 7 months, he's able to sit without assistance and able to stand we, holding his hands or arms. We realized he has strong legs so we decided to get him a walker.

It's was amazing the first time he walks through his walker. He has all the smiles in the world. This walker has amazing features and baby Zac finds it very easy to move forward, to back up and to run towards us. The musical toys with it is such an entertainment for him. It's not loud and he smiles when it's making funny sounds. His walker makes him go around the house without hesitation and look for anything unusual around the house. But, that's right, we had to re-arrange our house so he has a lot of space walking around and put away stuffs that can fall when he bumps into them.

My First Child

Sometimes, a great gift comes with a great pain and luckily, we live with it's worth. Delivering a baby is a mix of emotions. Exciting to finally meet your little one, painful in the body when he's ready to come out to see the world, the happiness is undescribable and it's such a miracle happening in every woman's body. So sometimes, new moms can't help to let those tears of everything to come out. Here's Zachary Kai, fresh from mommy's womb. Born in the night of August 17, 2009, 5 lbs and a happy one.