As she looked at the devastation that used to be her home, Awal, 35, thought there was no way. Her children could not possibly have survived.

Awal had been at a store Saturday when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit, devastating the country, killing more than 5,500 people and injuring twice that number.

Her husband, Sham Krishna Awal, 34, a microbus driver, was working.

Their two children, Soniya, age 10, and Sonies, age 5 months, were at the family home in Muldhoka, Bhaktapur, east of the capital, Kathmandu. Earlier reports listed the younger child's name as Sonit and his age as 4 months.

Baby Sonies Awal spent 22 hours buried in the rubble of his home.

While the parents were out, the ground shook and the house collapsed. The children were buried.

Sham Awal rushed home from work and scrabbled frantically through the rubble, searching for his children. Neighbors came to help.

And then, a blessing: Two hours later, Soniya, a fourth-grader, was found alive.

But the baby was still missing.

No indication the baby might be alive, until . . .

The desperate family called the Nepalese army. Soldiers arrived at 6 p.m. They, too, dug through the debris, but without result.

They left at 9 p.m. There had been no sign of baby Sonies, no indication that he was still living.

The father lost all hope of finding his son alive, until he heard faint cries from under the rubble.

Nepali soldiers had given up their search on Saturday night but returned when Sonies' father heard cries.

The soldiers, having returned the next morning, resumed digging. And, miracle of miracles, 22 hours after the earthquake, Sonies was pulled out of the debris.

His face was coated with dust. But he was alive.

A photo of him being lifted from the rubble has become the defining image of a disaster that has devastated the country. His unlikely rescue has given hope to a nation that has experienced so much loss.

The baby was taken to a nearby hospital. Doctors said he had suffered minor bruising and might end up with a small scar on his thigh. But he was OK.

It was a happy ending.

Except that in post-quake Nepal, few endings are entirely happy. Sadness abounds. Loss is everywhere.

The Awal family has no place to live. Everything they had was destroyed. And Sham Awal's sister-in-law and her two children, who lived nearby, all died in the earthquake.

But then again, a little baby boy, Nepal's new face of hope, still has his whole life ahead of him.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported from Muldhoka, Nepal. Don Melvin wrote this report from London.