Feeling a little like Abraham...

I think I have a taste of what Abraham might have felt like when God told him that his descendants would out-number the stars in the sky. He was probably wondering how that would be possible since he was old, his wife was old, and they didn't have any children to begin that sort of family tree.

Pete and I were talking last night. It's easy to get a little discouraged and wonder, "How, Lord?" How are we going to be able to save money for the Philippines with our money so tight and an economy so bad off? How will the Lord provide? We feel like God is telling us to go to the Philippines, but we have not a dime in savings and an income that just pays the bills and meets our needs. How in the world will this work out and be possible?

We've seen Him provide, and we always have exactly what we NEED. But this ride of faith seems to be requiring so much more faith than I have. Please do keep us in your prayers. Please pray God will show us what next step to take.

There We Go

We are planning on hosting a couple spaghetti dinners and evenings teas here in the next few months so we can share with our friends about the Philippines and ask for prayer support along the journey. If you live near Charlotte, NC and want to come to one, just leave a comment below!

We have a website called Our Journey that is now up and running! It tells you all about what we will be doing in the Philippines and ways you can pray for us and ways you might be able to help. (Hint: anyone expecting a baby anytime soon? I'm putting all money aside that I earn as a doula toward the Philippines!)

Big News!

As many of you know if you've been reading this blog, I was accepted a year ago into a midwife-training program that trains midwives on the mission field. Mercy Maternity Center is the school's charity-based birthing center that serves thousands of impoverished women each year.

We have gone back and forth trying to listen to God's voice and see if this is where He wants our family to go for 2 1/2 years for mission work. After a year of praying, the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit continues to whisper "go." Because our God is all-loving, always faithful and because He holds our future in His hands, we want to follow Him where He is leading and we are beginning this journey of moving to the Philippines to serve the poor in Davao City.

This is so exciting and so scary at the same time! So many thoughts and emotions run through my mind. It is very hard to think about leaving our family and close friends behind for 2.5 years. I am finding many words of comfort from His precious Word and also while reading a biography of Amy Carmichael's life. She was a missionary to India in the late 1800's/early 1900's and her life work was rescuing and caring for children who had been trapped in temple prostitution. When God called her to be a missionary she wrote a long letter to her mother. This is one of my favorite quotes from the letter:

"Many difficulties have risen in my mind; they seem very great, the "crooked places" seem very crooked. But it seems to me that all He asks is that we should take the one step He shows us, and in simplest, most practical trust leave all results to Him."

So, that's what we're trying to do. Just simply take the next step that He shows us and leave all the results to Him. If He is the one calling us to go, then He will make a way for it to happen. :-) We'll keep you updated :-)

Happy New Year!

Random thoughts and musings

TODAY

Today is very windy and cold and it feels like winter here in Charlotte. I had a little get-together with some of the students from my childbirth classes and one of my doula clients. Their babies were born in the last several months and I had heard from some of the mothers off and on that they were having a hard time feeling isolated and alone.

So, babies and coffee was born and we met at Dilworth coffee on this windy, autumn day in Charlotte. I don't know if we'll meet at a coffee shop each time (my 2 toddlers were on the wilder side sitting in a coffee shop for 1.5 hours!), but at least everyone got to meet other mommies! It was a good time.

THE PHILIPPINES

I haven't written much on my blog about the Philippines and going to New Life International School of Midwifery next year. Most of the time I think about writing and then I don't. I think I'm in a very "speechless" state right now. Pete and I are just doing a lot of praying and waiting on the Lord. I feel an unusually strong tug on my heart to go. This "tugging" only gets stronger when I go to church and the pastor speaks on Jonah. It gets stronger when I pick up my Bible and read just about any passage. Only stronger when I talk to God about it. It's the same "tug" I felt when Jesus called me to himself and asked me to give my life to Him. I don't know what to do with this very "Holy Spirit" type of tugging. It seems like we just need to obey and go! And then the doubts pop up...one after another..."What if we don't raise all the money?"....."What about vaccines for Avery? She had (mild) allergic reactions to the only 2 shots she's ever had."...."what about her skin?"...."what will life be like as a family in the Philippines?"......"what will our families think?" (...ummmm....let's just say that they aren't exactly thrilled with the idea of us moving across the world...)

AVERY's ECZEMA

Avery is being treated by an acupuncturist with an allergy-elimination technique called NAET. So far, it seems to be working, but only time will tell. Currently, her skin looks almost beautiful. And she is happier and happier every day. And, she's no longer allergic to dairy!!! yippeeeee!!
We just praise God and thank him for each and every day that Avery is happy and not scratching. And yesterday and today were days like that. Slowly and surely we are all getting our sanity back :-)

ME

I love being a doula. I'm excited to one day become a midwife, but there is no other word to describe how much I love helping other moms as a doula right now. Whether it is educating them on childbirth and breastfeeding, encouraging them, supporting them and praying for them. It is a ministry in and of itself. I feel so blessed each time I meet with a new mom-to-be.

I started seeing a chiropractor. I've only been two times and I don't remember the last time my back and neck felt so good. My neck and back have been bothering me a lot since the little ones came along. So, this is a huge blessing. :-)

Around Town and Home

One of the interns that is staying here this summer, Kate, made this great video of a short ride in Davao and also some pictures of what the home looks like that we are staying in. She was so kind to let me post it on my blog since I have been camera-less the past two days while I in search for my other batteries! Enjoy!

Filipina Women Are Amazing!

I just got back from my second birth room shift where I saw 2 more births. I cannot explain to you in words how amazing Filipina women are at giving birth. Even in the hospitals here there are no pain relievers (according to another midwife).

I have had 2 babies, and one completely without any drugs. It is HARD work. Most of these women coming into the clinic in labor that I have seen act like it is nothing at all to give birth. With the 5 births I have observed so far down here, there is only 1 birth where I saw the mom wanting some comfort and guidance of breathing during her contractions. With the other births I didn't hear much from them until it was time to push.

One mother today was getting ready to give birth to her 3rd baby and one of the midwives asked me to sit in the room with her just in case she started to push and a baby was visible! So, I sat there and she was just smiling away in between contractions at me. Then, she got a look of concentration and started pushing on the birthing stool. I called the midwife in and she took a look and within a matter of minutes the head was visible! "Way to go, mom!" was all I could think. Oh! And her bana (husband) had not even arrived at the clinic yet! She ended up having her baby before her husband got there. So, she pretty much did it all on her own.

After only being here for 4 days it's so easy to see that no meds should really be the norm because women's bodies are really made for this!

Blessing

I talked with Bethany yesterday, who took the baby with the deformity and trouble breathing on the hospital transport the other evening.

The father named the baby, Blessing. The baby was actually a girl (I thought it was a boy!). The father said, "Even though she is not doing well, she is our blessing. We will call her "Blessing".

Blessing is doing well, Bethany said. She is breathing well again, and they will be able to do re constructive surgery on her leg. Her leg did have all the bone in it, it was just turned the wrong way, up toward her face. The doctor said she will always walk with a limp, but, praise God, she will be able to walk!

Another way you get around Davao

I rode in one of these today with Naomi to a coffee shop. This is the other "taxi" in Davao. It's called a trisikad. It's a bicycle with a little cart on the side passengers sit in and you pay the driver to take you wherever. It's very in expensive to use these...like 5 pesos. Which is cheaper than 1 penny in US money (I think).

I know, you're thinking it doesn't look very safe. Well, driving is a completely different story here in Davao, and oddly enough, I heard there are less accidents here than the US. People evidently drive by "instinct" and are always driving defensively. In the US we have rules and laws to drive by so unfortunately, even though we should drive defensively we depend on the laws and rules and for everyone to obey them. If they don't, then there's a wreck. Evidently, I learn that here everyone is so defensive in their driving that wrecks are more rare.

My first birth room shift

I went in at 2pm to shadow Sarah, one of the student midwives, during swing shift. The supervising midwife, Stephanie, asked about my skills and I told her I was only here to observe since I didn't have any training. There are several interns here this summer with various backgrounds in training, some are midwifery students in the states trying to get their "numbers" (need to catch a certain amount of babies, etc before graduation), others are missionaries in other parts of the world trying to get more maternity experience. I wanted Stephanie to know I was not like that--my only experience was teaching childbirth classes!

Well, there were three moms laboring, and then very quickly 2 of the mothers started to push at about the same time. I was watching a mom give birth to her baby who had very thick meconium when the BOW broke. Stephanie told me that she would need me to hand her certain tools as the baby is born and she would also need me to turn on the suctioning machine if I asked her too. As soon as the baby's head was born, I turned on the suctioning machine and then there was just this very crazy flurry in room. Stephanie asked me to run to go get another student midwife who was upstairs in class for help. The other mom began to push, so one of the midwives in our room had to go assist that mom. That left me and Stephanie and another midwife assisting with this obvious emergency. So, Stephanie told me I would need to do the charting. (I now see that during the birth, there is a supervising midwife, an assisting midwife, and another midwife charting). So, I VERY QUICKLY learned to chart that evening, writing down everything that happened during the birth and everything that Stephanie told me to write.

The baby was having a hard time breathing, so oxygen was given. Apgars were 6 (not very high). The poor little baby boy had a deformity on his left leg. From about the knee down his leg was very floppy, almost as if there was no bone in that area. I could see the sadness in the mother and fathers eyes. I cannot imagine what that was like for them to face. The baby would do, okay, as long as oxygen was being administered, but if it was taken away he would not breath well. Stephanie explained to the husband that he would need to take his baby to the hospital with one of the midwives because the baby was not breathing well. Bethany, one of the other midwives who came from class upstairs volunteered to go on the transport. After the mom was cleaned up everyone left the room for a minute and it was just the two of us in the room. I offered her some water to drink and asked her how she was doing. Then, I asked if I could pray for her baby. She said, "please". So I prayed her baby would be strong and start to breath well. Afterwards I saw the mom fighting back her tears really hard.

I still don't know how the baby is doing. The baby was admitted to the hospital for difficulty breathing and he also had a lot of crackling in his lungs from the meconium. I will let you know as soon as I find out.

Soon after I left the room, I saw another birth of a mom who was having a lot of back pain with her labor and hard time pushing. She did a wonderful job and pushed out a 9lb 4oz baby boy! There was some meconium, but the baby was not having trouble breathing. I charted this birth as well.

Behind the other curtain, I went to say congrats to the young mom who had just given birth to her first baby! I had watched her during labor a little. She hung on every word any midwife would tell her. I have noticed mostly in this culture the women are pretty independent and do not want "help" during labor, they want to be left alone. This woman really appreciated guidance with breathing and I could tell she was scared about the pain of labor. Her baby girl was so healthy and the mom was so happy! Here are pictures below of this mom and her baby. One of the daddy and midwife giving her baby a bath, and the one at the very top is of the mom holding her baby.

After everything calmed down again, Stephanie told me and laughed that I came "only to observe". She said God had other plans for me there that evening, and now I have a new skill....charting!

Day 1...Busy Day!!

The pictures you see above and below are of me in the clinic yesterday evening after being awake for 36 hours! I got to "babysit" one of the newborns whose mommy had to be transported due to a 4th degree tear. It was hard to get a good picture of his precious face because he kept turning toward me wanting to nurse! He is a very beautiful boy and I believe his mother is doing fine.


The first thing I did this morning after talking with Pete on Google Talk was go over and observe prenatals. This is a picture of one of the midwifery students, Holli, doing a prenatal on a very sweet mother who was pregnant with her 6th baby! She really wants a girl because she has 1 girl and 4 boys. She is 31 weeks today. After the prenatal exam, we pray with each mother.

After prenatals, Jennel, one of the midwifery students from Lyberia, Africa, took me all around Davao. She's an MK (missionary kid) and so even though she is American, so grew up in Africa, and it was fun talking with her about how I thought the driving in Davao is absolutely crazy. What a cultural experience my outing was!! We rode a jeepney to the mall which is a van with an open back you climb into. It's simply just how everyone gets around here in the city. They are just like taxis, but they are jeepneys. We went to the mall you see on your left and it was air conditioned!! I loved being in there simply for the AC! Then we walked from the mall to some other shops wear tourists frequent. Everything here is SUPER cheap. If you want me to get you anything please email me! They have genuine pearls here for like $3 for a bracelet or $5 for a necklace. The pollution from the cars is really bad here. Most people walk around with a handkerchief covering their mouths while they are in traffic.

After my outing around Davao, I came back and had lunch with Naomi and Chad and she talked to me about what being in the program at New Life is like from a mother's perspective. Then I went and shadowed at the clinic during swing shift from 2-6. We had 3 births back to back! I'll write more about that experience tomorrow. It's 8pm here and I'm still catching up with sleep so I'm off to bed! Hope you are well wherever you are!

I made it!

After traveling for a total of about 36 hours (inlcuding layovers), and sleeping for about 4 of those hours, I made it to Davao City, Philippines! I'm thrilled to be here and excited to see what God will show me while I'm here. During an 11 hour layover in Los Angeles, Lisa Racek picked me up at the airport and invited several dear friends over for lunch and prayed for me and my trip. I took a little nap at her house, a shower, had dinner with her family and then she brought me to the international terminal at LAX. I felt so nervous as I entered that airport, by myself and not knowing the slightest about international traveling. Upon entering, I already felt like I was in a different country, hearing English seldom spoken. I made my way through checking in and security, and waited for my flight for about 2hours. I talked with a girl, Karen, who is from Manila and visits her family once a year in the states. She was going home. She spoke great English and I have recently learned that everyone in the Philippines takes English from K-12. So I haven't met a Filipino/Filipina yet that does not speak at least a little English. That is nice, since I know little of the native language. Karen taught me a few phrases, like "hello", "how are you", "how old are you", "what is your name". I learned also there are over 50 dialects used in the Philippines, so not everyone here speaks the same exact language. When I got onto the airplane, it smelled strongly of curry. They served chicken curry for dinner, and curried rice, eggs, and fish for breakfast. I didn't eat much breakfest, fish wasn't quite my idea of breakfast. :-) So, I had some snacks I had packed. On my flight over here I was seated beside the flight attendents' kitchen. This didn't make for very good sleeping. Even after taking 2 benadryll to try and knock myself out, I slept 4 or 5 hours of very interupted sleeping. I got onto the plane at 10:30pm PCT and we arrived in Manila at 5:30am Philippines time. It was 16 hours of traveling and it was dark the ENTIRE time! Very weird, I must admit! We stopped in Guam briefly for refueling the airplane. But I didn't see any of Guam because it was dark. Evidently the flight back will be light the entire time.

When I got off of the plane in Manila I prayed to run into an American to tag along with through immigration and customs. Karen wasn't transferring flights like I was to Davao, so I said good-bye to her. I ran into a guy (now i can't remember his name) who was also visiting the Philippines for the first time from Michigan. He was nice and we tried to figure everything out together. Getting off in Manila to me was like stepping back in time to the early 90's. At the tranfer desk, several people were using typewriters, there was a letter tray and lots of things were done by paper. There was a couple computer too, of course, just not quite like LAX! :-) Everyone was very helpful at the airport. "Matt" (I'll call the guy b/c i don't know his name) and I ran into each other while in line to pay an airport exit fee. It was 200 pesos, and guess what? At the time I had 0 pesos to my name and couldn't find a place to change my money over to pesos. So, offered to pay my fee for me. Very nice of him, but they actually ended up accepted american dollars, so it was only $5. I arrived to wait for my flight to Davao at 6:30am and my flight didn't leave till 10:30am. I changed my clothes in the bathroom, bought some bottled water, and sat and waited. I was very, very tired. Not to emphasize exhaustion, but I have never felt so tired in my entire life. I started feeling a little disoriented and shakey. Then i thought maybe I should eat something, I wasn't hungry though. That helped a lot. My whole body was thrown off b/c it was supposed to be night time in Charlotte but instead it was about 7am in Manila. I layed down on the bench to try and nap while Matt watched my stuff. I just tried to sleep with my purse and important belongings attached to me. I couldn't sleep. But lying down was very welcomed since I had sat up for 16 hours straight. I was sitting there praying that God would provide another person to "tag along" with during my flight to davao and several minutes later, a guy in cowboy boots sat down across from me. He was from Alabama...with a very THICK accent! It was kind of nice to hear sitting in Manila. :-) It turns out, he knows some people from Mercy Maternity Center. He lived in Davao for 13 years as a missionary with Faith Baptist Church. He was coming back to visit his wife and two girls who were having trouble with their visas getting back to the states. He was a very interesting guy to talk to and spoke very highly of Davao and great a place it was to live. His parents were also missionaries in Davao and he told me that for over 5 or 6 years their entire family lived in Davao. He went to college and seminary in Davao as well.

I saw a beautiful country flying from Manila to Davao. Palm trees and mountains everywhere...ocean on both sides. Crystal clear water. I saw some of the remains of the typhoon, some flooded areas. Leaving the airport was easy. I got my luggage and went outside to meet Laura and Carmen who brough me back to the "Orange House" where I am staying. It is a VERY nice house. Very big, lots of rooms. No air conditioning. So, i'm getting used to sweating 24/7. But I'm very happy to experience all of the highs and lows of being in Davao.

On my way over to the house I saw what I thought were rows of shacks that were falling apart, but then realized they were stores open for business. One was even a bar/restaurant, I believe. I can tell I'm in a poor country. Oh, but the Filipinas I have met so far are some of the warmest people I have met. Every girl here at Mercy is so full of love and wanting to help me feel comfortable during my stay.

I had lunch with Naomi and Chad who have 2 boys. We had chicken curry that was cooked by their helpers (they have live-in Filipina helpers that cook and clean for them as well as watch the kids as needed). Labor is very in expensive here and while in the program at New Life, help is very much needed. Naomi told me if we move here we will also need help with cooking/ cleaning because the program is so intense in addition to being a mother and wife. But how AMAZING it would be to not cook meals and clean!! Wow! Lunch was the most amazing chicken curry ever. Delicious. Then, I went over to Mercy Maternity clinic next door and watched a mother give birth to a 9+lbs baby boy! I was so happy she had a healthy boy. It seemed to me that he got stuck a little on his way out. His head came out and then the midwife had to pull on him a little and he wasn't coming out. And she said "this is a big baby!" and he certainly was! The mom did great and was thrilled! The father didn't stop smiling from ear to ear the entire time. What a sweet family. I told the mom I have 2 girls and I thought she did a great job, very hard work. She smiled and said "thank you" and told me she also has 2 girls and a boy, so this was her 4th baby!

I'm going to go now to shower and get dressed to go over to the clinic for prenatals. It's funny how it's not even 8am and I am drenched in sweat while I sit here to type. Below are some pictures I took while sitting on the upstairs porch this morning. There were 3 little girls dressed in uniforms walking to school, but somehow I only got one in the picture. And there is what looks like a green school bus being fixed in another picture. I miss and love you all! Especially my husband and girls!