playing or winning

I was informed the other day that since I liked to play games and grandma liked to play games we should play a game with isaiah cause he likes to WIN games...and since the zoo and water park and sentosa were already done we decided to play a game at home with A 5 year old (who likes to win) and his 3 year old sister. Dora's snakes and ladders. How many adults does it take to teach 2 kids how to play a game...we had 4 and it still wasn't enough...sneeky little hands...and after all that well, a certain 5 year old didn't win and ended up with a talk with Dad in the bedroom and poor Hannah was crying by the end. I forgot that drama is about 2 seconds away in our family. Snakes and ladders has never been so melodramatic. Sorry about the blurry pictures...I really am not usually the photographer...I never am.

Half-way thru Holiday

apparently swimming has changed to becoming an extreme sport since I was a kid...no more throw on a swim suit and jump in...a day at the pool involves a body suit complete with cap and sunscreen...but we still had as much fun as ever...you just have to get over what you look like first though...well I guess that hasn't really changed much either...

happy 7th b-day rose

the little sis playing with a present...
this is what happens when you forget to bring water baloons for a game...you become the game

Claire Avril

...meet Claire...she is a tiny little cutie born at home with her older sister peeking in to watch the birth. Yes, her middle name is after avril levigne...kinda funny in this one week two births with major avril emphasis.

to name a clinic...

coming up with a name for the little clinic we have been working at has been a recent obsession...here are some contenders...

bethlehem's manger

blessed...something?

precious jewels

daughter's of faith

children of faith

away in a manger

three sister's (she has three daughters for real)

delivery place

miriam

Mercy and Joy

Graceful Delivery

The Basket

deliver us

helping hands

heart and hands...wait a second...

open hands

merciful hearts

careful hands...catching you...there for delivery...just breathe...push...woven hearts


the list goes on...this search has endless possibilities...

beautiful birth

Last nite, got a call at around 8:30pm to go to a birth ASAP. Off we go, the clinic had a brown-out but in the home of our laboring mum there was power, so light or no light is basically the options here...we chose light. Emelia has 3 kids already so we knew things could go fast. The room was set up and then we wait...and talk and bond and wait...Emilia told us to sit in the labor room while she labored in the living room with her 2 little girls. 10:40 she pulls herself off the floor and makes it to the bed just in time for crowning and catch. Little cutie is barely 5 lbs so when she was ready she just shot out. The most incredible part of the birth is most mums are out of it and just kinda lay there after a birth, they let you take care of things for the one time they can drop the ball and all hands are on deck. But not Emelia, she wanted to dress her baby after the bath and started breasfeeding right away. We thought she would lay down eventually but she was still sitting up and nursing when we left, her little girls had come in to see their new baby. It was such a great thing to see, a little family all excited and welcoming a new little life. I was kinda worried cause in the beginning Emilia was a bit unsure of how excited she was about the pregnancy...she already had 3 kids and she really didn't want any more for a bit. Looking at her dressing her baby and checking every toe and finger for herself-i was thinkin mum was pretty in luv with her babe's already.

moving and alittle ranting

So, I am moving with my roomie Alex to a clinic on the other side of Metro Manila. Tuesday is the big day. We are hoping to help Gerlene paint her clinic before then and there are two ladies whom I have been doing prenatals on that are due any day. Actually they were due the other day but nothing has happened yet. I dreamt that the babies came last nite-so fast there was no time to call me.
So I am packing. I've moved alot lately so I'm pretty pro at it.
Doing laundry.
It has been stressful cause good-byes are not a strong point for me. All these women who watched me just come and go and they probably think i like breezing in and breezing out. I'd rather just wave from a distance and then be done-no rehash, no how's life back at the ranch, no periferals just good-bye. all this messiness of hello and good bye thru life is a bit of a gong show. why can't things be straightforward.
Anyway, enough, I am slowly gaining back my voice. i am going to visit the parentals on the 26th...hurray...also my sis and her fam will be there enroute to Canadia.
So maybe after a holiday with the folks, alittle tlc from the munchkins and Dad making (and bringing:) me coffee for 4 mornings it will be worth another hello/good-bye experience.
Seriously though, it's not as easy as it sounds...good-bye's are about ending things....I am not into endings...thats why i got into midwifery...beginnings are more 'in the moment', 'exciting', they have potential...goodbye's are baggage, messy, awkward (as in do i really have to hug somebody I've only known for a sum total of three days just to say good-bye?) and could happen over and over again with the same people. So it's a rythmn of messy baggage and hugging people you don't know. Why do I subject myself to this? Why am I subjecting you to this? I would have to say that in both cases I don't know.

meet j-jay

here he is in fine form with the lungs going full blast
you can't see it but he's still going...
he stopped. all happy and cuddly now...
in other news i ate a whole bowl of chocolate no bake cookie dough...and i have no voice...I think that the whole vow of silence, vow of celebacy, vow of poverty, vow of chastity, vow of purity...is very close to me right now...I feel like a monk...I can't talk, I only live with girls, I happen to be not so poor (my neighbors don't have running water or toilet paper so I feel quite unpardonably wealthy with my TP and toilet) but other than that...i feel like I missed my calling. I should have become a nun and stood in some tower window in Romania and prayed for the crazy world outside.

mood music

So 5am and a call, 6cm...come and labor sit. hurray. Off to labor watch which includes being fed pandisol (hot buns) and chicken rice. Mum is looking good walking alot and so we chill and talk about...birth. After about 2 hours things aren't picking up much so our midwife in charge tells us to labor sit while she goes home to prep for prenatal day. About 10 minutes later our laboring mum decided to put on some music, i don't know what we were expecting but it wasn't avril levegnne...whatever the last name is. i think hearing avril belt it out at top volume helped get baby excited to come out cause one hour later he was coming fast. He came out screaming and screamed thru his bath and screamed and screamed and then just stopped and didn't even cry during his vit K shot. So i have become a beliver in angry girl music to stimulate labor. makes you wanna kick the pants out of contractions. So home birth and avril....my two favorite things today.

Chocolate and parties

So i got some chocolate the other day. Stopped by Worldteam guesthouse to pick up a book Dad had somebody bring me and what do ya know there was a toblerone too....toblers are important enns chocolate; they symbolize countless fondue good-bye's and fondues just cuz. They are a staple in the diet and mine had been sorely lacking in them of late. Funny cause it happened to be a kinda stressful week and I just needed a little chocolate...alot of chocolate...tobler chocolate. So it was very satisfying and thanks dad and mums for the book and for the chocolate-I am happy to report it did last the taxi ride home but just barely. And now i can read about the spirit of the disciplines cause I know I need some more discipline in my life...the tobler episode speaks loud and clear.
Some of the craziest munchkins ever...had a birthday party...took some pics and i do believe a fun time was had by all. half-way thru the party a pregnant girl came in and I got to do an initial prenatal...cool. Then another lady came by in labor...just wanted to let us know she was in labor-then she went home. Being a midwife is certainly more than just births...I am learning that more and more every day. Our midwife is a huge role model for me and I am always wishing that when i grow up I can be as kind and gracious and just practise with the same relational midwifery that she has shown us.

Change

Change, Change, Change, Change, Change

If you say change alot of times in a row, it could start to sound like a train. So for my children's book story, instead of the little train that could, I would just write about a little train called change. And I would have to get a good illustrator to make it interesting cause right now I am thinking I would just make the whole story one word. Change.
Maybe I would even do a word scrabble of change too...who knows I am open to putting more in my childrens story...hancge....acgenh....gencha....enhagc....hecgan
the possibilities are endless.
I could have the title egnahc...you know backwards...just to keep things interesting.
Anyway, I haven't found an illustrator yet so could be a few more years...

Waterfall

Linsey and Alex
Myself, Kim, Linsey and Kayla
Myself and Kim
I am here with some of the best people I know. These are my fellow 'mates here in the phils with me right now. 2 are my roomies and then 2 we meet up with at least once a week. Bring on the waterfall girls! Sarah ann and Beck's are missing but I'll get them up soon...

Easter Egg Hunt in the Cemetary

Grace decided she wanted to pose for a picture...she is not really this serious.

below...joy and her two cuzins...very cute kids

WE wanted to have an easter egg hunt with our midwifes 3 daughters...turned into a family affair with cuzins and friends and also Raylyn's mum (raylyn was the little baby that died when she was born March 14) came with her step kids. WE didn't know she had step kids but it was nice to find that out.
So anyway we ended up with a little crew and had quite a bit of fun. Alex wanted to make halo-halo a traditional treat for them so we parked on a tombstone and grated ice and threw in some jellies and condensed milk and wal-la 'halo-halo'. It was a fun way to end easter and see the kids run around and all the energy they had in a graveyard was kinda like easter in our hearts. Life and joy in the midst of death. So here are the pics of the gang...

little diddy

should be a pop classic in no time...this goes out to all the crew that came over saturday nite and got an eye-full of our nitely entertainment rodent style-the chocolate fondue was amazing and the company was stellar.

the rats go overhead by tens ahhhhhhh ahhhhhhhh
the rats go overhead in droves ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh
i can't believe their on the beams
i'm watching out for poop on me
and i think i should go in...
to get away from the rats...eeeek eeek eeek

Easter Thoughts

So, have been having great family easter emails. Thanks Yase for the dead bunnie info. and I thought since i am part of the fam I would share...and then i thought since i have a blog i will share on that so that too will spread into the family network:) i am a thinker.
About devotions, lately I've been thinking that really, 20-30-even 40 minutes of devo's really doesn't cut it to get you thru the whole day. It's like make-up and until now I didn't realize how quickly it can literally slide off your face. One minute I'm all ready to go and then i step outside into the hot humidity of life and blah! And as much as I want a superficial Christ-like manner, I really want my heart to change more.
The pharisees were into make-up! Thats really what I think.
But if I'm still dead, and still look dead...how am I alive? I don't feel alive.
Thats where the easter part comes in...I want an easter view of myself and all the situations I get into each day. I want to be covered in the blood of Jesus and I don't care if in that position I can only see things dimly, maybe a dead person is perfect for God's plan cause thats when He gets all the credit for making life really and truly happen. So even if I look dead, and feel dead, God is completing His work and really I am almost awake, soon to be new, all that I've hoped for and so it'll be Okay, it'll be alright.

Hello April 5

It is a good morning, found out we killed/caught another rodent in a trap, got some french press coffee action going on with mandy moore singing about lifting her hands and praying. What more can you ask for in a wake up call.
The roomate made french toast. Sometimes life starts out with alot of goodness.
Now I'm not saying that things can't go terribly south after this...but I also get to go on prenatal homevisits today. I realize that i just read about the israelites and their manna excitment in the morning and by evening they where grumbling about meat...but Kim is cooking supper so i don't think I will be grumbling about that.
oh and I'll probably do some laundry later on today so I think it should be good...i am an israelite but even the desert had it's good days:)

Goodnite April 5
so i got to visit and drink coke and do prenatals. we got invited to a ton of easter sunday celebrations here-I guess it's like christmas back home-and then had spagetti for dinner.
The only downer was seeing 2 rats crawling on the rafters above us while we ate dinner on our little patio. But we killed 2 already today so I guess you can't win every time...oh and we have a visitor, Jen, midwife from last years class. She is going to sleep over. So fun. i knew April 5 would be a good day.

Prostitution in the Philippines

Here's an article about children being trafficed for prostitution here in the philippines. It may not be my 'real' life or anyone I know for that matter; but it's someone's real life and it's so sad. Click HERE if you want to read it...
PS my roomie kim walks me thru every new thing with the internet...seriously I am illiterate and slow at computers and she has helped me learn so much...so here's to Kim

twins update

so went on postpartums today and saw the tweeners. Their sister Samaria helps her mum with taking care of the little guys now that school is out. Samaria has claimed baby Joseph as her twin. I can't believe that they are over 2 weeks old. Alma is looking great but has admitted that she is tired and by evening she is all in. This is a pic of Samaria and joseph on the left and Josuah on the right...can you tell who is breastfed? Joseph is HUGE and I encouraged her to breastfeed Josuah abit more, he is definately the littler guy!

Alex hung out with the neighbor kids and taught them to say things like, Hello California...Welcome to the Philippines...Hello Ate Mia...Hello Ate Kim...postpartum visits are always fun.PS Samaria took this picture...thanks to Ate Kim lending the camera.

pictures

me and grace...the third born daughter of our midwife...she is kinda a drama queen...she doesn't like to pose for pictures if you ask her, yet she prances around and preens as soon as she feels like she needs to grab your attention...she labor watches with us and tries to come into the labor room for...baby out!
Dianna just graduated from high school so we got her a guitar...she plays at competitions and stuff. Her mum (in the pic below) is our assistant at all the births. She bathes the babies and well, feeds us and basically takes care of us.
Dianne is Grace's little 2 year old. She came with her mum to prenatals and we bonded. Grace is hopefully going to let me catch her baby. She is 38 weeks and very soft spoken and gorgeous...

friendship

Okay so i come from a long line of preachers, but this goes out to my friend...you might not be reading for awhile so this one i wanted you to know and I hope it encourages you. keep fighting, seize the day and all that...

Joy in the Holy Spirit. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing...exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation. we also glory in tribulations. Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds thru Christ. The joy of the Lord is your strength. For the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Daily Light April 1)
hey friend, just wanted you to know that everywhere you look I'm going to try and and let you know my prayers are with you. If, "Joy is the uproarious labor by which all thinks live" (G K Chesterton) then labor on. And remember that i am laboring with you. I can't take your pain away, but I am lucky to say that I have witnessed some of your labor and even if we have to transport...change course...yes even go to the dreaded hospital:) You are laboring for something worthwhile, the pain is for something far better than we have ever known yet. You and I know all about the other side of things, we have caught a glimpse and it's worth it. So labor on friend, heaven is the labor of our joy.