The Little Children's Home

TLC Home is an orphanage that is under the same ministry as the birth center. For me spending time there is dangerous, I fall in Love! They currently have 13 children waiting for adoption. I love holding the little ones and sometimes would love to ditch the birth center to spend more time with them. Even when they burp up all over you, like Kesha who quickly became my favorite! She won me over when I got her to take her nap with me. She loves being held and gets upset when you put her down. Kind of needy, I have heard rumours that I was like that as a baby.... We bonded.

The Joys Of Travel

I have spent too much of my free time lately on hold with the airlines listening to "I Can Fly" on repete, only to be interrupted by a lovely voice reminding me that someone will be with me shortly and my call is very important to them. The whole time all I'm thinking is CAN I FLY????? Alex and I are attempting to change our tickets to get home. We originally bought our tickets for one year out so we could change them at a later date. That later date is quickly approaching and we are trying to get tickets for September 14th. We arrive back from Singapore on the 13th and want one day to collect ourselves before making the journey home. So now Alex and I are in a battle, all flights are booked full from the 14th to the 21st. We are on a waiting list but are not allowed to know how long the waiting list is. I guess they fear we may find the people in front of us and "fix" the problem, tempting at this point.... tempting! In the mean time we have to call back everyday to renew our request and see if any changes have occurred. Let's get specific. We are praying for the 6:30am flight out of Manila on September 14th with no extra fees or taxes. If you want to add first class we will not complain! I just have to keep laughing through this all. So here are some aids to help you do the same!

Prayers For Penatals

At Shiphrah Birth Center we have three prenatal check up days a week with each day bring over 50 women to the clinic. The day starts at 8:30am with a Bible study then we move on to exercise, teachings and prenatal check ups. I usually see 8-12 women each day and this has become one of my greatest areas of ministry. I love getting to learn more about the women and see them as they go through the pregnancy. This is the time when I really get to meet the needs for those around me by doing more then buying their vitamines or few check ups. Many of the women come from the poorest of the poor. Some are living in homes for unwed mothers, we see many scared teenage girls as young as 15, and because our mission also runs a baby home next door we see women who have decided to give their babies up for adoption. Sometimes these issues seem so overwhelming to me and I am not sure how to relate to the women. So I pray. It is such a blessing to pray with them and for them. In a culture that is so focused on shaming someone who does something wrong, prayer to make them feel loved opens their hearts. I am seeing women and girls who's lives have come from such a different place then mine, but I have found a common ground in prayer and needing the love of God. I ask that you will join me in prayer for these strong and beautiful women.

Baby Holding, My Antidrug!

Some days you get so caught up in all the work the newborn exam and postpartum and is the baby breastfeeding, has the baby been given a bath yet and all the medical stuff that you forget to just hold the baby. Then life gets stressful and you remind yourself "I need some baby holding time". So that is what I do I go kidnap a baby from a very tiered mom and realize that life is amazing once again.

Take A Test

So my roomies and I were wasting some time on our Sunday afternoon taking tests on www.blogthings.com. You would have known my results because I almost had a lapse of judgement and posted them for you on my blog like the web sights encourages you to do. So you could have found out that; I have an amazing personality, should be a nurse or teacher or that I am going to be a cool parent and my power animal is apparently a deer? But then I decided that was putting myself out there a little too much. Basically it comes down to the fact that people want to take their own test they don't so much care that you are likely to live to be 100 or that you should paint your toes pink! So if you have a little time and want some reassurance that you have a winning personality and life will go amazing for you as long as your character always matches up to an apple pie, do some quizzes and feel good about how normal you are.

The 4th Of July

The 4th is my favorite holiday. Summer fun with family and friends, BBQ and fireworks what more could you ask for. So like most Americans the girls and I had to work until 1 that afternoon and go back to work the next day. But we did not let that stop us from having a little celebration of our own. Here are some pics of the night which started with a bowl of cookie dough and ended in us singing the National Anthem at the top of our lungs. God Bless American!