My Neighborhood

The glass is always half empty when you are waiting for it to be full of money.

City Of Angels

Alex and I went on a day trip to Angeles City yesterday to scout out the land and doing some praying. Angeles is one of the major hubs for prostitution, human trafficking and sex slavery in the Philippines.

To learn more about the city click here: Angeles City

Pics 2 Make Lindsey smile & U can laugh @ me 2!

Our roommate at the birth center Shanman is always trying to get us to use this "special" face cream from her home country Myanmar. After months of escaping the inevitable she finally got to me!... and Alex!

When It Rain It Pours and When It Pours The Rain Is Stronger

I hit birth #50 on my last shift with a bang. Alex and I had 7 births in our 48 hours. Although that may not seem like a lot if you are thinking about hospital type care, we are midwives and that is much different! If you consider the fact we do all of the labor watching, deliver, postpartum care and new born exams it is hours and hours of birth. No complaints, I love it all!

More amazing then the fact we survived 7 births is that I have now been to over 50 natural births. I am so inspired by how amazing these women are. Their strength, love and gentleness is a miracle to watch and be apart of. Can you imagine 50 natural births, no C-sections, electronic fetal monitoring, no doctors running around covered in plastic or pain medication? I am trying to write this without being offensive. I recognize the value of western medicine when there is an emergency. However, the majority of the world's population does not have access to these high tech care and like all women have the ability to deliver their children naturally. Western medicine is a blessing for those that are determined to have factor that classify them as a high risk pregnancy. Basically what I am saying is let's not think that God would create people and not create a way for them to be born! As a midwife the natural birth looks much different then a hospital setting. For those of you that are thinking the woman must be dieing without shot after shot of pain medicine, not at all. They are in complete control and coordination with the bodies, just like God designed it to be. They are able to realize that although labor is hard work, the work and pain is the process that leads to the miracle and it is so worth it!

BIRTH ROOM & ONE OF MY HEROS

This mom was amazing. She was laughing and joking with us during her whole pushing phase. Natural birth is a beautiful thing.

Mothers. I have witnessed the first meeting of a mom and her new born babe. I once believed that I knew a mother's love and loved my mom the same. But now I know how could this be. She was right when she told me you have to be a mother before you can truly see. Although still a young girl I tried to convince her, as I truly believed, that I loved her just as much as she loves me. As I grow older I begin to understand, but still do not know if I can even comprehend the kind of love my mother has given to me. Mom. So amazing, so giving. If only my tear filled eyes could get the words on this page. How much I wish to show. How grateful I am, she prays for me. How amazing my mom is. Knowing it is her love that helped me to be the person I am today. You are more then a super hero, you are real to me. Even the realization that she stops all she is doing to talk to me brings me to my knees. How can one person love so much, give so much without thinking twice? I can barley handle this unconditional love. It is so much. What can I give in return to someone who gives of their whole self so freely? So with a thankful heart,

I love you Mom.

The Facts, No Blood or Guts

The more I study midwifery the more I am amazed by the Creator. As I attend births, study A&P and midwifery books the science of it all points me back to him. I can not even comprehend how perfectly we are made. How amazing God is to be mindful of us?

Being Dorks: from the inside out

So I have never been afraid of spiders, but I have never had a thing for them either. Then the girls and I decided to go a little over board with the whole Spiderman 3 movie that was coming out. Everyone else was freaking out about it so we wanted in on the fun. We watched the first two, decided ourselves out in spidy gear and went to the show. I realize it has not come out at home yet, just one of the advantages of being in a different time zone, but I am definitely saying you should go see it. I am still not a comic book girl, but the message of this movie is just so right on I loved it.

Sushi: A Fish & Bread Remix

I think Jesus would like sushi. I mean he was definitely into fish and we serve a creative God. After a little talking into I went to sushi with the girls last night. As a native Montanian, out on the town with two experience sushi experts I knew I had to jump in. Plus I love doing new things and want to be more like Jesus! My previous experience with sushi has always been the California Roll a basic in the sushi menu and a very safe choice. Last night I expanded and we had a party with Rock&Roll, Dynamite, Teriyaki Chicken and California Rolls. So with good friends and good food I am leaving that table with my glass half full.

Spelling?

I have been meaning to write for quite sometime and apologize for my poor spelling. After seeing this stand at a mall here and Manila and realizing I am not the only one who suffers I sat down to write this blog. If you have been semi consistent in reading my blog, I am sure you have notice by now it is one of my weaknesses. Or even if you have read only one post I apologize for the effort it may have taken to fumble though it. There is the problem of the random words I try to make work when I can not figure out how to spell the word I want to use and I always have to change the way I say things so I can spell each word right. With that said I also want to mention that it is not easy being such a poor speller and maybe some of you can relate. Growing up as a bad speller sure makes you resourceful because it affects your daily life. Writing checks can lead to cardiac arrest as you search your surroundings to find the spelling of the company's name. Or that one little line I dread where the make you spell out exactly how much you spent. Heaven forbid someone with a puzzling last name or confusing information call and ask to leave a message. That is when I pull out the art form of making the letters hard to distinguish. Making my "e" look like it could be an "a" or an "i" and I write really close together. Thinking it better if someone can kind of make it out thinking I have bad hand writing then realize it is spelled complete wrong. So I confess I do make an effort to hide all my spelling errors. I use spell check often. At twenty one I am still very dependent on my mom or sister to edit all my work, thankfully they are much better spellers then I and helped me get though high school without out looking totally stone age. I also have an automatic reflex of copying my emails, blogs and myspace messages into a Word document and waiting for the page to be covered with red lines so I can fix my mistakes and hide my weakness! I spell the word I know then use Word’s thesaurus to find the word I want. I am thankful for Word and would be embarrassed to show you how many of those red lines are on my page as I type this out. So, I am in the bad speller camp with so many others, separated from those who can spell crazy words in their heads, compete in spelling bees and then make movies about people competing in spelling bees.

But I can read and I have never been as thankful for that as I was the other day. Lindsay and I went into a bookstore, which is one of my favorite places to be. It had been months since I had been in a book store and I was amazed as I realized I could read and what that really meant. Not only that, I can read in English meaning I could pick up any book from the self and have a go at it. Anything I wanted to learn is at my finger tips. Reading is something I never thought twice about until the reality that not everyone can hit me in the Philippines.

Unforgetable moments I can not quite remember.

I think most midwives will agree there is a single moment in birth right when the baby is coming out that seems to slip away from your mind. You can't picture this moment or recall the details, yet you know it is amazing. The moment is made unforgettable by it's effect on your heart not senses of your flesh. At this point you know you are in the middle of a miracle, apart of something so much greater then you. It is a moment when everything is made perfect, love is born before your eyes. Then the baby is out, in your hands on the mom's chest and all you can do is praise the Lord.

Street Children: How did these two words ever meet?

O' Little child

On the street you do sleep.

Walking around

With your dirty bare feet.

I want to weep with you,

But I never see you cry.

How is it that you who are weak

Are stronger then I?

You Turn My World Upside Down!

It has been a fun few days at the birth center so here is a little update of some of the highlights!

Catch Just On Time
On Wednesday I had the day off but was on call for my continuities and got the call at 6:30am that my patient had come in and was already full dilated. (For a continuity we have to do the patient's prenatal visits, labor and delivery, newborn exam and postpartum visits so a lot of work goes into getting them and it is upsetting when you cannot make the birth or if they get transported.) It was her third birth so I knew the pushing phase would be short. I jumped out of bed and grabbed a taxi for the 45 minute commute. I felt cool telling the driver I was an on call midwife and in a big hurry! I was stuck in traffic about 3/4 of the way there when I got the call to not worry about coming in the baby was going to be out soon. With two 15+ hour births on my last shift I already knew God has been teaching me a lot about patients. So I sat in the taxi and became content with the fact that this is out of my hands and in God's. I decided to go into work anyway just to say hi and congratulations. When I walk into delivery room 2 I could hear the sound of the doppler taking fetal heart tones which means the baby was not out yet. It was still crowning and I made it just in time to catch. Maybe I am not the only one learning not to rush in life, because I think the baby was waiting for me!

9.5 Pound'r and I not talking about fishing!
Sharon caught this baby boy weighing 9lbs 8 ounces for Filipinos that is definitely the catch of the day.


Upside-Down
We had our first breech birth. It was so amazing to see a natural birth of a breech baby, some midwives never get this opportunity because they transport to hospitals if the baby is breech. A perfectly happy, healthy baby was born a little upside down. As you can see from the picture he still was not used to all the freedom his legs had found!


Precious Family
This family was so beautiful and I am thankful that I got to be apart of it for these special moments. The kids both rubbed their moms back during labor and waited with great excitement for the baby to come out. We watched Happy Feet to pass some time during the long labor. The three year old boy thinks his new little sister is very beautiful. The eleven year old girl stayed close to Lindsey and me for the rest of the night.

On My Mind & Heart
I did find some down time to read and dream about Nigeria as God increased my love for the country.