Travels

My brother was so amazing in being willing to take some time off work to drive me to and from Iowa to take my NARM exam so that i could maximize studying time on the way there. We left around 2pm from MN and arrived a little after 6pm.

We had dinner, I studied a little more and then went to bed at 10pm. I was restless all night so sure that I wouldn't wake up to either of the two alarms I had set for 6:30am, but I woke up no problem, David and I had a great waffle breakfast compliments of the hotel and were on our way to the exam site.

I waited in the wrong area and I got nervous when no one showed up and it was almost 8am when the test was supposed to start, but a lady showed me where to go and I made it to the test in time. The first section of 175 questions took me until 10:30am, we took a 1/2 hour break and then the second section took from 11am to 1pm.

In some ways the test was easier than the final exam that I did pass at Newlife School of Midwifery (where I graduated from in June) but in other ways the questions were subject and a little on the frustrating side. I did my best and hope that I passed, but I won't find out for another 3-6 weeks! The wait might kill me :)

Because I finished the test earlier than expected, I was able to get to MN by 6pm, and I turned right around and joined the BCOM mentors for the tail end of the mentor retreat. So in the span of 12 hours I was in IA, MN and then WI! Yikes.

All went well, except when I was less than a mile away from the campsite in WI I HIT A DEER!!! Yikes. That was intensely scary! It came bounding out of cornfields and I had no time to stop, but since I was only going about 20 mph, it bounced onto the hood of my parents' car, then over the windshield and then over the roof into the ditch, but there was no blood, and when we went looking for the deer later, we couldn't find it so I don't think I killed it. It was a big buck though - about 1.5 times my size! I have never run over anything thus far - not even a squirrel, so that was frightening, but God definitely was protecting me. Thank you Jesus :)

NARM Board Exam

This will be the shortest post yet, because I am running out the door to drive to Iowa for my test, but I wanted to ask that people who check my blog remember to pray for me and my two friends Laura and Tiffany who are all taking the NARM board exam this Wednesday, August 20th.

The test will take the whole day, is 350 questions I have been told and is very important for me to pass. :) Thanks for your prayers and interest in my life.

I won't find out if I passed or not for 3 more weeks, but here's to hoping! :D

Lois this is for you!

Making hummus at home turned into a family effort! I found garbanzo beans with Rebecca's help at the Super Walmart, then the twins were instrumental in helping me shell all of them as the rest of the family groaned at the effort it took. Then Rebecca and my dad went to a different grocery store to find me the Tahini that I needed, then our blender/food processor just wasn't cutting it so my mom bought a new one at walmart! Yikes. Good thing the hummus turned out good - of course that was a given seeing as my teacher was amazing! Thanks Lois! :) Loves to you.

Hellos are much better!

My last post was hard to write, but this one is so much nicer. I was welcomed home after a pretty smooth non-eventful flight - except for a nice pat down upon arrival on US soil and all my bags searched, but nothing was taken so that was nice.

My whole family (including the dog!) plus my roomate, Heather - from Bethany days - was there to greet me and it was wonderful. Hugs all around and I LOVED it! A big shout out goes to my dad who shared his "thunder" with me by scheduling me to arrive home on the day of his birthday. So we celebrated my return and his birthday with an amazing steak meal made at home.

I was sleepy that afternoon, but my parents and family kept me occupied so I didn't sleep - in fact, I didn't go to bed that night until 11pm! Pretty good for jet lag! I slept until 5:30am with the help of two melatonins.

Then, yesterday, we had about 40 people over to the house for hamburger grill out, family and friends alike so I wouldn't be hard up trying to say hi to everyone before vacation and the NARM and what not. It was wonderful. Thanks mom and dad for putting that on for me.

Today we shop and pack for vacation. Yesterday I drove to Walmart and let my 15 year old sister who has a permit drive me home. I almost had a nervous breakdown when she didn't know which way to turn the wheel out of the parking space, but otherwise she did great - she even talks to the other drivers like I do!

Tomorrow - Vacation, study for the NARM, vacation, study :) Hugs and kisses to all those in Davao - most of you have written goodbye blogs or posts or chatted saying there is sadness and holes now that a few of us are gone, and we (or at least I) feel the same way. I am so happy to be home, but at the same time I tear up randomly when i think of life in Davao and what I am missing. I suppose it will get better with time....

Goodbyes are hard...

3 of us have bitten the dust so to speak. Laura left first on Sunday afternoon, then Tiffany left that same evening and now I am writing this blog from my hotel in Manila where I will leave from to board my flight back to the US bright and early tomorrow morning.
I hate goodbyes. I sometimes wonder what God was thinking when he asked me to be a missionary when this life involves so many goodbyes. O.k. granted, there aren't many people that enjoy saying goodbye, but some people are better at it than others and I am not one of those others.

I managed not to cry too hard during the actual goodbye part - I think I was so prepared to cry that I just didn't allow it - I knew it was a strong possibility and so I just didn't allow it, but there were other times when my guard was down and I wasn't prepared to say goodbye when the tears would come.

This may very well be the most depressing entry I have written! Goodness. I should stop before I start crying again while typing away on my computer in the lobby of the hotel all by myself...

To those I have left behind - I love you so much and I know that God will continue to use you mightily - please keep me updated on the goings on of MMC - I will need to live vicariously through you for a while until I get accustomed to life back home. Thank you for all you have invested in me - all the love and patience - who knew you would make a midwife out of me!

Marco Polo Breakfast!

As a graduation present/surprise, our wonderful, amazing, incredible (I could keep going) directors, Matt and Krys (hope you are reading this!) gave our whole class gift certificates to have the breakfast brunch at the fanciest hotel in town - the Marco Polo.

We had so much fun really being girls - we even went around the table and everyone said what they thought person x would be doing in the near future, long term, what her husband would look like, when she would have kids, what/when her wedding would be/look like etc. I haven't ever done that before but boy was it fun!
So a big shout out to our amazing, wonderful (opps i said all that already) directors. We LOVE you!!!

Last MMC delivery for 2008

Lyn was a miracle birth in my opinion. Not only for me - because my goal was to deliver 92 babies and so I took an extra shift (thanks TK), but for her since she was endorsed to me at 2pm with transport papers prepared! That is never a good sign, but I was allowed to work with her and monitor her for a little bit of time and her high blood pressure went down and stayed down even without IV fluids or anything like that - she just needed someone to calm her down some and to have a little time to relax from getting to MMC - she had just arrived minutes before day shift ended and I arrived on shift. She was also leaking water and only 2cm - also not a good combo, but she drank castor oil like a champ (which I don't think I could ever do) and her labor progressed like you wouldn't believe!

Not only did she deliver before my shift ended (which she needed to in order to avoid transport) but she delivered at 8:12pm meaning I was able to spend some of the postpartum time with her. She, like Meira delivered a big baby - 8.12lbs, and it was complicated, but she stayed for some extra time (discharged the following morning about 24 hours after birth instead of the customary 6 hours) and was fine.

I saw both her and Meira for the last baby checks I would be able to do for them this morning before going to the airport for Manila and it was wonderful to be able to say goodbye in person.