Jackie

This is Jackie Lou. She just delivered her second baby Sept 2. Jackie is very special too me. I was her midwife with her first baby in March 2006. This last spring I also was her sister's midwife. I was excited when I found out that Jackie was pregnant again and planning to have her baby at Mercy. She came in at 1 in the morning and labored throughout the night and delivered baby Rey Aldrin and 10:49 this morning. She came back to the clinic today for her 1 day checkup. That is when I snapped this picture of the whole family. They are very happy to now have a daughter and a son.

This is a picture that I took of Jackie in March 2006 after her first baby.

Babies!

Hey there my friends!

I have a lot to say. I have been back in the Philippines for a little over a month and have dived right in. This little girl that I am holding in the pic is Sabina. She is a baby that I delivered this last february. Her father is a friend of mine. He brought her into the clinic for a visit. I had not seen her in 4 months. So I was pretty excited to see how beautiful she is. I don't often see babies that I deliver after they are 6 weeks old. So this was a real treat.

Right now at Mercy we have a bunch of intern midwives from the states here helping out over the summer months when we are short staffed due to students being gone. We have a lovely bunch here this summer. We are getting to the end of the intern season. On september 7th our new students will arrive. We have a class of 12 starting this September. I am really excited for this class. 9 of the girls are going to move in the student dorm. The other ones are married and are already settled here in Davao.

This is a picture of Inday when she came for her 3 week visit. She is doing great! Her baby Kian is growing just as he should. She has been a blessing to me the last couple weeks. Inday is a good mother.

Today I had another patient deliver. She had a wonderful birth. I also dleivered her first baby, so this delivery was extra special to have that connection. She had a little boy that they named Rey after his dad.

Life is hopping around here. Very busy in the birthing business. I am just so blessed to be here. God is teaching me so much. I am humbled that he would keep teaching me and changing me in the ways that he is.

Lechon!!!

My friend Lois and I were on our way to the post office today to pick up the clinic mail. On our way to the jeepney we ran into some of our neighbors roasting lechon (pig). They were roasting it alongside the street. It was quite the site. When they saw that I had a camera they got all excited and were calling out at us to take a picture. So of course I obliged them, and then on the way back home a took a few more.

I have been back in the Philippines for a little less than 2 weeks. It feels a lot long than that. I am blessed to be here and get to serve in the clinic again. This morning I had a prenatal clinic. We had 70 women show up for checkups.

Baby Christian Aya-ay!

Early this morning I got a text saying that my friend N-day was at the clinic in labor. I have known N-day from when I was here in 2003 as a student. I took responsibility of her care and was her midwife for her first baby. This last spring I found out she was pregnant again and decided that I would love to be her midwife again. The only problem was that she was due just around the time that I was planning on coming back to the Philippines. There was a big possibility that she would deliver before I got back. Luckily she waited for me to return. She arrived at the clinic at 5am in good labor. She delivered a little after 8am to a cute little boy. They were really excited, their first baby was a girl. Everything went smoothly. I was so blessed to be able to share this experience with her. What a cool way to jump back into life here! I found out after the birth that N-day and her partner had a wedding date today for 11am. Unfortunately they were not able to make it to their wedding, it made for good laughs though.
I am adjusting well to being back. Tomorrow night I officially jump into things with working the night shift.

I have completed my journey back to the Philippines. I got in last night around 7 in the evening after 45+ hours of traveling. It is great being back. So much has changed since I have been gone. New house, new roomie, the clinic is rearranged, and some of the girls have moved on, aka graduated. I woke up this morning at 4am which is to be expected with jet lag. Today my goal is to unpack and try to find places to put all my stuff. I am pretty intimidated by the task at hand. I start work in the clinic on the 8th. That gives me a couple of days to get situated. I want to thank those who were praying for me on the journey. I am in a peaceful state. My verse for today is Psalm 16:11
"You will make known to me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy; In your right hand there are pleasures forever."




These are pictures of my travelings this past week. The one on the left is in Portland OR, and the one of the left is in the bay of Portland Maine, on a 90 ft sail boat.
God bless

1 Week Left!

Today was my last day in Oregon. Tomorrow I embark on an adventure back east! As in Maine. Every 3 or 4 years my mother's side of the family has a reunion, this year I was lucky enough to get to make it. I am traveling with my mother, sister, and grandmother on this trip. I am excited! I will get to see family I have not seen in 7 years. I missed the last reunion cause I was in the philippines. This will also be the first time in a long time to have some travel buddies. Tomorrow we will fly into Boston then drive to Rockport where we will spend 2 nights with my great uncle, then off to Maine for 4 or 5 nights. Our family owns a cabin on a lake. I must say it's a great way to go, spending the last days in a lake and filling on lobster. I will fly from Boston back to the Philippines on August 1st. I am very happy to say that my time at home was very eventful. I got to spend a lot of good time entertaining dear friends and even making some new ones :) I also spent a lot of time in the boat doing what a girl does best... Fishing! I filled my fishing quota for the summer, I am now satisfied for another year, well hopefully :) I am excited to get back to the Philippines and get back into live at Mercy. For all of you that are there, I am comin home soon! Oh Boy!!!