Another trip to Mexico

In July I am hoping to go to Mexico for two weeks. Mainly for Dassi's godson's graduation from kindergarten, but still I am going to Mexico. It might just be Dassi and I with each of our older brothers. Still not sure, which is entirely normal. Nicole Fitz. came to the village on her only 'time off' I guess you can call it. She only gets this sort of opportunity every two years. But while she was here she was sharing pictures and stories about the people at the ranch in Mexico and just listening to her made me realize I had to go again... and soon. I knew Dassi had been planning to go in July since we left in January, and once we both heard Nicole sharing stories we both got the same feeling. Literally that night I was looking up the price of plane tickets etc. Seeing that we really couldn't drive down there again we had to find an alternative. It turns out that Jason and Nicole would drive across the border in their truck and pick us up on the Texas' side of the border. So one of our options we are looking into is a bus ride. It is really cheap in comparison to a nearly $1,000 plane ticket! The only reason I could figure that a round trip plane ticket would cost that much was because the government etc. doesn't really want tourists visiting there at the moment, probably with the whole 'swine flu' thing. So a plane is out of the question, convenient in travel time, but out of the question.

So with the end of the school year, my graduation, starting my midwifery course, and a trip to Mexico it looks like my summer is relatively filled for the first couple of months. Now what I am going to come up to do for those last days of summer isn't even a worry in my mind. Hope you are having plenty of your own adventures in this life.

Another one of my Adventure...

Had another one :-) this one was at a birth on April 17th. So on April 15th we (Shiph, Ariel-River-and I) get the call at 1:30am to head to Jackson the first time. By the morning of the next day the mother's contractions weren't as close together and not that bad. So we packed up and headed home dreaming about getting a shower and some real sleep since our sleeping options were a love seat and a wood floor. By that evening we were called out again and we knew this was the real thing. So I jump out of the van right when we get there and set everything up...again. So time passed and soon Shiph and Ari had me coaching the mom through contractions- which I have never done before. Just before 10pm she was ready to push. Everything went normal until the shoulders wouldn't deliver. Then time seemed to slow down and it became an emergency. Just so you get an idea of what I was doing: I was like popcorn... handing stuff to the midwives, helping the mother into different positions, calling 911, jumping over beds to help, running out of the room again to do something else. I was stressed out!!! Pumped on adrenaline being yelled at to do things I have never done before so I did not do them right is not something I want anyone to have to go through. Finally the baby is born... but not breathing. Ariel started mouth to mouth CPR. I'm still running around. FINALLY the ambulance arrives and they take over and take the baby out to the waiting ambulance. The mama is doing amazing through all of this, entirely amazing. Soon another ambulance comes for her, which Ariel follows to the hospital. Shiph and I stayed behind to clean and put away everything in case they send out someone to investigate. Which is also stress full, because then law gets involved if the baby dies. Soon we get word that our baby boy is fine breathing and crying. And he was a huge baby 10lbs 3oz 22 3/4in. So when I got home Saturday at 4am I was dead on my feet from adrenaline running out again for about the 5th time in 2 days, and just all the emotions I had to deal with the whole stuck not breathing baby. So when I had to get up at 6:30am for passage prep my brain wasn't working to the functional degree I wished it was. But anyway that is a very happy and light concentrated version of the scariest birth that I have ever experienced that made me question if I wanted to be a midwife. But after some rational thinking I knew that I still want to.

Graduating from school to more school

The weeks are passing quickly. I graduate in the month of May but I already feel pressured. And about 2 weeks later I will hopefully start my midwifery course. I am actually extremely looking forward to my graduation..... not like it has been something I have been looking forward to for most of my home schooled life or anything. The 'feeling pressured' deal is actually many things added up on top of each other all trying to be done before the other is done, or another getting added in the pile needing to be done. Fun huh? Being busy is a great thing to be but it has a tendency of spilling over into the small amount of time you would really appreciate to be spending on something considered not task or job oriented. ~ Beggars can't be choosers ~. Since everyone else considers themselves terrible bloggers, I would like to also consider myself one. I am not trying to be like everyone else, but truth be told I am a terrible blogger. So here's to life :-)

left to right: Joel, JD, Chasah, Daniel, Dassi, me, Becca, Aubrey, Brendan, Esther, and Noah

This is a picture we got on January 31st, it was the last day of our ice storm. By the end of the day pretty much all the ice had melted. It was really pretty. And it was fun just walking around pulling icicles off of trees and eating them :-)

Some more Adventure of my life

So.... I have gone to Mexico and I haven't really published any posts since. So at this point in time my adventures consist of: finishing school, working, going to loads of practices and meetings, and hanging out with friends. I still haven't started my midwifery course because I have to wait to graduate...... which is taking a long time. Being busy I guess is what I am good at. Because somehow every day passes quickly and when on Monday I am asked what I did on the weekend, I can't remember. Right now I am on my lunch break and David Dickerson-who works in the cubicle connected to mine- saw that I was beginning to publish a post here and mentioned I am one of the vast majority of people who only blog when there is something extravagant to write about. Which is entirely true.... about me that is.

But I have done something that was very adventurous recently, It was when I got to help delivery Ashley and Ray's second baby, Ahava Ivy, on Sunday, January 24th. It was my first birth in which I was an officially acting assistant. It was amazing! And each birth that I get to go to will be life changing-ly amazing, because witnessing a child being born will never get old. But from the moment I got called at 2pm-2am my adrenal glands supplied me with enough energy and awareness to keep me awake way beyond natural sleeping patterns and made me a zombie for work the next day. If I were only allowed to pick one superpower I think I would enjoy being invincible, but how can you only pick one superpower? But since I was so pumped for the birth that whenever someone tried to talk to me or ask me a question I got really snappy. I couldn't slow down and for some reason everyone was moving really slow and talking even slower :-)

But Ashley was amazing and not very long at all after Ahava was born she was cracking jokes and looking radiant.

Being a midwife is something I really want to do, and since I have made the decision to pursue that knowledge God has made so many things fall into place. I live in a village that has 3 -legally 2- already certified midwives, and opportunities to help deliver babies pretty much every month. It is amazing just how everything has fallen into place. Aubrey and I get to work and learn together, and each of our weaknesses and strengths work off of each other. Aubrey wants to become a midwives assistant, and she is at the moment working on a doula course. We are the next generation midwifery team.

I don't know how anyone can say life is boring because there are so many opportunities to make yourself busy with. But I must admit being busy can be a little boring :-), at least the kind I am right now. But there are always the times that are way to much fun, like hanging out with friends.

Friends make life so much better! I love laughing, and just being myself with my girl friends. For a while it felt like I didn't have a social life at all, but by just making the time to hang out with my friends has made life more fun. Anyway...... here is my post for this day February 2nd. Happy living :-)

Home!!!!

Well we are home now. We got home at 10:38pm Saturday January 2, 2010. It was a nice drive home.....well it was long. We left the ranch at 7:36am Friday January 1,2010. Crossing the border wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. We waited in a line of cars on the bridge to the other side of the border for over an hour. We imagined the very worse to happen like they would take everything out of our van and do all kinds of things. But really all the official did was asked for all of our passports and through the windows matched the people up with the photos, asked us if we had alcohol in the van, and then waved us through. We all were given a small plant while we were in Mexico so we made a big deal about hiding the plants in a pot that we put under another pot, and for the 2 taller ones in a pair of rubber boots. It was refreshing just how easy it was. The Mexico blog that Dassi has faithfully been keeping up to date, has all the trip details and such. I can't even start to tell about the trip. It was a life changing experience, and I can't wait till I get to go back. Hopefully by the time I go down there I will have learned Spanish. I am going to start sort of saving for my next trip. But my next real adventure I am going to start working toward is graduating from high school in May, and starting my midwifery course in June. I am about to go on call for the births in the Village and a few outside births. Nicole said that I should get my certification as a midwife and move out there, because I would definitely be able to help down there. At this moment I am sure if I am called to live there permanently, and seeing that I have still have to graduate from high school I have plenty of time to find out what God has for me to do. I am hoping Mexico is just the first international trip for me. But I have really had it on my heart to be a gatehouse somewhere, so maybe that is what I am suppose to do with a trip to Mexico annually or something. But I have plenty of things I can fill my plate with until that time :-). God bless you.

In Mexico

Hi, I am in Mexico! Sorry I have not posted blogs more but I am not able to get on often and for very long and Dassi is keeping track of everything on her laptop and on the Mexico blog. It has been an amazing experience here in Mexico and I AM going to come back here again. Nicole said she could really use my education in midwifery when I get it and that I can come live here with her. But it will take me 4 years to get my certification so I guess just some short trip back and forth till then. It has been really awesome hearing all the stories of all the people in the church, we are so lucky to have both of our parents and to live in such an invironment as the village. Even though at the village it feels like we are becoming dead. Something Dassi and I have sworn we are going to change that no matter what it takes. We have realized at the village we need to be getting ready to spread the message not wait around for the opportunity comes to tell someone about it. I have never evangalized before and I do not know how but I am going to learn how and I am going to do it even if it is only in Selmer. I feel like I need to do something to further Gods kingdom and i don´t feel like I am doing a very good job while just sitting on a couch in the village and just hanging out trying to figure out a way to entertain myself, or just talking about the latest movies I or other people have watched. Coming to Mexico is an amazing opportunity that I have gotten to I guess open my eyes. So now I am going to do something. See everyone when I get home on Sunday.... if all goes as planned.