Started Module II today!!

Started the Anatomy and Physiology Module today. It will take me 24 weeks to complete, in other words 1 semester. It is online and it takes a lot of diligence to stay on top of all the lessons etc. But it is just one more category that I have to finish to be one step closer to becoming a midwife.

Module II

I'm about to start my 2nd subject/installment of my Midwifery education on November 29th. This "module" is dedicated to Anatomy and Physiology, and is on online class. Hence why I'm not able to go this year's Mexico trips, I can't be without internet for more than a day or two at a time. It's sad that I can't go and serve over there because I can't go without internet. But becoming a midwife in the long run is better than missing a mission trip or two...

I've been doing a lot of research online on Midwifery Colleges, nearby midwives, and birth centers. I am wanting to find the best places to apprentice or get some extra learning. Believe it or not there is still about 12 states that practicing midwifery is still illegal. And 10 that are still undecided. Why I've been trying to find nearby midwives is to know who I can find to one day in the near future to be my preceptor.

I'm also going to San Antonio, Texas for a workshop/test/class for the first module on January 4th to 8th or 9th. This trip should be a lot of fun! It is the first of many and I'll get to meet all of my fellow students. I'm not positive but I think I'll probably be the youngest. I sort of experience that at a MANA conference in Nashville a little bit ago. Everyone that I talked to were impressed at my concrete vision for my life before I even left high school. Most of the midwives are older than 30. Not all but a large percentage.

So this is where I'm at with my Midwifery schooling...

Midwifery Course!

Old news but I sent in my application for my Midwifery Course on August 9th, I think. But I received my orientation email on the 25th. Just to sum everything up..... I picked to start my course at a real crunch time. Meaning I pretty much have to do the first two modules at the same time. Which supposedly it is do-able. So with feeling the pressure from that thought and what it will cost as in study time. My course coordinator had attachments at the bottom of the email. Pretty much the Student's Handbook, ways to Efficiently Study, and the pre-module 1. Plus I had to do a bunch of surveys from different college websites to figure out which way I will learn the best. Which to one of them (there are three) I am a tactile/kinesthetic learner. Another I am a good balance of Active and Reflective, and Sequential and Global (with tendencies to be more Global), and have a moderate preference to be more Sensing rather than Intuitive, and Visual to Verbal. I have one more to take which is the one I will take more seriously but I have to pay a fee to receive my official answer, to this one there are 214 questions.
Another thing is I have to get books to study and the instructors especially stress that you have the latest edition. I had a couple of the books that previously studying people had, but I discovered since I am the only midwife of my generation here in the village, every book is like the 2nd edition when I need the 3rd etc. So now I am having to buy pretty much all new books, and books are expensive.Particularly books with a lot of information in them. So the next aspiring midwives might be able to use my editions of books before they update everything.
And on top of all that I have to have the first module done before the end of December because I have to go to San Antonio, Texas for my first workshop/test. Which shouldn't be to hard I think, if I don't have a social life anymore. But I think I can do this. For some really good reason God really wants me to become a midwife, He has been letting everything fall into place thus far. Not to mention I really want to become a midwife.
This is an update of my current adventure of life is.

A new theme

Sorry if this new theme seems depressing to some people, it just reminds me of a bunch of things that I love in this life. Mountains, rain, and long road trips when it rains. ;-)

Just Normal Life

Well..... The trip to Mexico in July (right now) didn't work out. But there are 2 trips going towards the end of this year. But I am unable to go on them ;-( Since I am starting my midwifery course (more details further on) I can't financially and mentally afford to go on a 2 week missions trip. First because the course is going to take everything in me: brain function, time, energy, and dedication. Second just from looking at this angle--the already dedicated jump off the cliff but you are just taking a moment to look at the overview for the rest of your life and just how much it is going to cost you-- I will no longer have a social life, I will no longer be able to just do and think "I will just work extra hard tomorrow", and I can't make plans that are to far in advance. But the plus on the whole thing is.... I really want to do it and not just do it well enough to pass the test but I want to be able to do it with everything inside of me and fly with flying colors.

Any way update on the whole Midwifery Course..... I am working on my application now. To send in my application I have to become a student member with the Association of Texas Midwives first and include proof of my membership in the official application. So recently I just sent my membership info and fee in the mail and will hopefully get something back from them either today or tomorrow. Then I just have to finish my 1 page essays on 'Why I want to become a midwife' and my 'Philosophy of Childbirth' and I'm ready to ship them my OFFICIAL application, which the ATM (Association of Texas Midwives) with respond by shipping me my first module etc.

Just last night Anna Hobbs came to me about what books she should start reading because she really wants to become a Midwife. I was so EXCITED!!!!! Because I really thought that I was going to be all alone by doing this course. I mean Ariel and Shiph kinda had each other and Rushi all going through the course at the same time so they always had someone to study with and to go with when they went to Texas and Florida etc. So far I know Naqah, Anna, and I want to become midwives and Aubrey is playing with the idea of becoming a midwives assistant which the course is pretty much the same as a midwives but different......I think like legal issues and such. I think of it as the assistant has to learn everything just like the midwife but the midwife training is more hard core compared to the assistants training. But anyway if Naqah and Anna do do the course Naqah will start when I am like 1/4 of the way through and Anna about 1/2. If everything goes as I would really like it to and am planning for it to.

Another big thing with this whole thing is the financial part. In my mind I know that I just need to trust in God and since He has blessed me with everything falling into place for me to become midwife He will provide and make a way. But somehow I feel like if I don't try to meet God there then nothing will happen. In other words I don't trust Him fully. With trying to meet Him there I've thought about and mentioned how I will need to get another part time job like a night job etc. My Mom pointed out that I don't trust God if I feel like I have to do something to make ends meet. I mean it isn't totally in my nature to just sit around waiting for God to drop something in my lap. I feel I find Him more in the things I do by pursuing and finding my way and meeting Him there. But I don't know, I know that everything will fall into place in the end if it is to be.

And since I am officially one of the worst people ever at blogging. I should get a award :-)

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.