My Morning

As you have noticed, if you've been following this blog for any amount of time, there is a mountain in the middle of my city. And, as you can tell, the novelty of the mountain hasn't worn off yet for this prairie girl. 

After my encounter with the police last time I ventured onto the mountain side, I was eager to go back, but until this week I didn't take the time to do so. Finally, having a whole day off earlier this week, I walked to the mountain and realized just how close it is to my house, and I made a mental note to go back there soon.

So this morning, when I woke up as my roommate was getting up for work, I decided that I needed an adventure in my morning. Throwing on shorts and a T-shirt before my brain could convince me to stay in bed and miss the morning, I stuffed some food, homework, and sunscreen into my backpack and took off running. Less than half an hour later I was on the side of the mountain enjoying the beauty of the sunrise and the freshness of the morning. How glorious!

Thankfulness

I don't have much time today, but I do have time to be thankful. So here it goes:

I am thankful for
-leftovers!
-new students that are willing to learn and do and who bring new energy to the clinic atmosphere
-the spoonful of cookie dough ice cream that a friend just shared with me
-a phone call from my sister
-hanging out with the mission team from Portage that's here for the week
-having a mountain down the street where I can practice my climbing skills (or what skills I pretend to have)
-having vacation time coming up
-eating outside under the full moon
-and being able to (hopefully) sleep a bit tonight. I'm working today, and the day has been wonderful. I have so enjoyed it. I hope you're enjoying your life too, whether busy with plans and commitments or open to spontaneity.

Praise the Lord

This morning, as I was making my way home through the streets of El Paso watching the sky change from deep darkness and fade into the oranges and yellows of a new day I couldn't help but feel at peace with such a desire to praise the Lord for His goodness to me. The only words that could describe what was welling up within me were the words of the psalmist:

Praise the Lord, oh my soul!
All my inmost being, praise His holy name!
Praise the Lord, oh my soul!
And forget not all His benefits!
Who forgives all my sins
And heals all my diseases.
Who redeems my life from the pit
and crowns me with love and compassion.
who satisfies my desires with good things
so that my youth is renewed like the eagles.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses
His deeds to the people of Israel
The Lord is gracious and compassionate
slow to anger and abounding in love
He will not always accuse
nor will He harbour His anger forever.
As far as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His love for those who fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed my transgressions from me.

As a father has compassion on His children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
He knows how I am formed and remembers that I am but dust
As for me, I am like grass, flourishing like the flowers of the field.
The wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear Him
and His righteousness with their children's children,
with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey His precepts.

Praise the Lord, you His angels,
you mighty ones who do His bidding.
Praise the Lord, all His hosts,
you His servants who do His will.
Praise the Lord, all His works
everywhere in His creation.

Praise the Lord, oh my soul!

All in a Day's Work

I'm on a roll! It's 5:30 am. If I get this post done before the next woman comes needing my help, I will have three blogs up in a week. Following the idea of Monday's blog (general news), I'll give you a glimpse into what a work day looks for me at this point in my training. And I will use today's workday as an example.

For me, work starts at 8am. All of us midwives gather together in a circle, hold hands, and sing kumbaya. :) Well, we do circle and hold hands, but we use that time for the old shift to debrief us fresh hands on what is going on. I got handed-over a mom who had recently arrived in labour. She had had a c-section on a previous birth, so that changes our protocol as far as listening to the baby's heart, meaning that I had to listen to the heart tones every fifteen minutes. This gave me no time in between to do appointments, a nice change from the norm. At around mid-morning, mom stood beside the bed and pushed out a beautiful baby girl into dad's arms, allowing me the blessing to stand witness to the process. The next couple of hours were a blur of keeping an eye on mom and baby while trying to fill out all the necessary paperwork.

Though class was supposed to start at one, I only got away from the clinic at 1:30. Making my way two doors down to the school, I scrubbed down in the shower to wash off the blood from the birth, then got food together and went to join the rest of the class.

Today's class was about emergency procedures. All the students, my class, the newbies, and the graduating class were all there. We took the afternoon to enact different emergency scenarios that we face in the clinic, then took the time to critique our actions and reactions, going over every detail both for our benefit and the teaching of the new students.

(4:30 pm) Heading back to the clinic after class, I got my postpartum mom out the door, showing the whole family how to use the car seat properly and helping carry everything to the vehicle. Then another mom came in labour, so I took her vitals, and checked her. She still in early labour, so though we predicted she'd be back before the end of the night, it was still early enough for us to send her home to rest and relax a bit.

(7pm) I took advantage of the lull in activity to start "list". I signed up for different rooms and tasks around the clinic and slowly started going around and cleaning in order to check off the areas I had signed up for.

Finishing my part of list, and enjoying the quiet, I phoned a friend, then took the time to get ready for bed. (11pm) Just as I started brushing my teeth, the doorbell rang. And rang again. Spitting out my toothpaste and throwing down my brush, I ran to the door and was met by a smiling face. Looking around, I took in a couple more young ladies, and finally, doubled over in pain on the step of the van, a pregnant woman, seemingly on the verge of giving birth.

Throughout the next two hours, a couple of disconcerting things popped up, and we decided to transfer her to the hospital to get checked out. I guided the family to the hospital, going up with them to the L&D floor, and even getting to be with the client while in triage. (3am) When it was evident that I could be of no further help, I returned to the clinic to find that two labouring moms had been admitted while I was at the hospital.

I did what I could to help clean up the clinic and keep the laundry going, then sat down to write this blog. I'm kind of wary of making any moves towards going to sleep, because it seems that then is when the mom's ring the doorbell, but I've got to get some rest sometime.

Everything In Moderation

I've heard news from the far reaches of the north that some parts of this great world are still covered in snow. I've heard stories of snow so deep that it reaches almost to the eves of the houses. That sounds incredible!
In contrast, down here in the deep south that is not the case. Though I have been missing all the winter activities that come with the snow, I decided yesterday to embrace the warmth and enjoy the seasons that I have here. In light of that, and taking into account my upcoming exam, I decided to combine the two, taking my stack of notes outside to soak up both the warmth and the information at the same time. After hanging up the wash, I wandered around the yard, flipping through the pages and pages of writing as I went. It was perfect: the perfect temperature, the perfect studying conditions, the perfect day. It was so perfect that I spent the whole day out there... That was a mistake.
Once my brain started spazzing, I finally came to my senses. Yes it was perfect, but too much of a good thing is still too much. My brain was fried, and after a couple of minutes of being inside it became apparent that my skin was too.
This mishap reminded me once again that I need to live a balanced life, to live in moderation. My life is full, with work, school, church, friends, roommates, and the basics of staying alive; and I have to remember that my life will not be like everyone else's. Though I may look at other's lives and wonder at how they are able to be so involved in church, or how they get so much homework done, or how they are always on some adventure; my life is not their life. My balance will be different than theirs. And where God is leading me is be different than where He is leading them.

Life in General

Since it has been more than a week since my last blog post, and since I still have no idea what to write, this blog will be a general update of life.

School: I'm finally at the end of my second quarter, which means that I've been here for six months. This also means that there is an exam coming up this week, and that I'm being turned into an intern. Even though I feel as though I just got here, I'm no longer a new student so it is now my job to help teach and train the newbies.

Work: Not much to report. I haven't caught a baby since my two in a row that happened in mid-February.

Home: My new housemates have moved in, and one of them has become my roommate until my old housemate moves out. I enjoy that I am able to share what I have with this young lady, and she has been wonderful to have around.

Church: I've really appreciated the small group that I'm a part of; they have become like family here. I'm also blessed to be a part of the music team every once in a while, and I've been getting to know a lot of the youth girls as well. Now that I'm involved and am getting to know the people, it seems more like a church family.

Over-all, I am blessed. I have work that I love. I have friends who really care. I have a God who provides all that I need. I am blessed.

Not So Criminal Activity

As promised, I got a call from the police recently in regards to my adventure the other day. They let me know who the owners of the land are, then went on to say that since the area does not have clear boundary markings and there are no trespassing signs to be seen I was in the clear. They just asked that if I go out there again, I should be aware that I am on someone's property.