Feeling a bit better!

Greetings! Thank you for praying for me these last two days! Yesterday, our dear friends, Jenn and Joe, came over to pray for me as I was barely able to get out of bed. The diarrhea, intense stomach pain and migraines made the humidity and crazy heat almost unbearable. I spent most of the day laying lifeless on our bed sweating like a stuffed pig. Not fun, but God's mercies were once again, new Friday morning and I made it to prenatal check-ups! Praise God! I hated having to stay home from swing shift on Thursday, but walking to prenatals this morning made me feel so grateful for His provision of health.

I got to work with an intern from Colorado who has 11 children! YES, eleven kids...all her own...all delivered vaginally! Nuts! Joyce and I had a great time listening for fetal heart tones and asking all the usual questions.....she is a great midwife and taught me a lot and I was able to teach her some Cebuano! We made a good team and she let me do a whole bunch of the exams on my own! I am learning more and more everyday....like how to determine if edema/swelling is serious or if it is just the heat or how to find the heart tones of TWINS!

We got to exam a beautiful lady named Juvelle that will be having twins very soon! Feeling two babies and hearing their hearts beat was an amazing experience! It's her first pregnancy and she is very excited to be having twins. Joyce and I giggled and joked with Juvelle as we felt for the positions of her two babies. Fun. Then we got to pray a blessing over her and her little ones. That's my favorite part.

The pictures are of the prenatal classes taught today by my friend, Jenny, and being translated by Melody (she ROCKS)! She was teaching on birth control....a little-known subject here....as prizes for women who answered questions, Jenny brought condoms....and you should've seen the buntas get excited about getting a condom! It was better than candy! We had a good laugh.

Jenny did a great job explaining all the birth control methods and which ones were the best. Here, the preferred method is "withdrawal" which totally doesn't work, but many of the women are taught this is the best and then they come into Mercy pregnant! The women are taught to check their cervical mucus and understand when their bodies ovulate....a task that is harder than you'd think! I am still learning to do that myself!

But in a few months, I will be in Jenny's shoes - teaching and hopefully giving out great prizes! Scary and fun all at the same time!

Tomorrow Tim and I are heading to "House of Jubilee", a ministry that feeds the poor children of Davao. They are expecting over 100 children tomorrow! And we get to go help! We are very excited to get to know this ministry and serve in a different way.

Thank you for all your comments and encouragements! Please continue to pray for us as we know we've been under some attack....

Be blessed!