A very good week indeed!

                      Cherry, Charie Lou, and family!
                            Little Charie Lou (sounds like a "Who" from Dr. Seuss, doesn't it!?)
                                  Dear Ruth and baby Diane with Ate Rosa - what a great family!

Grrrreeeetings! You all must have been praying because this week has been fantastic! Despite my growing uncomfortableness and my going to bed hours before I want to, this week has been a great encouragement to me. So if you were praying for Tim and me, THANK YOU!

So the week began with initial prenatals on Monday....great fun. This is the part where I get to interview patients for the very first time finding out all their health, birth, and family histories, learn how to bless them, how to pray for them, and discover how they are feeling about being pregnant. It takes a very long time, mostly because we are speaking in Visayan and broken English, but also because it is almost like a first date! So much to talk about! But unlike a date, I also have to do a full physical examination! I doubt any of YOU did a FULL examination on a first date! :) 

Then my dear friends (and interns) Laura and Christy took me out for a BIG McDonald's burger! What a blessing...and a treat! I seldom get those precious outings, but when I do, I REALLY enjoy them....REALLY! Nothing beats a BIG, fattening, and sloppy burger...even if it IS McDonald's in the Philippines! And even better when it's with two very dear friends!

Tuesday came and I had day shift....two labors, one inital prenatal, and two baby checks!! That was just for ME...altogether, 7 labors! Crazy, CRAZY shift, but at the end, I walked lazily home two hours after my shift actually ended and with a wide smile....I had the pleasure and privilege of delivering a beautiful baby girl named Diane to a wonderful mother named Ruth, who had already given birth 7 times! This was her 8th baby and she was only 27 years old! She had lost two babies to prematurity...they only lived a couple of days because she could not afford the cost of the incubator at the hospital. She was delighted once again to receive a healthy full term baby into her arms. Ruth was a powerful laborer and Diane was a FAT 7 lb. 13 oz. bundle of chub. It was the healthiest delivery I had in very long, long time. Thank you, Jesus. 

Wednesday also brought lots of joy! Tim and I had the pleasure of going to our first INDIAN restaurant in the Philippines with my dear friends Tiffany and Jenna who have now graduated and are heading back to Canada soon. What a blessing! And the food was AMAZING! What a treat to eat something COMPLETELY different that tasted (oddly enough) like home! (vancouver, that is!). We were totally blessed. We finished the day with work from home and running errands, the day seemed to go by so fast!

Then today, I picked up another day shift because a friend was sick and couldn't work....what a crazy day again! We were instructed to MOVE the birth room into the postpartum area and the postpartum area to the KITCHEN because apparently the septic tank had backed up and the drain pipe was under birth room bed #2. Lovely. So the 5 of us midwives moved 7 postpartum patients to the kitchen complete with their beds and supplies and then moved the birthing area to the tiny postpartum area! We only had three labor beds available....and just as we finished moving, a labor walked in....and then another....and then another....all the beds were full when my patient, Cherry walked in again after a brief walk to get something to eat. She was laboring with her third baby and came in at only 5 cm....but an hour labor and she was begging me to let her push...and so she did! That baby came out like a torpedo!

Thus Charie Lou was born....6 pounds 8 ounces sucking her hands and pooping. She kept on pooping throughout the newborn exam and bath, too! We just couldn't keep her clean! It was great! Her momma was a trooper and within 1 hour of birth, she was resting quietly in the postpartum area happy and healthy! Thank you, Jesus! Two HEALTHY births in 3 days. 

We had a great prayer time and we were able to give her a gift from all the goodies Laura had brought from the United States! What a blessing! 

Tomorrow, I am set for prenatal exams again and more baby check ups. So looking forward to spending more time with the women! The Lord gave me so much grace this week with an incredible provision of energy and stamina as well as joy. My supervisors were very encouraging and were full of exhortations, too! God is so good. I am feeling like I can work one more day...and then another after that. Even my patients were amazed at the amount of energy I was sporting at 7 1/2 months pregnant and they were so excited they had a "buntis midwife"! 

So to you all, friends and family, that have been praying for Tim and me...thank you! And please continue to pray because it certainly made all the difference this week! God is so faithful!

Next post, Tim will give you all a water update....he is one busy lad!

Be Blessed!