Cool Breezes

Without air conditioning, there's no escaping the warm stickiness that pervades everything from morning til night all summer. After a week of triple digit temperatures, it's been lovely to wake up to cool breezes and a few raindrops blowing in the window. It's been more than lovely. It makes me smile as soon as I'm conscious and thank God for the little blessings He sends my way!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 102 again. I'll thank Him for a long drive in an air conditioned car. :)

In other news, Jemima is going to be off bed rest next Wednesday! After that, her baby can arrive whenever it wants to.... between then and early September.

Of course, we're all just a little bit excited and everyone is eagerly anticipating finding out if it's a....

Girl

or

Boy! :)

Abe and Sam have been in Africa for a few weeks. They say that everyone only gets one meal a day there because of lack of food. Abe says that he's sure Sam will gladly eat anything we serve him for the rest of his life when he gets home! Sam flies home next week, but Abe has been asked to stay longer. We hope he won't shrivel up on one meal a day!

As for me... I shouldn't blog at 2 am. I should go to bed. I think I will....

Those Wonderful Ladies

A year ago, I so desperately wanted just one good, committed apprentice who I could count on.

I'm now blessed... almost a little too abundantly with wonderful ladies and assistants who work with me and are just too good to me!

This lady practically came out of nowhere... a hospital midwife who decided she wanted to learn the homebirth side of things. She knows so much that I don't know and I know so much that she doesn't know in totally different realms. We're so good for each other. I'm always saying, "Well, what would you do about this in the hospital?" and she's always saying, "What do you do about this at home?" I rely on her experience and knowledge and she on mine. I love working with her!

I have this fabulous apprentice who had me over for dinner the other night. She's been working with me for over a year now, and I LOVE her! Her husband wasn't always completely thrilled with the time demands of midwifery, but now he's pushing her to do more! Sometimes I worry that she'll get tired of me and my practice and move on somewhere else. The other day she told me her plan is to make herself so helpful that I can't live without her ever again! (Gulp! She's already done that well!) And, as if I didn't already find myself almost lost without her at a birth, she handed me this box of amazing French truffles the other day. I can't wait to sign all of her preceptor paperwork and see her become a CPM someday!

Another wanna-be apprentice who has done her very best to make herself as helpful as possible has absolutely amazed me! In two days time she has almost completely re-designed and updated all of my charts with as many edits as I have asked for. All with a smile and a, "Just call me if I can ever go to a birth with you!" She accompanied me for two prenatal home visits this week, and we had such a lovely time chatting. She asks questions and soaks up my constant birth talk on our drives! The more I hang out with her, the more I like her. I just don't know how on earth I'm going to come up with enough births for all of these lovely ladies to attend!

Another apprentice who is almost done with her training (she did all of her clinicals at a birth center) is available at my beck and call to cover whenever I'm stretched too thin. She jumped in her car and started driving the five hours to a client's house without a moment's hesitation when I called her on the weekend when I thought two people might be in labor at once. Turns out, she arrived and the mom wasn't in labor after all. She said, in her usual cheerful, perky voice, "Oh, no worries! I brought a book to read. I'll find something to do over the weekend and stay in town 'til our scheduled prenatals on Monday. But then I called her the next morning and asked her to instead rush to another client's house who was having some pretty major bleeding in her second trimester. I was at a labor, so she relayed everything over the phone and we made a plan for the mom. It took up her whole day, and then she showed up smiling and cheerful for prenatals the next day, even though I was late leaving the birth and she had to entertain clients til I arrived at the office. And then she cleaned up the office and carried out my laundry and trash and drove the four hours home to wait til I called her again. She acts like every day of prenatals is as exciting as Christmas!

And that's not all... There's three other fabulous ladies who want to help. I'm really a little overwhelmed with it all! I just hope I can impart to them what they really need to know as midwives. I feel like such a baby myself at this....

But I'm blessed, really, really blessed.

Thank you, Lord!

Ten Thousand Beside!

"...Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!"

What a life, what hope, what joy, what a future, what a God!

All This, And Heaven, Too?!

The last couple of days have been lovely... Cool breezes, leaves slowly turning hues of orange and yellow... the grass is still green, and the sun's been shining. Usually, autumn is not my favorite season as everything turns brown and I become yet another year older, but right now, I'm enjoying fall!

This morning I woke up to the gentle patter of rain on the windows, my little sisters curled cozily under their quilts and the cats purring in a warm huddle on the back porch, trying to stay warm. What a happy way to start Monday.

If only I took more time to stop and enjoy the things of beauty and joy that God puts in my path every day! How lovely... how extravagant God is!

On days when creation seems so full of joy and peace, I have to think of my friend, Abigail, who loves to say, "All this, and heaven, too?!" I have to exclaim the same with her.

Life is hard and ugly and disappointing at times (I know; more on that, coming soon), but when I stop to breathe in the scents around me, joy is everywhere, too! I can choose to dwell on the injustice and ugliness or I can choose joy - because God is good, even when the sun isn't shining, and even when my world is falling apart.

The unchanging, infallible Word of God assures me that
"The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works." (Ps. 145: 9)

Some days it doesn't feel like I was singled out as a recipient of His goodness, but in spite of craziness and sickness, heartache and tears, I KNOW I am a recipient of His goodness, a child who He delights to give good gifts to.

My heart can sing when I pause to remember,
A heartache here is but a stepping stone;
Along a trail that's winding always upwards,
This troubled world is not my final home,
But until then my heart will go on singing,
Until then with joy I'll carry on,
Until the day my eyes behold a city,
Until the day God calls me home.

Stuart Hamblen