Coming Soon ~ Wedding Pictures!

My, my! It's been over a month since my blog has seen my presence.

My sister got married and has settled down to housekeeping in their darling little house. Babies have been born, and a whole lot of other stuff has occurred. Enough to keep me constantly living life and not finding time to tell you about it. But soon, but soon... (I know, I keep saying that.)

There are so very many wedding pictures to post just as soon as we get our computer back with Adobe Photoshop. Blogging is on my to-do list, I promise. Today you'll have to be happy with this one sneak preview picture... Jemima and all of her sisters. :)

For now, I shall have to let this little post from a laptop without wedding photos suffice... Because there's so much to say but not nearly enough time to get started tonight. Because the soup for tomorrow's church lunch is cooling just a bit longer and I need to clean up the table littered with cake-baking mess and see if I can get to bed before it is tomorrow.

"Oh how great is Thy goodness, which thou hast wrought for them that fear Thee; which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee.... Blessed be the Lord: for He hath shewed me His marvelous kindness..." Psalm 31: 19, 21

Weddings!

Some of my very dearest friends have married in recent weeks. And another is getting married in October. I'm so happy for all of them, and I'm loving watching them settle into their cozy little newly-wed homes and start their families. :)

Meanwhile, I hug my remaining single friends a little tighter, and wonder who's next...

Ah, yes... The pictures?
Well, Ruth usually documents every wedding we attend with a few hundred pictures. But... Unfortunately, the camera batteries died at Aneysa's wedding, and Liz was sick, so at the last minute my sisters didn't get to attend Allison's wedding. Thus, I'm waiting for generous friends to share their wedding pictures with me.

I'll post a few (and a better tribute to my married friends) whenever I get them!

Ellie's Visit

Ellie with my sisters and me...

I've been living life instead of blogging. That includes lots of midwife-stuff... but also loving on the four darling babies who have been living in we girls' bedroom, along with their mommy, Ellie.
Somehow, Ellie was adopted into the family years ago, the day we met her. She's one of the favorite non-biological sisters who we claim.... The past month has been delightful, but it's time for her to go home and settle back into regular life with her hubby. We're going to be saying goodbye early tomorrow morning. Perhaps, when that traumatic moment of kissing our four babies goodbye is in the past, I will have time to post a few more pictures of recent days around our house...

Someone asked me how our family was doing, and I replied, "Um, in a nutshell, we're happily going crazy, trying to love a zillion people!"

:) I like it. People matter. Life is good. Love is worth a lot. :)

The Letter

It arrived today. For real. And... it said that I passed the final NARM exam and am now a Certified Professional Midwife.

For me, the news is so big that it's hard to believe. It's so surreal. Maybe it will sink it the next time someone in Wal-Mart or at the gas station asks me what I do and I proudly say, "I'm a midwife!"

I'm happy. I'm blessed. I'm thrilled to tears.

And to think that being a CPM wouldn't really have meant a thing in Missouri two years ago...
I'm so grateful to Senator Loudon and the hundreds of other people who came together and legalized Certified Professional Midwives in Missouri!

I can think of so many twists and turns in the path to becoming a midwife that I have taken in the last 10 years. I'm so grateful for all of it - the fun stuff, the good stuff I'll never forget, the hard stuff, the horrible stuff, the exhausting stuff. Somehow, all mixed together, it made me who I am.

People often say most excitedly, "Oh, you're becoming a midwife?! That must be soo fun! I can't imagine how much I would love to deliver babies and be with the mothers on that special day!"
Or else they say, "Oh, my! I could never handle that!"

Really, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. There are wonderful parts and there are really hard parts.

Someone recently asked me, "What scares you more than about anything in the life you live?" I said without hesitation, "Shoulder dystocia!" On the other hand, I can think of a thousand things that I love about being involved in the lives of pregnant women who are learning and loving nurturing the tiny bits of life growing within them.

Some days I love it. Some days I'm so burnt out and hope desperately that my phone won't ring again for at least 20 minutes. But all together, it's so worth it in spite of the hard parts.

Would one choose not to experience motherhood and birth because of the pain and hardships and utter exhaustion? I would hope not.

It is through giving and loving and stretching more than you ever thought possible, and yes, sometimes hurting, that the soul expands and that life is made rich. Love, life - anything worthwhile is costly. But so worth it. Midwifery is that way.

I could go on and on, but I won't bore you... til another day, anyway!

Life in August....

It's been nearly a whole month since I last made a peep here.

Many days I've thought wistfully of trying to get on and blog a quick update, but alas, life has rolled on and the blog, while not forgotten, has been left in the dust! I'm sorry about that. I'm trying to get back to some sort of a schedule (that will include blogging) as September comes, and I switch gears from studying to living life in some sort of "normal" way! :)

August has been so busy, sometimes stressful, but really, really good in so many ways.
The first half of the month, I tried to do nothing but absolute necessities and studying for my midwife national board exam. Most days I tried to study, but a stream of constant interruptions kept me from getting much done.

Then I took the exam. I think I've been asked about 150 times since then, "So, how did it go? How do you think you did?!" So, I'll answer that question right here, before you all start asking. I don't know the results yet. I'm hopeful that I passed, but I'm not holding my breath... yet. I will let you know when I know something. :)

The day after I took the exam, our good friend, Ellie, and her four darling babies arrived to stay with us for a month so she can have a bit of rest and relaxation. Our house has had a steady stream of additional visitors coming through every day since. Yesterday we had 13 extra little kids from three families at our house. Today, we had 8 little kids under the age of 4 here, four kids a bit older than that, and a handful of teens/young people. I walked in the door from church and four little ones ran screeching towards me and grabbed my legs as I stepped over the boiled eggs that they had smashed all over the floor. Thaddeus wiped his runny nose across my cheek and CarolAnne shrieked, "Hold CaaarooolAnne first!"

To be honest, the dinner time sounds tonight over smashed biscuits and gravy all over the table made me feel like I was living within a monkey cage rather than a house inhabited by humans. :)
But I love them an awful lot. I just have to have a few moments to think occasionally. :)

And now these darling babies hanging over my elbows while I type are becoming a bit much to allow me to continue blogging. I think I'll try to finish another time... Goodnight for now!

Dear, Darling Babies

I have the best job in the whole world!

Well, truth be told, it doesn't always feel that way. Sometimes, as I drag myself out of bed and head off into a cold night at 2 am it doesn't quite feel that way. Or sometimes when the fourth pregnant lady calls in one day wanting to ask me about her urinary tract infection or tell me about her baby's hiccups, I wish I could just turn off my phone for an hour. Don't get me wrong - I want them to call if there is anything going on. But sometimes it would be nice to work a shift and then go home and leave someone else to worry about the pregnant ladies til I was scheduled to be at least partially responsible again. I don't know if things will be easier or harder once I'm "on my own" after I get certified. I guess I'll just take it one day at a time and one pregnant lady and baby at a time! :)

I'm at home, pretty much by myself for the week. My family is off on the yearly trek north to see all the relatives.

And me? Well, the usual story -- babies are due. I'm stuck pretty close to home.
I had already asked my preceptor for 4 days off next month before this family trip was planned, and I really can't leave her without help too often!

That's okay. Probably actually providential because of the enormous amount of studying I left to do before I take my national board exam in August.

So, this quiet week at home was supposed to be for studying. But pregnant ladies called today and needed packets mailed and charts updated and questions answered. And babies needed to be weighed and measured. And pregnant ladies need to be seen tomorrow and more appointments need to be made....

So, do I really have the best job in the world?
I think it's pretty close (being a mother would outrank it, I'd have to admit)...

If I ever forget how blessed I am to be holding mothers' hands while they push their babies out and to catch little naked babies and listen to them cry for the first time, all I have to do is kiss a few of those babies again.... :)

A few recent babies:

Anessa Marie came during the worst ice storm...

Since William Locksley decided to make his appearance on the last day of the Missouri legislative session, I spent the wee hours of the morning heading south from the Capitol as fast as I could safely go!

Athanasius arranged his arrival so conveniently for both my preceptor and I on a beautiful May evening...

Yep, my job is pretty grand. It's not all warm fuzzies - that's for sure. In fact, those are kind of few and far between. But it's deep, it's meaningful... and it leaves me in awe of God every time!

Updates from Africa

As many of you know, two of my brothers, Isaiah and Abraham, are currently on a missions trip in Guinea-Bissau, Africa till early December.
For those of you who know them and want to keep up with their trip, you won't find them writing long, newsy updates... But our friend, Quinn went along on this trip and has been posting updates to his blog. We are so thankful for his updates since their chances to call home are few and far between.
Check out Quinn's Blog.

Here again!

It's been a long time since I've posted. It will probably be a little while longer before I get back into the routine of blogging regularly about normal life.

The last two weeks at the Capitol have been some of the most intense, exhausting, and emotionally unstable weeks of my life. That may sound like an overstatement, but it really isn't. I feel like I've only begun to recover from everything that happened. It's hard for anyone who wasn't there walking through the day to day situations to really understand what I'm talking about, but I covet your prayers as I attempt to work through all that happened, and as we decide on an appropriate response to the utter corruption that we witnessed.

I probably won't be elaborating a whole lot here on a public blog, but suffice to say I've been brought to tears many times this week at the thought of our Gracious God, and my unworthiness and sinfulness. More than anything, seeing the corruption and wickedness that lurks inside the Capitol walls has brought me to my knees. My heart is just as deceitful and desperately wicked as all of the rest of the politicians who I spent so much time with.

My motives have been re-examined, and I have been convicted of the need to seek a pure heart and a tender conscience above anything else in life.

I rejoice to know that my Father IS truth.
He IS light.
In Him is NO darkness at all!