December Days...

Once again, it's been a long time since I've posted.

No, I didn't get sick. (Praise the Lord!!) Matter of fact, I told one of my sisters the other day, "I can't believe how good I feel when I've had a decent amount of sleep! I could be the Energizer Bunny today!"

Most days the sleep department has been a little short, but that's okay. I've been so immersed in clinicals that I barely have had time to breathe this past week. I love playing the primary role under supervision... I learn the most that way. Who needs sleep when they could be catching a baby instead? : ) And my CPM preceptor is great. She knows what I'm thinking and I know what she's thinking before either of us say anything (usually!). I'm so grateful to have someone to work with and learn from who shares my worldview and with whom I get along so splendidly!

My family has been no less busy with their own projects. Tonight was our bi-weekly Friday night Bible study at our house. We had 21 kids under 10 here! And the house was relatively quiet. That was amazing!

Several of the girls tried to get the year-end letter written this week. But each time they wrote a few paragraphs and then gave up saying, "How do you condense our life into a couple of pages? We need an annual edition of our yearly chronicle!"
Really, though, we have to get it written and print those family pictures and get it in the mail! It's going to be 2009 way too soon!

I wish I was three different places tonight...

Congratulations to my dear friends Halley (in Columbia) and Jessica (in Springfield) who are graduating as RN's tonight!
Congratulations to Allison (in St. Louis) who is celebrating her recent engagement to Brian tonight!
Congratulations to Robyn who graduates as a nurse tomorrow... and really deserves some kind of Purple Heart for managing to go through nursing school, be a midwife, and raise 11 children simultaneously! I wish I could hear her valedictorian speech tomorrow about God's grace in her life in the midst of all of this!
And best wishes to Steff who is hosting a meeting in her home near Kansas City for policy makers focused on fixing our U.S. maternity care system tomorrow afternoon... She's hoping that Tom Daschle makes it there... and so do I!

And I've promised some Africa pictures from the boys... Unfortunately, they are not home this week to tell me if my captions are correct. Anyone who was there or knows is welcome to comment, correcting my captions!