Suture Class

This afternoon, the midwives taught Karissa and I how to suture. The pictures are below. It was a lot of fun with a lot of giggling.

Photo Bomb

If you are on Facebook, you can skip past this post as you've probably already seen all these pictures, but if not, these are the ones that I've been wanting to post for the last two weeks but haven't been able to. But I think I've got it figured out now. :-D

Buko (young coconut)

Beware of a lady with a machete!

one of the moms and babies whose birth I attended

one of the babies who I caught

ladies dancing with Ate Helen

buko juice :-D

one of our last pictures of Squeaky... :(

I was reading one night and Squeaky came and curled up with me.

Karissa's supposed to be pretending to give Ube a choke hold... Oh well.

gorgeous bracelet I bought the other day

Claire, Ate Dina's little girl

the set up for Jeri's birthday party

Bernadette and one of her friends playing with Ube

the baby who gave us the idea of photography out here

Jeri and her bear

scarves and belts the midwives have made...They're 300 Pesos each (about $7 USD) so if you want one, e-mail me and I'll buy one for you then write me a check and give it to my Mom.

Jorge, Shiphrah's transport driver, pretending to pick up the bag with Karissa inside it.

Nia, a sweet German girl, being obnoxious with the bear

From left: Ro-Anne, Ate Helen, and Johannah clowning around with the bear 

Jorge said he didn't want a picture with the bear, so Ate Helen picked Ube up and dropped it in his lap. :-D

Ube the Bear wearing Jorge's sunglasses. Don't ask.

Ate Helen asked me to take a picture for her of My-My and Ube

several of the midwives' kids with Ube

the train station 

the three interns before Jennifer left

These babies were born five minutes apart from each other. :-D

Photography Ministry out here

God has given me an opportunity to use my photography to bless people out here. I am *so* excited! 

At Jeri's birthday party last week, someone gave her a *huge* stuffed purple bear, who we've affectionately named Ube (pronounced Ubay - ebay with a u - since he's the same color as the vegetable). 

While everyone was having fun with the bear, one of my moms came in for her 3 day postpartum visit and Deborah, Jeri's daughter, got the idea to take a picture of the baby with the bear.

Well, someone got the idea that maybe we could take a picture of each baby born here with the bear and then print the pics and give them to the moms at the 3 day postpartum visit. I volunteered to do it.

So now every couple days I catch a jeepney up to SM and have a few pictures printed. I need to do it again this afternoon. 

I absolutely love taking pictures of each baby with the bear and I've also started taking pictures of each mom and baby together so each family gets two pictures. 

I also absolutely love seeing a family's eyes light up with surprise and excitement whenever I carry a camera and gigantic bear into their room. And then they start laughing and taking pictures too while I go about my work. It's a lot of fun. I really enjoy doing it.

Thank You, Lord, for giving me this opportunity to use one of my favorite hobbies to bless others!

Scroll down to see two "samples" of what I've been doing.

Mom and baby

baby and Ube

Sad...

Squeaky disappeared two days ago... :-(

Karissa and I had spent the night at the birth center and he stayed with us, sleeping most of the evening on Karissa's face (don't ask. This is Squeaky we're talking about...). When I decided that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep for the rest of the night, I headed back to the apartment to take a shower around 5am. Squeaky wasn't there anymore.

We haven't seen him since.

The midwives think someone might have seen how clean and cute and healthy he looked and took him. Supposedly it's hard to find kittens as good as he was. I hope that's the case. And if so, I hope whoever took him is feeding him. He's not very good at providing for himself.

So Squeaky, I'll say "goodbye" to you and I hope you're well and happy wherever you are. I really enjoyed our 3-4 short weeks with you!

Giggle, Giggle, Giggle

Some of you might remember how I posted last week about my ticklish COC coming again last week.

Well she came again today (I'm not sure why she's been wanting to come so often - she's not due for 2 months!). I was really excited when I saw her and knew we were in for a fun prenatal. This time, she was determined not to giggle so the only time she giggled was when I felt for the head. The rest of the prenatal, she tried to keep her mouth firmly shut but several times a big, unstoppable grin appeared.

I'm glad I'm the one doing her prenatals. It's so much fun. ;-D