Photo Bomb

Today was a really crazy, fun day. :-D I'll upload a ton of pictures and explain what's going on in each one to give you an idea of what I've been doing all day...

the face and hair say it all...LOL... ;-D

I did a quick photo shoot with this little guy. He's adorable! :-D

mom and baby

Ryle and Ate Grace

Johannah getting her hair put up

today Ate Helen showed us how to make some sort of Filipino food which has coconut, boiled banana, sugar, and margerine. However, it isn't really sweet. But it was SO good. Sometimes Filipinos will eat this instead of rice. While everyone tried a hand at it, there was a lot of laughing and picture taking. It was a lot of fun. :-D

this is what it looks like. You pack it into the yellow lid then pop it out so it keeps its shape

Aviva trying her hand at making some

pretty Johannah

Ate Beth is a really funny lady. I love to goof off with her. :-D

Sky trying her hand at it

Ate Grace, Ate Helen, and Ate Beth 

Ate Bhel and Sky

Aviva

the wonderfully amazing Ate Helen

Ate Lornie

Johannah demonstrating how to eat the coconut cakes the Filipino way

mother and daughter

Sky eating one

Martin

coconut banana cakes

Ryle decided to help Abby with her turn

what are they laughing about?

some men are working behind the birth center clearing away the wall...I'm not sure why...

"my" puppy, Mr. Humble Pie

Mariel with her little boy. He smiles so big and is absolutely adorable! :-D

My parents have a classmate from the Coast Guard Academy who is now in Manila. When he heard I was here, he sent my parents his cell number and had them pass it along to me. I got sick the day I got the phone number so I decided to wait until I was feeling better to contact him. Then I forgot. Yesterday, I texted him and he called me back within 30 seconds and we decided he and his family would come out to Shiphrah so I could meet him and his family. They are so sweet and tomorrow are taking me to the American Cemetery.  

aren't they a lovely family?

Ate Beth got exhausted during her turn

Ate Bhel and Mariel

Photo Bomb part...oh never mind

So my laptop is (kind of) working and I'm hoping it will not die on me again. But I'm uploading a ton of pictures from the past several weeks since the laptop died. I'll explain what's going on with each pic.

me and little Dan, who was named after me :-D he's an adorable sweet heart

me, a new family, and Anne, a Filipino midwifery intern who came and stayed at Shiphrah for a week. She is an awesome midwife and I am blessed to have met her. :-D

this is Kuya Efron, Lyds' husband, behind me being silly. He's a nut and is a lot of fun to hang out with

When Anne was staying with us, she told me about how her daughter loved to read and how it was the girl's birthday the next week. Anyway, I had this one book which I had already read and it wasn't the best book in the world but it was decent enough so I gave it to her daughter. Anne was so thrilled she took this picture. :-D

the new intern, Sky, took this picture inside a jeepney

sorry this isn't in the correct order, but Anne had me inscribe the book for her daughter. It was fun. :-D

me, the family from the first picture, and Clyde, a midwifery intern who came with Anne. She was an amazing young woman too. :-D

Clyde, me, Anne, and Ate Lyds

I can't say enough how sweet Anne is

Renlyds, Mariel, and Maybel playing on the roof of the house

aren't they adorable?!

my friend donated this blanket to Shiphrah and it was given out at graduation. I was so excited to see it being used! :-D

this is a picture of what I looked like with the scarlet fever / hand foot mouth disease, or whatever it was. It actually got worse than this but I was too discouraged by how I looked to take another picture. But at one point I looked much worse... My face and neck were absolutely COVERED in the red blisters and they itched and hurt like the dickens. I wouldn't even wish this disease on my enemies.

little girl who I caught came back at one month old to get her ears pierced. Isn't she adorable?

Daddy marks his daughter's ears to show where they should get pierced

Ate Grace with the ear piercing gun. The baby is thinking, "HELP!" she was more upset about having to hold her head still than having an earring shoot through her ear

all done

the lovely Roanne

rambutan, a delicious fruit. You peel the red poky outside off and the inside is really sweet. It's delicious. Kuya Jun was selling it for 40 pesos per kilo. That's $1 USD for 2.2 lb 

my little friend, Mr. Humble Pie

new baby :-D

A baby named after me

Yup! There's a new little baby in this world named after yours truly. :-)

The mom gave birth at 12:06am to an adorable baby boy. Once he was born, she smiled and said, "we have two little girls so my husband was praying that this one would be a boy and the Lord said YES!" they were both so happy.

Then on one of the postpartum checks, the mom asked me, "do you know what his name is?"

"what is it?" I asked.

She smiled sweetly and said, "his name is Dan after you because your name is Danielle."

How sweet! That just made my day! Actually, because it's not yet 2am, that just made my night. :-)

Welcome to the world little Dan!

Not sure what to say...

I realized its been a week since Arvie's death so it's been a week since I wrote on my blog. Since I've received several emails asking about how we're all doing, I figured I'd write an update.

We're all doing ok. The midwives have been quicker to action at births which is both a good and bad thing but I don't blame them in the least.

There have been many births this past week but they've mostly been Abby's continuities so she's not had much sleep and we've all slept soundly. Oh well. :)

There are two new interns - Aviva and Sky. They're both really sweet and fun to hang out with.

I only have five weeks left in the Philippines. It's hard to believe how fast te time had gone. Ate Dina asked me how much longer and when I told her one more month, she got sad. It was sweet and instantly made me want to say, "oh wait I actually mean a few more months!" I'm really happy to return home in a month but at the same time sad to leave all these lovely people ad friends out here.

My laptop broke after being used three times and is back at the laptop repair store. Thankfully it is still under warranty so they're fixing it for free hut it's still a pain. Oh well.

Thanks everyone for your prayers! I'll update more fully and with pictures when I have my laptop back. it's hard with an iPod... :-)

Please pray for shiphrah

We had a mom die today. We transported and got her to the hospital at 7:30 this morning and the hospital didn't do an immediate cesarean section as was needed and she died at 9:00 am. The baby died too. then they did the cesarean.

She left behind a husband and three small kids, five, four, and not yet two. The kids stayed at shiphrah while their mommy was supposed to be getting the cesarean and now they'll never see her again. The kids won't understand what happened to their mommy and they won't understand that she's gone. The youngest one won't even remember her.

Please pray for everyone at shiphrah specifically Lydia and Dina since they were there when the mom died. Also please please pray for the family as they try to figure out what to do next.

This is hard on absolutely everyone and I'm not sure how to process it. Shiphrah is trying to raise money for the family to help with the hospital bill and funeral expenses so if anyone is interested in giving, please either email me or contact Deborah or Jeri.

Thank you for praying!

Danielle

Just a quick update...

Guess what? My laptop broke again. I'm *really* happy with the job SST laptop repair did for me. Right now I'm debating not getting it fixed until I get home (in just 42 more days!) so that I can speak English with whoever fixes my laptop so I can be told what is actually wrong. Honestly, I'm a little frustrated right now since I feel as if I just wasted $40. Anyway...

I managed to get the virus that was going around the birth center. I woke up Saturday morning with a fever and spots all over my face. By Sunday night I was absolutely covered in the spots and was itching like crazy. But I resisted the urge to scratch. Now the virus is leaving and my face and body are gradually returning to normal. Hopefully tomorrow I'll look presentable enough to start helping with births again. I had all the symptoms for scarlet fever but the doctors said they have no idea what is going around (it's been declared an epidemic in Manila) but they don't have any antibiotics for it. I'm glad about that because I do not want to be taking antibiotics unless I have to.

Now for some really sad news: the spina bifida baby died October 2. The funerals today at 10 am but I'm not able to go because of the virus. Please pray for Rosemarie and Vhon as they grieve the death of their sweet little boy. He was almost a month old.

As you can probably tell, it's been a rather rough week for me. I've had many conflicts and disappointments but thankfully the week is almost over. Please pray for me that I will continue to get well and also pray for Rosemarie and Vhon that God will continue to comfort them. I've texted them briefly and they are sad yet their faith truly amazes me.