Birth News

The past months have been refreshing for me, but they've also been a lot of work.  And I'm not just talking about motherhood (which can be a handful in itself!).  I'm talking about my certification work with:

I went to a new birth educator training course in Chicago when we were passing through, but that was just the tip of the iceberg in getting certified.  I've been doing a ton of work from Ohio and once I get it all wrapped up, I'll submit my coursework for approval.  I then have to teach the birth course two times and then I'll be certified.  I've gotten a lot done and have a lot more to do.  Here's what I've done so far:

I've read and written several page reports on each of the following books:

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

Real Food for Mother and Baby

The Doula Guide to Birth

Breastfeeding Made Simple

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth

(And I'm currently working on) Business Mastery

I have observed:

A breastfeeding support group

A class on breastfeeding for expectant moms

(And I'm in the middle of observing) A three week class on childbirth for expectant parents at the local hospital

Wrote papers on two different beliefs I hold about birth, parenting, etc. 

 The most gigantic part has been completing a study guide about everything related to the classes I will be certified to teach.  It is a study guide of just question after question after question that I had to research and answer...and more importantly, learn about!  The study guide wound up being 58 pages when I was all done!

One of the fun activities was visiting the local hospital to see how birth is routinely done there

And the coolest part of that was getting to do that in conjunction with observing a birth!  

When I got here in town I had no contact with birth whatsoever.  Seriously...none!  But in this whole certification process I have seen God directing me and opening doors left and right.  As soon as I arrived in town I cold called the hospital to see if I could observe birth and breastfeeding classes for new moms so I could fulfill my requirements.  Not only have I gotten to, but I have met some amazing ladies through the hospital.  The local childbirth educator is super nice and has allowed me to learn a lot from her.  Not only that, but she also asked me to speak at a community baby shower for all the new moms in the town and invited me to speak to a group of professional lactation consultants in Columbus!  In both settings I shared about birth in Brazil and a bit of my testimony and how God opened the door for me to have Elijah in Brazil.  It has been really awesome to see how God allowed me to get involved in the birth community here!  

And as if that wasn't exciting enough, The childbirth educator got in touch with the midwife at the hospital.  One of the course requirements is to see a birth.  I have given birth so that can count, but it is really recommended that you observe a birth, as it obviously gives you a different perspectively (literally too!).  So I wrote to the midwife and asked her if there was a chance I could observe a birth (or more than one).  But I seriously had no clue if it could happen since it was such as "cold call" but she said yes!  And the hospital approved it!  And the other day, a young lady went into labor (who coincidentally I had met at the baby shower!) and told the midwife I could watch.  So I went over in the middle of the night and had one of the most incredible and beautiful experiences of my life.  What an amazing process birth is!  It was an all natural birth too.  I just LOVED watching and would love to help women in Brazil in any way related to birth, education, pregnancy, etc.  So it was just such a great confirmation that I'm going the right direction.   Hopefully I'll get to see some more births in the months ahead as well.

Anyway, going back to my to-do list:

Still ahead I have to:

Read and write reports on - The Labor Progress Handbook 

and How to Give it so they Get It

Visit one more birth location

Compile a list of pregnancy, birth, and baby resources available where we live in Brazil

and Prepare the outline for the birth courses I will be certified to teach

I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel!  But I'm enjoying it all and learning a lot, so although I'm looking forward to being done, I'm enjoying the journey.

Missions At The Airport

This weekend we went to a really great missions event about an hour from where we are staying.  It is called "Missions at the Airport" and was held at a hangar in a small airport and run by a big airplane parts supplier that helps provide parts for our mission in Brazil and the mission we're temporarily working with in Ohio.  They were expecting about 3,000 people, so this was a huge, well run event! But before getting on to the pictures of Missions at the Airport, these are a few other pictures I took this weekend that I just want to share because...well I'm a mom and that's what we do!

Our baby is getting so big...he's wearing shoes

And jeans!

Just something about that combo got to me...it makes him seem like he's becoming a big kid and not just a baby anymore!

Not big enough to put this whole gourd in his mouth though...despite various attempts :)

Oh and one picture we took on the way to the event.  After gawking at how cute this dog is, we noticed he stayed PERFECTLY still...and was in fact a stature :)  Super cute though!

 Anyway, back to the event.  In the hangar there were booths representing about 20 different missions organizations which use missionary aviation (including "our" mission in Ohio), there were a bunch of interesting planes to look at, a music activity tent where you could play with musical instruments from all around the world, a kids tent with some of the coolest ideas to gets kids thinking about missions, you could take rides in planes and helicopters used for missions, there were demonstrations of a Cessna 206 doing short take off and landings (like are done often in misisons), food, and much more.

Jeyson went for a ride in a DC3, which is a plane that was a huge part of WWII but is now often used in missions.  It's a small plane, but big enough to fit missions teams in to fly them to different locations.

An interesting side fact we learned is that Amish can fly on planes!  There were lots of them on the flight with Jeyson, though from what we understand they are not allow on helicopters...no idea why!

 Elijah liked being in the blow up toys, but had no clue what to do.  He mostly just sat still :)

At night (though we didn't stay for it) there was a concert and a HUGE bbq chicken dinner.  Above is the grill the chicken was getting cooked on!

 One of the most fun parts of the day was taking this little hay ride...

 ....over to see a hovercraft demonstration.

 To be honest, I never really knew much about hovercrafts before, but it was so neat the way it just floats so easily right over the water and then hovers easily out of the water...

 And over the land

 I love the contrast of seeing the very traditional Amish people watching this UFO looking technology!

Some adorable Amish children watching with binoculars from a nearby field

All of this right on a tiny pond in someone's backyard!

 Even though we're in the middle of nowhere Ohio, we ran into people we knew!  First, we ran into a couple Jeyson knew from Moody, then we ran into a guy who worked in partnership with Asas for years.  Ironically, the very week we came to the US he came down to Asas after many years to lead a seminar, so we were "supposed" to meet him then.  I guess God didn't want us to miss him and allowed us to meet him in the US instead!

 Sometimes as missionaries in Brazil, we get so focused on the work God is doing there and through our organization.  This event was so refreshing to help us take a step back and see what God is doing throughout the world with and without missionary aviation.  We are blessed to be even a small part of the story.

 On the way home, we stopped at Leyman's - a famous store that has SO much random stuff, but specializes in appliances (like fridges and washing machines) that don't need electric power.  This is perfect for the Amish population, but also missionaries order things from this store that they need to live in remote places with no power.

Outside the store, this is one horse I could handle!

SO many soda options in the store!!!

If only we could teach Elijah to use this duster rather than just think it is fun!

As of Late

I've been a bit absent in blog world because the past weeks have not been normal.  Jeyson and Elijah have both been sick and I've been nurse Stephanie.  It's been a tricky sickness too, because as soon as it looked like they were getting better, the colds came back on again (a few times!).  

Sick babies get to watch a little extra Sesame Street

Jeyson missed a day or two of work, but other than that has been working hard on this airplane that is headed to Honduras.  It's had a complete make over that has transformed it from being a comfortable plane to a flying truck of sorts.  I'll blog more on this later.  Jeyson is continuing to learn a lot and really enjoy his time at MMS.

Before the guys got sick (and in some moments in between where it looked like they were better!) we've had a lot of small town fun.  I am especially enjoying the change of seasons, something we don't get where we live in Brazil.  In Anapolis the weather is pretty much the same year round, so you don't get the change in clothes, colors, food, and activities like here.  We've been soaking it in.  

Labor day we went to the last day the local aquatic center/splash pad was open and had a ton of fun.

And another day we went to an Amish/Mennonite auction where they raise money for missions work in Haiti.  (We're in Amish country here).  It was a huge event with Amish and non-Amish people.  The food was great and they auctioned off everything from quilts to horse and buggies!

Confession:  I snuck a picture :)

 We also bought a baby bike seat from a garage sale for $5 and it was the best $5 spent ever!  Jeyson's always been a great biker and I originally thought we should get the seat so I could sent the boys out and I could have the house to myself!  Although that happens a lot, we were lent 2 bikes and Jeyson convinced me to come along.  And I'm shocked to say it's a ton of fun!  I grew up in a hilly area, but here's it's very flat and easy to go far with little effort.  So we regularly bike to the park with a picnic or just bike around a few miles.

Here's a typical before picture

And knocked out after!

 Another weekend we met some friends at a county fair about an hour away.  We enjoyed the fair, but the highlight (at least for the guys!) was the modified tractor pull.  These tractors are crazy creations, some even had jet engines built in.  It was SO loud we had to cover Elijah's ears (he wasn't bothered, but we were worried about his safety!).

Huge pumpkin at the fair

Record size watermelon...I think it was 119 pounds if I remember correctly!

And I just had to have a funnel cake.  It just represents everything about US summer/fall fun to me that I've missed so much!  Food is SO connected to memories and I wanted to soak it all in!

 Another random thing we did was we went on a tour of a mom and pop cheese factory with a group of local young events.  This group isn't affiliated with a church or anything, but just  group that gets together once a month to do interesting activities.  I think next they're going to go wild mushroom picking and tour a museum exhibit.  It was fun to get out and meet new people.

 And of course see how cheese is made (it's all inside those tubes and you could see bit so colby jack oozing out from the sides...yum!

Lastly, this guy has been growing and changing nonstop!  Here's 10 months old now and all about eating finger food on his own (he is an AWESOME eater!)

And exploring everything...

And everywhere!

Yesterday I celebrated my 28th birth.  28!  I seriously can not believe it!  Where did the time go?  The day before, I got spoiled with a date out to the "big town" ....with a babysitter watching Elijah!!  Then, on the actual day, it was a bike ride, cake, and the day with my boys.