Traveling

Jackie and I have been planning a vacation for some time now. He has wanted to show me around the Black Hills for some years now, and show me at the time of the peak fall color, so we are going now.

The main place he has wanted to show me is Spearfish Canyon, just to the north of Rapid City, South Dakota, so that will be one of the places we visit.

We left yesterday morning, and drove north through west Oklahoma and western Kansas. There wasn't much to see, and we spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Garden City, Kansas. The whirlpool was so nice! We sure enjoyed it after driving for 9 hours.

Yesterday was mostly 67 to 70 degrees all day long, but all through Oklahoma, the sky was full of clouds that really looked like snow, of all things.

This morning, we started out at 40 degrees, and never got above 41, with rain pretty much since noon or so. About an hour north of Garden City, we stopped to look at some Pueblo Ruins, known as El Cuartelejo. Of course we didn't know what to expect, so it was an adventure! We followed signs for a time, then the trail got cold, and we knew it, so we turned around. We turned into a state park, hoping someone there could direct us to it, but no one was around. I guess there's no one who wants to camp out when it gets into the 30's at night. Go figure.

But we went just a little further, and found the signs again. The ruins were just a little square of four rooms, but it was cool to see something that was there more than 400 years ago. Cuartel means an army outpost in Spanish, so cuartelejo may mean the small army outpost. It was still around in 1604, 4 years before Jamestown. Too cool. Picture below.




Cute woman, huh?

Then, we continued on our journey, but were just a little down the road when we saw a whole herd of bison on our left! Jackie quickly stopped on the shoulder of the road, and scampered across the road to take pictures. There was a semi right behind us. As he passed us on the top of the hill, he hit the air horn, which startled the bison to run toward us! Jackie caught an awesome video of it!







So enjoy the video. We did!

We crossed into Nebraska sometime around noon. Then, between Ogallala and Lewellen, Nebraska, we passed a sod house! Jackie promptly turned around and we went to see what we could see. Turns out it was a sod house recreated in 1967, but it was neat to see it anyway. And it was built right where a house was on the old Oregon Trail, just west of Windlass Hill. We (you guessed it) took some pictures. It was raining lightly by this time; my new jacket sure was warm!




The sign by the gate says: "Close gate please -- otherwise cattle get in and rub the old sod house down. Thanks" I thought it was quaint!




Yes, that's right, there were cacti growing on the roof of the sod house!

And, finally, one last picture of a weird lady and her sweet husband...



All in all, a great day! More to come...

Again, and Blessed

After seven months of no baby-catching, I finally got to do again! And I guess it's like riding a bicycle; I didn't forget how to do it, which I'm sure is a comfort to the parents of this wonderful new little boy. And it was a deep pleasure for me to watch what few nurses and doctors get to see -- a completely natural birth.

Beulah (name changed, as usual) labored ever so quietly. I think she is the quietest laboring mom I have ever watched. As she was a first-time mom, I was amazed at how she handled all the new not-so-pleasant sensations. I arrived with my assistant a little before 5 pm. She had been laboring since 11 am, and her water had broken at 8:30 am. Steve (also name changed) was helping her cope, but she was so easy to help.

I watched her as I got everything ready for my part. Crock pot, washcloths, towels, baby hats, oil, bowl of instruments, gauze, stethoscope, etc, were all gotten ready by me or Amy. She soon started exhibiting signs of transition. I won't go into them all, but they're very obvious to me. So I sent Amy downstairs with the news.

Downstairs were about 20 people, milling around, eating, visiting, giving and receiving massages, taking pictures. They were family, neighbors, friends from church, and were all waiting for this baby. (No pressure, Betsy!) So I would send Amy downstairs every so often with some news of what was going on upstairs in the little birthing sanctuary. Amy was a godsend for me, since my left knee was not wanting to go up and down stairs for anybody. But that's another story.

A little before 6 pm, Beulah said she had felt quite a bit of pressure with the last contraction. So I did a sterile exam and found that she was complete. She was ready to push. (Wonderful news! Woo hoo!) I tell Beulah that she must do a mind switch now. "You have to go from relaxing with your contractions to pushing with them." She very quietly acquiesced. And I sent Amy downstairs with the news.

She pushed for a while in a semi-sitting position on the bed. And she was making progress there, but she was getting tired. So I had her get up (hard to do!) and get on the birthing stool for a while, where we started seeing a little bit of the baby's head. (Good progress!) Steve was sitting on the edge of the bed behind her giving her a place to rest on him between contractions. After a while, however, Beulah said that her toes were going numb. Yeah. The birth stool is a little bit tall, and your legs do go to sleep. So we get her up and on the toilet. The toilet is very similar to the birth stool, but lower.

She sits there for a few contractions, pushing really well. I can't tell what's going on (the downside of the toilet), but I can tell she's making progress. When she tells me that she feels some burning with the last push, I get her off the toilet and back on the bed. Sure enough, the baby's head is crowning, and it doesn't take too many more contractions to have a "full crown," where the fullest part of the head is through.

So the head is born and Steve gets ready to help me catch his baby. I pull a loop of cord over the head and realize that the baby is holding onto the cord with his right hand! Always cool to see the baby's hand peeking out -- I had that experience with my very first catch five years ago. The little white hand waves and wiggles it's fingers. Steve catches the baby's body after we persuade Beulah that one more push is needed. (She's not so convinced about this last push.)

Hurrah! Hurrah! 8:03 and baby is born! I suction and listen and look and give him an Apgar score. Yes, it's a him! Steve checks to see. A son.

The hard part is over. The hard part has begun.

We do the normal postpartum stuff which always seems to take forever, but is all necessary.

The cry that goes up from downstairs when Steve announces it's a boy feels to me like the cheering for a touchdown at a high school stadium. There's so much happiness and love in this little apartment. A new family member. The first grandchild on both sides. The first baby for this couple. A firstborn son.

Grandpa prays over this son. Other grandpa has baked an upside down cake, which is his tradition for new babies.

Amy and I pack up and leave about 11:40 pm. Amy's still on a high. I feel so much satisfaction. Job satisfaction. I have it. Although I don't really feel that it's a job. It's wonderfulness.

And now I can apologize for the long time between posts. I have had some interesting times at home in my "time off" from midwifery, but I didn't share them with you.

I have 10 more babies coming this fall and winter.

God is good.

Beautiful Little People

Faith Nelson! What an artisan! The details you put into your little people are fantastic! Thank you so much...

When I arrived back home from Lebanon, I had a bubble mailer waiting for me from Faith. I opened it excitedly.

Some weeks back, her family had a contest (http://youredoingwhat.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-winner-is.html) for putting captions on some funny family pictures. I thought one up, and actually won! Imagine that!

My prize for winning the contest was a free little person made by Faith. She asked me what I wanted my little person to look like. I really couldn't decide on who to ask her to make this little person look like. (Faith makes little clay people to look like real people. She makes a little person from a picture of someone.) So I asked her to decide what my little person would look like.

I never dreamed what she would do. I was so amazed with what she sent. And so was Jackie. He promptly took pictures. Here they are. Be amazed along with me.

I still can't believe you made a whole nativity set for me, Faith. It will be one of my favorite things to set up this coming Christmas, believe me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, lest you not be amazed, following is another picture, with a dime placed in front of the figures so that you can see how tiny these people are, and what manual dexterity Faith must have to make them.

For those of you who like my set, you can get one very inexpensively from Faith. Here's her ordering site: http://www.panivinoranch/littleclaypeople.html.

Pictures of the Lebanon trip

I thought I would share a few of the pictures that I was able to take while in Lebanon.

This was a "sandwich" vendor. The day that I went with Jason and Sarah to get Jude circumcised, we stopped here for lunch. The cook is making a sandwich. He puts chicken (shaved from the roasted vertical stack on the right), french fries, and salty dill beet pickles in flat bread and rolls it up! It costs 60 cents, USD. They are right tasty!

Brenda and I went to the Souk together. Here we are sharing a cup of Lebanese coffee together. I'm not sure I should say that we enjoyed it, since it is very strong and bitter. No cream or sugar. But I did enjoy sharing the experience with Brenda. She was a very compassionate, able birth assistant. I am thankful for her and for her life.

Above is a building in the ancient port of Byblos, mentioned in most history textbooks. It was very otherworldly to be in these ancient cities.

My favorite picture of Beirut, taken from a mountain just east of the city.

The corniche, where I walked and worshipped the Creator. I enjoyed those walks so much!

The street on which Jason and Sarah and Jude live. They live in an apartment to the left just in front of the SUV (which is their vehicle).

The lighthouse at Tyre, and the ocean just beside it.

Jonathan, Anna, Joel, and Ethan, British expatriates in Tyre. I enjoyed their love of life, their love of people, and Anna's peach and pear crumble!

Left to right: Will, Dennis, Bri, and Emi. Thanks so much for adopting me for a couple of days!

My favorite picture of Jude! He's looking straight at me. I talked to his daddy yesterday, and found out that he now weighs 11 pounds! It's amazing how fast they grow. He has gained four pounds in four weeks. Wow.

Miriam and her family. Brahim, then Miriam, Rabab, the dad (didn't interact with him very much, so don't know his given name), and Mohammad. They live two floors up from Sarah and Jason. Papa told Miriam to cook well so Sarah's milk would come in and nourish Jude. So she brought food down every other day. Thanks so much, Miriam. I'll never forget you.

At the Hippodrome. This was a place where horses raced, from Roman times. It was huge, of course. I'm standing in front of part of the stands. At the north end of it is the Via Romana, or the Roman Road, which led into Tyre. Since Jesus went there during his lifetime, I probably walked along the same road He did.

One more of me (sorry). I'm sitting in the grandstands at the Hippodrome. Isn't that incredible?

Praying at the Hereri mosque in Beirut. I am the one on the left, completely unaware that a picture is being taken. The young woman who invited me to pray with her is the one in the center with the white skirt on.

Fosiah on the left, and Safa on the right. Both dear friends of Sarah and Jason. Fosiah sang a lullaby in Arabic to Jude one night. I wish I had taped it. It was tenderly sweet. Both women have been Arabic teachers to the Kerners in the past.

And, finally, a picture of what I didn't see, a cedar tree. They are very few, and hard to get to, and there just wasn't time on this trip. Maybe next time....

Thanks for letting me share these pictures!

A Reason for Being Here

I haven't kept all of you up-to-date on the happenings here in Tyre as well as I had hoped. When I left Texas, I had hoped that blogging would be easy. It has been difficult for a couple of reasons. First, the Internet isn't always on. One can't ever take it for granted that it will be working when the computer boots up. Second, there's more people than just me needing to get on to the Internet. There's Jason and Sarah, who own the computer, and then there's Rabab and Miriam, two floors up, who want to talk to Brahim, in France, on Skype, and then there's me. So I have to take my turn. And third, this has been kind of a rollercoaster of a visit. Emotionally there have been good days and there have been bad. So here I am two days from the end of my visit, and I'm just now blogging some of my visit besides the birth.



Tyre, known hereabouts as Sour (the French name for it, and pronounced just like the word "sewer"), is an ancient city. There are mostly Shi'ite muslims here, and it's a very conservative part of Lebanon. There are some Palestinian refugee camps here in the city. The Palestinians have a very hard lot in life, as they are not allowed to become citizens of Lebanon, and they cannot own any property. So you see them selling food out of the back of vans, or electronics out of a pushcart. They are very entrepreneurial, but their lot in life stinks, as far as I'm concerned. They have been refugees here for 60 years. Yes, you read that right. Sixty years.



The area that Sarah and Jason live in is right in the peninsula of Tyre. Their apartment is a quarter of a mile from the ocean on one side, and maybe 3/8 of a mile from the ocean on the other side. I went to both seawalks, known as corniches, on my walk two days ago. First I went to the south side and walked to the little beach at the end, where I looked for seashells, but my main purpose was to grab a little of the Mediterranean in a little bottle to bring home with me. I know that's silly, but it is somehow important to me.

Then I went to the city ruins, which Jason had led me to about a week before. When the two of us went, I had no camera. Since then, they have loaned me a camera to use, so I made my way to the ruins through the Tyre traffic, and took a picture over the fence. Those ruins were a Roman bath. It's very interesting to look on things built over 200o years ago. The people here don't hold them as sacred. People can basically go touch everything. We walked on some of the mosaics, for crying out loud. In the States, everything would be cordoned off, and there would be a look but don't touch attitude. Not here. We could see where the water was stored, and how it went from one storage building to another, and we could see the hundreds of clay disks that were used for warming the baths. And there is a double row of columns leading to the ocean. Who knows what they were used for -- a gymnasium, perhaps?

After the ruins, I made my way to the Souk, the market. It is pronounced "soo," with no k sound at the end. I'm following a map that Jason gave me, and just finding my way. I have no fear, except for the cars that drive crazily everywhere. It's the craziest driving I've seen anywhere in the world, including Zanzibar and Beijing and Mexico City. Jonathan, another person I've met here, says Cairo is the worst. I cannot imagine how, but I guess I believe him, since he's been there, and I haven't.

At the Souk, I make my way past the spice vendor and the antique vendor to the scarf shop. I have to get one more. I finger the different scarves, and ask, in English of course, how much one is. The owner responds in English, and starts showing me all kinds of scarves. I finally settle on one, and give him a little more than he asks, expecting some change. Instead he hands me a dollar back. I am surprised, and say "Shukran," "thank you" in Arabic.

I am so proud of having bought something by myself. Not that I should be. The merchants will do anything for a sale.

From the souk, I make my way to the northern corniche, which I haven't seen before while walking. It's much longer than the southern one, and I've already been walking for awhile before I get there, so I don't go all the way to the end. I go about halfway, then consult my map some more, and find my way home by the map and my eyes. The map has street names, but the streets themselves don't, so you have to remember landmarks. I go straight home, with no false turns.

I've been gone two hours. I let myself into the apartment with the key they've made available to me, and I show them my purchase and tell them where I've been. It's been a good morning.

Later I'm told it's not the same in other countries like Syria and Egypt. I'm so glad I'm here, then. Because I've really enjoyed the freedom to explore and behold the beauties here.

I have truly enjoyed my stay here. I will be coming home in two days. Perhaps I can share some of the pictures I've been able to take along the way. The only sight I wasn't able to capture was snow-covered Mt. Hermon. It was beautiful. And I didn't have a camera.

But the main thing I wanted to share is an experience I had in Beirut two days ago. We went to Beirut to the US Embassy to get started on the paperwork for Jude's American birth certificate and passport and Social Security number. While we were there, Sarah wanted to visit a new mosque in the center of town that was built by a famous Lebanese politician who was murdered four years ago. We started to go in, and were stopped at the door. Sarah and I had to go in the back door. Jason and Jude went in the front. We cannot go in the front because it is the hour for evening prayer.

So we go to the back and don black robes and scarves, and shed our shoes. We go into the elevator (!) and into the room for women's prayer. It is two stories above the main room, and we can peek into the main room and see the men below. Sarah gets a call on her cell phone about this time and wanders off to attend to it. So I'm by myself, sitting on a little ledge by the railing. I begin to pray. Then the Muslim young woman who preceded us into the room approaches me. She says to me in English, "You want to pray?" Surprised and pleased, I follow her to where she is standing and stand next to her. We pray together. We pray together. I feel no constraints and I don't feel uncomfortable. Mainly I pray for her and for the Palestinians. It is one of the most rewarding times of my visit here. And I believe one of the most important reasons for me to be here.

Thank you for your prayers for a safe journey home. The remaining time will pass quickly. I will never be the same.

Baby Jude Arrives

Hello, everybody!

I'm sorry I didn't post earlier, but the internet couldn't be reached by us for over a day.

Whew! What a rollercoaster ride!

Sarah labored long and hard. She got to complete and started pushing around 9 pm on Saturday.

As the pushing progressed, she had intense back pain over on the right side of her hip. The baby was in good position, not posterior. But this back pain kept her from pushing effectively during contractions. She pushed for an hour and a half, then started to give up around 11 pm. It was very hard for Jason to hear her say she wanted to go to the hospital, and she wanted a C-section. He didn't want to give up. We talked to her for a while, trying to tell her that the pain of a C-section was worse than the pain she was experiencing. But we started to go to the hospital.

Then she tried to push again. She tried for another hour and a half. I was checking progress and baby very often. Her progress in pushing slowed to millimeters. Baby was good throughout. But we reached a point where I knew we were losing Sarah to exhaustion and pain. So, at 1:30 am on Sunday, Feb 8, we went to the hospital.

It was empty and poor-looking. But the doctor came and assessed Sarah soon. There was also a midwife helping. The baby's head was so low that they assessed it was too late for a C-section. (Praise God!) So they got out a hand-operated vacuum suction, and proceeded to push on the top of Sarah's womb and pull on the baby's head. The doctor cut an episiotomy, then extended it again.

As they were working, I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that we would never have been able to birth this baby at home. It was just too hard. Baby Jude was born at 2 am. He weighed 7 pounds, measured 20 1/2 inches, and was perfect as soon as he was born!!! He has a huge amount of black hair, very long. He's so beautiful.

So I'm operating right now as a postpartum doula, helping Sarah with her stitches and postpartum things like breastfeeding and so on.

Thank you for all your prayers. They are so appreciated.

And it turns out that the pocket-handkerchief I forgot was my camera that got lost in transit...boo, hiss.

Love you all.

In labor

Sarah is in the birth pool now. Jason worked really hard to pump up the birth pool, and it's helping her.

She was 6 cm at 11:30 am. It's now 1:30 pm.

Will give more updates as I can.