Beauty and the Burn

Just last week Jon came out to visit me here in Abbotsford, BC. So here are pictures of us...and more of us... as we explore around the Fraser Valley. Good times. Soon I'm headed out to Edmonton with my friend Amanda to visit my sister. Then, in a couple weeks I'll be back out in Michigan to spend more time Jon. Sometimes I call Jon "Burn" because he has a wicked bad burn scar on his hand. No, really...you should ask him about it. Maybe he'll let you see it sometime. Anyhow, if before you got sick of the baby pictures...you can now expect the excitement of seeing photos of Burn and I over and over again.

Seattle

One Saturday I drove down to Seattle to meet some friends for the afternoon. This is Mt. Baker -- I climbed this sucker last summer. Hope to do it again in June.



My friends are Sara and Jenn...two of the midwives I met while in the Philippines. It was so great to see them for the day. Even though time was short, it was well worth it to get caught up and to talk about the stuff I have become so passionate about!

Falling into place

From St. Louis, my friend Jonathan and I took the train to Chicago, and then to AnnArbor, where he lives. I stayed there for a week with him....and by the end of the trip our "status" had changed. Surprise, surprise. Things took off pretty quickly since we've been friends for over six years. We met in college, and he came to teach in Korea at the same school I worked at. So there are a lot of stories to tell. But I'll save my ammo for later.

Erika's Wedding

Okay, okay...I didn't know so many of you were still checking this thing. So here are some updates.

First, in January I went to St. Louis for my best friend Erika's wedding. She married Zach, who is fabulous. It was great to meet him for the first time after hearing so much about him.

And, as always, it was great to hang out with Erika and be there to see her so happy.

Congratulations guys! I love you!!!

Christmas

For the second Christmas in a row our whole family is together, which is a blessing. Here we are all gathered around a pot of chocolate fondue...cause that's one of the things we do best -- pig out. And if we're not eating together, most likely we're playing cards or dominoes. How dorky. Stelpstra family fun time!

Here I am with Stephen Barnhoorn - he spent Christmas day with us while his dad had an emergency appendectomy and his mom stayed at the hospital. It sucked for them, but we had a great day with the little guy. Below is my brother helping Stephen figure out his new train.

The Wedding Party

The Wedding

Arizona

I just got back from a week in Arizona for one of my best friends' weddings. She is Jihae, and she married another friend, Chris. I met them both in Korea. It was so great to be there, spend time with friends and witness this awesome union. I'm so excited for them cause they are two of the coolest people ever. Love em both.

Back home

My dear Erika (and anyone else who is completely frustrated that I haven't updated my blog in a while),
I'm terribly sorry but I just can't figure out how to upload pictures from my photo program onto this blog. I am not very good at this sort of stuff. However, I will keep trying. But I am tired of it tonight. Please be patient.

But just a note...I am back at home in Abbotsford BC. It has been snowing since Monday. It's quite pretty, actually. I don't even mind it. I started work on Thursday, and that went okay. I will keep updating this blog with random pictures I take of friends and family and stuff around home. Wouldn't want to disappoint my fan and give her one less thing to do when she gets to work in the morning. ;)

Goodbye Eljoy and JB

Today I went back to Eljoy's house to see my little godson one last time before I leave. We had a great time again, and I got to meet more of their friends and family. We ate lots and baby James was awake the whole time so I played with him almost the entire afternoon. I was very sad to go and to say goodbye, but I love knowing that they'll be so special to me forever. We exchanged postal addresses, so I hope to hear from them in the future, and perhaps even see pictures of James as he grows up. We all agreed that we'd pray for God to bring me back to the Philippines at some time so I can visit them again.

Big Boys

November 20th turned out to be quite an exciting day in the birth room. I delivered the 3rd baby on our shift - John Carlo, to 25 year old Nancy. Little John was not so little...in fact, he is a good two pounds heavier than his older siblings were at birth. So he had shoulder dystocia on his way out. Shoulder dystocia is an emergency situation where the baby's shoulders cannot actually fit through the pubic bone. After the head comes, we try to have the body out in less than a minute. Little John's shoulders took us almost two minutes to un-stick. My supervisor had to do supra-pubic pressure (looks sort of like the Heimlich maneuver but a little lower down) while I tugged and tugged. Our chubby little boy ended up weighing just over 8 pounds (which is very big for here).

An hour or so later, Starla (a student) had a rather interesting delivery also. Elai and I assisted in her delivery of an even bigger boy (8lbs 3oz) to a Tes, who actually pushed out her baby while she was standing up and leaning over onto her husband. Starla just kept repeating "Slippery!" as she was trying to catch him. It was quite funny. His cord was wrapped around his neck once and his body twice!

We were very glad Elai was the supervisor on duty with us. We both love working with her and she's an awesome teacher and even more amazing midwife. The three of us made quite the team yesterday!

Malagos Park and Philippine Eagle Center

Jireh

This is Lily and Pastor Bernie, and their new son Jireh. The baby was born at 8 this morning, after a veeerrrry long night. I shouldn't complain..it was much worse for Lily than it was for me, but still...we all had a rough time. But, the little guy finally made it out into the world and we all rejoiced.

Just as a side note...I know some of you may be sick of seeing baby picture after baby picture, but you must understand, this is my life. I work a shift, then recover from the shift. Then I work again. So ya..these little ones are so incredible to me...sometimes I spend hours anticipating their arrival. Please bear with me! :)

Kyla Faith

This is Kyla Faith, born today to mom Josefina. She has two older sisters at home. I learned a lot during her delivery -- got to try some new things! I won't go into details, cause that's too graphic, but it was a great experience. Kyla took a while coming, but as you can see from her picture, she's telling the world she is A-Okay!

Rex

This is Rex. His mom, Nancy, is just 21 but his dad is much older. They are a very nice couple though. Rex has an older sister named Red. Cute, eh?

Prenatals

Every weekday morning we do prenatals here at the clinic. As a staff, we are in teams, and each team has their morning to lead devotions and singing, do a health teaching, and then see each mother one by one and give individual checkups. I am on the team that has Friday morning prenatals.
The mothers come to the clinic early on in their pregnancy to "sign up" for prenatal classes and checkups. On any given day, we expect between 50 and 80 mothers. After we are done with each patient, we schedule them for their next checkup. How soon they come back depends on how far along they are in their pregnancy. The individual checkups include palpating for the fetus' position, listening for heart tones, giving nutrional advice, giving tetanus injections, prescribing supplements, checking for abnormalities, and reviewing lab results.
I really enjoy doing prenatals - it gives you a chance to sit and talk to the women about their lives, their families and homes. They are mostly very excited to be having the checkup, and love to ask questions and find out about how their baby is doing.

In these pictures, I am checking Jaqueline (my godson's aunt) and her baby. She is 21 and this is her 3rd pregnancy - wow! I scheduled her next checkup for in two weeks time - that way I'll still be here and can see her again.

Agdao Market - A great place to hang out!