Monday, November 30, 2015

Four months from yesterday - AFRICA



What are YOU doing four months from today?!  So...that would be March 30th.  Let's see...Spring break for some...Easter plans for others...maybe Spring cleaning or just "another day".  For us...we will be flying to Africa.

We purchased tickets to Africa for the 30th of March...tickets go for about $2000 a person, so when we saw them for almost half the price we couldn't resist - ready or not - that was our "go" date...

Ready or not...when are you "ready" to be married..."ready" to have a baby..."ready" to start a career or date someone...you are never "ready" - you are as ready as God would have you to be...and that's enough!  March 30th is that "ready" date for us...and so we go...

Go to Africa.  Leave what we know behind...go to start living a life of "camping" (or what it seems like).  Ready to start a new adventure for God.

Are you a Jonah, or are you an Abraham? We choose to be the one who listens to what God has for us and to answer His call...so here we go...

Monday, November 23, 2015

Haiti - conclusion



Living off a diet of rice, and not much more…using a latrine that I gagged every time I used, sleeping underneath a mosquito net, and arising to what was before me was almost overwhelming.  The stench of death permeated even where we were staying…it enveloped us whenever we drove down the streets of bodies that were still trapped underneath rubble and probably would forever stay without a marker stating who they were…people lost…never to be remembered…

In the midst of that there was life!!!  In my hands I was holding a baby I had delivered by myself…on the floor of an abandoned hospital on a cardboard box…in the middle of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Life WOULD persevere!!! Life will NOT be denied!!!  I looked at this baby who had been pushed from her mother’s womb, and I was holding in my hands with nothing but a pair of clamps, bandage scissors, and two alcohol swabs.  There she was, yelling here defiance to the world to hear that SHE had arrived!!!  

I still yelled out to anyone who would hear that “We’re having a baby here!!!” but no one would be coming…they were still in the front of the hospital giving “report” to the oncoming shift.  So I clamped the babies umbilical cord, wiped off the bandage scissors with the alcohol swab I had, clamped (with my fingers) the moms side of the umbilical cord, and cut that baby’s cord of life. 
In one hand I was stimulating the baby to breath…to live…to ensure her place in this new world, and in the other hand I was clamping the mothers umbilical cord, and ensuring that the placenta would pass without problem.  I looked at the mom, and our eyes connected…this had just happened…life had entered the world…and we had connected at the most intimate level. And I felt as small as a flea…to be humbled and to be a part of this amazing miracle in the middle of earthquake torn Haiti, I felt surreal…God had met me and brought me through this…

I delivered the placenta while stimulating the baby with one hand, and ensuring the mother’s side of the umbilical cord was clamped…and then a doctor arrived…”Can I help?!” he said – and I handed him this baby, the sweet little girl who had made her arrival into this world, and I stayed with the mom.  In the midst of all the chaos I ensured that the placenta had been delivered intact, I massaged her belly to make sure that the uterus was clamping down…and I took a moment…
God was here…in the midst of death…in the midst of chaos…in the midst of death and destruction – here was life!!! We had never been abandoned, we were met where we needed to be.  We were met in our deepest fear and anxiety.  He gave me the knowledge I needed to make sure mama and baby were fine.  I was just a pinky in His great big hand…but wow did I ever feel like He had met me where I was…and we were triumphant!

God is good…in the  deepest of despair, and in the highest of highs…He gave me what  I needed, the knowledge, the strength, the intuition, the compassion, the right thing to do, in the midst of it all…He was there…He always is there…

And so I sat beside this mom.  We looked at each other with the shared knowledge of what it meant to be a mom.  We smiled, and although we did not speak the same language, the universal language of love was shared between us.

Something I will never forget…

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Haiti Part 4




Having been in Haiti for more than 2 weeks I had become accustomed to the craziness…living off of rice alone, and losing 10 pounds…taking a shower in my clothing under the current of a hose to clean myself off, and “wash” my clothes at the same time.  One set of clothes to wear, and one set of clothes to change into.  I changed in my sleeping bag and hung out my wet clothes that would be dry by tomorrow.  I awoke bleary-eyed after trying to sleep under the constant drone of the military generator which was at the same time soothing, as it was a reminder of my time in active duty in Germany…surviving the frigid cold Winters in the forests of Germany, with only the generators and fires to keep us warm.

I awoke and took on the day…there was a mom…who needed me desperately…
I laid this sweet mama down…and dawned my one pair of gloves.  After assessing my situation and my resources I was ready to give this soon-to-be mama my best…
a prayer was sent up…and so it began.

I pried this mamas legs apart to assess the baby that was clearly coming, and that was all it took…she bore down, and her bag of waters broke, and I was sprayed with amniotic fluid from her soon to be arriving baby.  I remember feeling the amniotic fluid covering my scrubs, covering my scrub top, and hitting my arm…it ran down my arm and underneath my glove…that feeling is still vivid to this day, but at the same time, my mind was so focused on what was before me.  The training that I had, and the babies I had delivered, was gracefully clear to me.  The babies head was already presenting.  I assessed for the umbilical cord, and of course it was passed around the babies neck, so I ever so gently removed it.  Without any type of suction, I wiped the babies nose and mouth clear of amniotic fluid, and in English encouraged the mama to push.  It didn’t matter that we didn’t speak the same language, it was clear what needed to be done.

The mama pushed…she pushed, and pushed, and out came that beautiful little girl.  I looked in complete amazement as this precious life, a midst all of this death and destruction…a midst the anguish and peril of what I had been seeing and witnessing, of the patients we were losing on an hourly basis…here came life…in all it’s glory…yelling her tale to the whole world – I WILL SURVIVE!!!!  I cried…how could you not?!  I was incredulous to the amazing miracle I was seeing before me…in the midst of all this death and destruction, life will persevere….
To be continued…

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Haiti Part 3




More than a week in Haiti following the devastating earthquake, trying to figure out what my part in all this is…I looked around me.  Me…”just a nurse”…someone who had had lots of varying, different experiences, who had been a Staff Sergeant in the Army, jumped out of airplanes, been a part of a Patriot Missile system to shoot down enemy aircraft, married to an amazing man, gave birth to the most beautiful daughter…here I find myself in the middle of Port-au-Prince, where I have no business being.

Sure, I had run over 500 medical clinics by myself, in the jungles of Honduras, given CPR to people who have died as I am the “only hope” they have, and knowing the ambulance will never come…that people look to me for answers well beyond what I can give them…it’s just me…little old me…and who am I?!?!?!  I keep thinking, “I’M JUST A NURSE!!!....WHAT DO  I KNOW?!??!?” but God knows what I know…and He will equip me…and He will give me just what I need…

And yet I panic.  I’m  by myself, completely, no one around, I don’t even speak the language, and a pregnant mom is looking at me for answers….looking at me to make things right.

I taught childbirth education for over 20 years before I even left for the mission field.  I did an internship for over a year in a maternity ward delivering many a baby…but let’s just face it – I had resources…other nurse…other doctors…an OR for goodness sake that could save me from the potential complications of what childbirth means, MONITORS that would tell me a baby’s heartbeat and contractions, but I was by myself, completely and alone.

But like any good soldier, like any good nurse, like any good Christian…I dug down deep….What do I know…what are my resources…what do I have available to me?

So I put on the pair of gloves I had in my pocket, and assessed my situation.  I had 2 alcohol swabs, one pair of clamps, and one pair of bandage scissors, and God…those were my resources, and that was sufficient…

So I laid this mama down, and assessed the situation…

To be continued…