Holly's Birthday Part 2.

So... for Holly's real birthday surprise.... the one the bowling was covering up... :-)

So the plan was... the bowling was a decoy... the real surprise was a weekend (ok, well, sunday and monday) getaway to another island where we spent a lot of time in the water, and swimming, and eating, and riding on the back of some super swell motorbikes.

Here's how it went down.....

Holly was working day shift (6am-2pm) an I was "working" Night shift (10pm-6am)... So Holly was at work, and I was at home frantically getting together a bag of stuff, clothes, snorkel stuff, food (cause there is no food at the place for sleeping), etc, etc... So I told her that if she caught a baby (which she did, by the way, her first one!!) that we would go to the pool, and then go for a really stellar 3 dollar massage... That was my excuse to get the bags... and so she got home, and I was trying to get her to hurry... but we didn't get out of the house until after three... sigh... It works much to my benefit that Holly has no idea how to get around Davao; and we got on a Jeep and started riding... for a long way... well, not long, but MUCH longer than it would have taken to get to the pool... and we go to the ferry. The whole time Holly is like, what pool are we going to, Sar? And I was like, oh this new pool the big girls told me about... and she was like, hmmm, ok. And we get to the port... and she's like... ummm, Sar, are we going to the beach or the pool? and I was like... yeah... So we get our tickets onto the ferry... and she's all excited. and I was like, well, it's like 3:30 now, so we don't have THAT much time... sorry friend, I thought you wouldn't take so long to get ready... So we hire two motor bikes to take us around, and we went to this sweet waterfall, but we didn't have that much time there, cause it was already getting late. So we left there an traveled across the island to Canibad, the place we were staying.

We got there at a little after 6 and it was definitely well on the way to darkness, the whole time we were on the bikes, Holly was thinking... why are we going here? It's getting so late... So my driver, who I had been talking to the entire time, was like, Ok, you will just text me in the morning when you are ready to leave, and Holly looked at me and was like "WHAT???" It was hilarious! And all the questions about my night shift, and had I thought about ___ or ____... :-) It was grand. So we got a little open hut on the beach for about 4 dollars and slept there right on the beach, and had some wonderful food (that had gotten a little smushed up in my backpack... oops... and slept early and woke up early, and played in the water until about 9:30. We snorkeled and picked up some really cool shells and stones for our fish tank. Our next stop was a cool bat cave. It houses one of the biggest bat colonies in the world. it was seriously HUGE. And really smelly. And also loud... Kinda gross. But it was cool. Then our drivers took us to Paradise resort and we spent the rest of the afternoon eating and swimmin g there, and got home about 4:30. It was SO grand, and she was so surprised! It was a wonderful day!! And because we did the "local" stuff, it was crazy cheap too! Yay for 1/4 century birthday surprises that aren't expensive!! Waa hoo!!!

Love you guys! Have a great Christmas!

~Sarah

Holly's birthday surprise...

Soooo... Holly's birthday! It was great fun! It was a good day, we just did some stuff around the island and had a really good day. So I worked clinic in the morning, and then came back and picked up Holly, and we went to this massage place :-) It was really fun. It was a at this Thai place and it was more muscle pressure and stretching and pretzling and stuff! :-) It was So amazing. Then we went over to the mall, and we walked around and shopped a bit... and while we were there... in the department store... this song came on, and every sales associate in the store started doing this pre-choreographed dance... It was a little bit crazy... and hilarious!

Then we went bowling with a couple of girls from the house, and had some dinner at the food court. and went home and watched a movie... and Holly went to work! :-) It was a great day!! Oh as a birthday "cake" we got a fresh coconut with fruit salad in it... and it was SO yummy! It was really a good day, and Holly had fun, phew! :-) Have a great weekend, friends!!

~Sarah

Happy Birthday Holly!!

Happy Birthday Holly!!! I hope your day is GRAND!!!

Wow wow wow!!!!

So it finally happened!!! I caught my first baby!! It was very exciting!! I will spare you all the details (unless you want them, in which case, e-mail me and I'd be happy to tell you about it!!!). It was great! The mom's name is Jo, and the baby's name is Jana Prex.

It was pretty much amazing! Me and Holly went to get smoothies and we watched a movie last night instead of homework! Grand!! Anyway, I just wanted to send out a quick update, but I'll update more later! I have to go to work!! Love you guys!! Thanks for praying!

update....

So, I had a labor... and I checked her all out, and it turned out... she wasn't ready to stay at the clinic... so I sent her home! It was really cool and I was terrified. Thanks everyone for praying.

Prayer requests

Ok, so honestly, the title of this post was going to be yikes!.... but... Prayer requests is maybe better...

So I am sitting here, on the cusp of handling... ok, maybe not really. I am at 8 births, and the supervisor said if there were 2 the third would be mine... and I was not expecting it today. I wasn't expecting it until Wednesday... SO I, with a look of terror, I'm sure, said... umm... ok. So yeah, If you look at this on the morning of December 3rd before 9 o'clock... I could be... yikes... a real live midwife, sorta... Actually, if I handle, I'll probably be there for longer than that... so if you could be praying for me, that'd make a TON of difference....

also... my great friend Cindy.... texted me the other day... and she is having some SERIOUS familial problems, I think. And she is confiding in me. I am very worried about her, because she was texting me a lot, and then she said something about her uncle coming over (who, I think is the source of the problem), and she hasn't texted me back since then... please pray for her, and her family. And for me, and the other mercy girls that may be called on to try to work out this problem for her.

Alright, thanks so much! Love you guys!!

~Sarah

Natalie Bolcan!

So I had Cindy and Natalie's 6 week check. It's the last post partum check we do here at mercy... it was kind of bitter sweet... however!! We went out for breakfast/lunch after and they invited me over to their house... which was kind of far, and I didn't really tell anyone I was going... but it was crazy fun.

So we get in the Jeep outside of the shopping center, and they told me it was far.... but I didn't really believe them. It was pretty far. So we rode, and I was holding Natalie, and we got all sorts of funny looks from the other passengers who were thinking how did this white girl get this baby... Then we got to the stop, and jumped out. Cindy's mom took the baby and got on one form of transportation, and me and Cindy were going to ride on a motorcycle together... well... she told me to get on, and I said "that one?" and she said "yeah" and I said, "now?" and she told me yes... so I did... and the driver started freaking out, and I was like... uh, what? and everyone started laughing... and I had no idea what I did... so cindy was like "Get off!!" and I jumped off so fast... and I tried to get her to tell me what... but she was laughing so hard she couldn't get it out... great... I start off by totally embarrassing myself... So it turned out that the guy just wanted to turn his bike around... I was the talk of the bus station for the rest of the day (at least).

So we got to her house and I had a LOT of coke, and some peanut butter sandwich thing, and anything else they could find in their house to get me... which I tried not to eat, but really, there was no refusing them. It was a grand visit and while I was there, Cindy asked me to be Natalie's godmother. which basically involves buying a bunch of presents and going to her baptism and stuff like that. she also invited me to their family reunion on Jan 1... so, it's going to be great fun!! So I made it home in one piece, I didn't even get lost (which is kind of a miracle, because I get lost all the time)! It is SO wonderful to have relationships with these girls! And I really hope I can continue to build good relationships even when the work schedule gets crazy.
I hope you all are well, and I pray for you regularly~