Charity giving receipt

You CAN donate directly to Mercy in Action toward my class fee, so that you can get a receipt for taxes. If you would like to do this, contact me and I'll show you how.

Thank you!!  :)

May is Here!

May IS HERE!  May is when I need to make the final payments on the Philippines trip.  And then 2 months until the trip!  Between now and then I still have a 8 weeks of classes, and finals right up until the day I leave.  Yikes!

It is beginning to dawn on me that I will be gone during my ENTIRE break.  Leave the Friday of finals week, come back 16 days later on the Sunday before the new quarter begins.  I've never been away from my family that long.  Even my Africa trip was only 10 days.

I feel overwhelmed already.

I watched a youtube video today about a woman with cerebral palsy.  She was giving an inspirational speech, talking about how her life is a gift.

Her life is a gift even though she struggles.
Struggles to speak,
to walk,
to feed herself,
to get dressed.

She considers her struggles worth the price to wake up every day in God's beautiful creation.  She gives motivational speeches to remind everyone how precious life is, even if it's hard.  

Actually, on second thought, my life seems pretty manageable.


I choose today to celebrate that life is beautiful!  I choose to remember that this trip is something God put on my heart to do and it will be worth every minute and every penny.  I choose to remember that I am surrounded by amazing friends and family who are incredible and supportive and help us in so many ways.

And I may choose to bribe Brittney into doing my laundry.....

Thank you all for your prayers and love and help!!!

April Fool's Food!

This has nothing to do with school, the Philippines, or any mission trips.  BUT it may make you smile  ;)

Brittney and my mom made April Fool's cupcakes yesterday.  They are delicious cupcakes inside, but decorated on the top as spaghetti & meatballs, mashed potatoes (complete with melting butter on top) and peas & carrots.

You can't quite tell from the photo, but the "meatball" looks SO real and even has "parmesan cheese" (white chocolate) grated on top.

Hope you had a fun April 1st and had some laughs!!!  :)

Mexico or Bust!

I just got back from an amazing medical mission trip!  I joined a team of NDs and students from SCNM to volunteer at a health clinic in Rocky Point, Mexico.  It was a one & 1/2 day, exhausting turnaround trip with a great group called Naturopaths Without Borders.  It was my first time going, and hopefully not the last!!

We left on Friday night, after an already crazy-intense finals week!  I probably should have taken a nap Friday afternoon, but it didn't happen.  I drove an Excursion (borrowed because ours is at the mechanic shop -- Thanks, Lance & Penny!) and didn't know any of the people riding in my car, so it was great to chat and get to know them on the drive there!

Of course we got stopped at the border (with a big Excursion with dark-tinted windows, we kinda expected it) but fluent Spanish-speaker Maria was able to explain that our box of castor oil was NOT medicine, just helpful for the skin.  We got to the hotel about midnight, and after Charles read a few Psalms and I warned Maria that I'm a cover-stealer, we went right to sleep!

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful.  We took a quick walk on the beach, then headed to clinic.  The church hosts a variety of medical / dental clinics each month, and seems to have a wonderful relationship with the community.  NWB makes a trip about once every month.  I started out taking patient histories -- asking why they came to see the doctors, and specific questions about all their symptoms.  I had a darling teenager as a translator for part of the time, and many of the church members were there to help out as well.  Many of the patients come back every month for follow-up treatment, and are so grateful for the chance to be seen by a doctor.  Some have painful chronic conditions, some are just there for check-ups, some are quite serious and others are easy to treat, and I was humbled to be able to work with each of them.

I took vitals for a little while, then was back to patient histories.  I made the mistake of drinking a sugar-loaded Starbucks espresso double-shot at noon. (stupid, stupid, Stupid!!!)  because then I CRASHED at about 3:00.  My head started pounding, I was shaky, and I didn't care about anything except finding a dark, quiet, cool place to take a nap.  I couldn't quite remember WHY IN THE WORLD I had thought it would be a good idea come on this trip right after finals!  Unfortunately, taking a nap just wasn't an option, so I sucked it up and just quietly observed in a patient room.  After an hour or so, I felt better.

After intakes were finished, I got to sit in the patient rooms and watch the 4th year medical students assess and treat patients with the supervision physician.  They did a lot of nutrition counseling, adjustments, and acupuncture, and gave out a lot of great supplements.

After dinner at The Point (fantastic guacamole!) we headed back to Tempe, feeling exhausted and grateful on so many levels.  Can't wait to do it again!!

St. Patrick's Day party

Thank you to all who came to our St. Patrick's Day party at SCNM!  We had tons of fun and raised money for our group going to the birthing center in the Philippines in July.  We are planning a Cinco de Mayo party as well, so mark your calendars!

We are also collecting donations of items to offer as prizes in our next raffle fundraiser.  If you have service or merchandise you can donate of any value amount, please let me know by May 15th.

Thank you thank you thank you!!

(This picture of beautiful green people is the team of medical students going on the trip!)

Mercy in Action - a story of hope in the Philippines

Several people have asked me to tell more about the organization I'm going to the Philippines with.  It is called Mercy in Action, and it's an incredible story!  www.mercyinaction.org

This is a free birthing center dedicated to providing prenatal and birthing education and care.  I will be going for 2 weeks in July 2012 to volunteer and receive training.  There is a group of about 12 of us going from my school, SCNM (Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine).  This two weeks is specifically designed for medical students or professionals to train in midwifery care and disaster relief.

The first week we will be training and working in the birthing center.  Hospital births are expensive and so many women cannot afford to pay, so they have unattended births at home.  This increases both infant and maternal risk of death or injury.  Mercy in Action offers free care before, during, and after the baby is born.  We will get to help with check-ups, deliveries, and postpartum care for these sweet babies and mommas.  The mommas are given good meals, supplies for the baby, and vitamins all free of charge.  Mercy in Action uses the tuition fees I pay to help keep their birthing center services free.

The second week we may have the opportunity to hike into the more remote mountain villages to offer care and educational classes.  (I am hoping I can make it hiking into the mountains!!  Need to start hiking on the weekends more....)

It humbles me to remember that women in much of the world give birth to their babies without adequate care or facilities. There but for the grace of God go I.  These women could be me, or my sister, or my friends.  I am so grateful and excited to be able to go and serve and learn and help in any way.

Isaac's story

When my son was a baby he was happy, playful, and healthy.  The only unusual thing was these strange occasional episodes as an baby where if I didn’t respond to his cries immediately, he got so worked up and cried so hard that he couldn’t be consoled.  He wouldn’t nurse, take a bottle, or settle down.   We would finally have to strap him in his carseat and take him for a car ride until he fell asleep. This would happen randomly every few weeks.  (Well, there probably was a pattern, but we didn’t see it.)  He hit all the normal baby milestones: rolling, crawling, playing peek-a-boo, following directions.  He didn’t say many words though, and didn’t talk understandably until he was over 3. 

When he was 2 ½ he started having episodes that I called “melt-downs”.  They were  usually triggered by changes my son didn’t expect.  Maybe I put the wrong pair of shoes on him, or touched his hand instead of his face.  He didn’t talk much at that time, and would get so frustrated by not being able to communicate that he would just start crying and screaming.  His little body would stiffen up, and nothing could calm him down.  It didn’t matter if I rocked him, left him alone, was stern or gentle, offered candy or warnings – nothing helped.  Brian and I both tried everything we could think of.  While in the middle of these meltdowns, he started rubbing the tops of his feet on each other – so much so that he developed raw sores on the tops of his feet.  It was very strange. 

We had just moved houses and had a new baby, so at first we thought his behaviors were in reaction to those changes.  But as they persisted and increased in frequency and intensity, my momma radar started going off and I began to wonder if it was something more.

At age 3, he started in preschool part-time, and although he had been in daycare before, he now started having severe anxiety when I dropped him off.  I noticed that he never joined the circle group; he was always on the outskirts.  He started avoiding eye contact, even with me.  If I asked him to look in my eyes he would, but his eyes would fill with tears as if it was just so hard for him.  He had never liked loud noises, but now they seemed to terrify him.   Another odd thing was that he would only color in orange.   Any picture or painting he did – ALL orange, ALL the time. 

I switched preschools the next year, thinking a different environment would help.  But it was all the same behaviors.  During chapel, he started sitting in the office because the boisterous kids’ songs they played scared him and hurt his ears.  Every day when I picked him up, his class would be on the playground.  But Isaac would be sitting on the bench by the teacher, sniffling.  He stopped interacting with the other kids.  The preschool director kept telling me he was adjusting and it would just take time.  My momma instincts told me 3 months was plenty of time to adjust, and something else was wrong.

It was so hard to watch him be so sad.  He was within normal ranges for everything so the pediatrician wasn’t concerned, and I didn’t really have the vocabulary to express how concerned I was.    I finally found a doctor who successfully treated my daughter’s health problems with “alternative” techniques.   I took Isaac  (who was 4 ½ at the time) to him, and he immediately suspected Asperger’s syndrome.  He changed his diet and took him completely off white flour & sugar, increased in DHA/EPA intake, and gave him blue Eyelights. 

I had enough history with this doctor to trust him, but colored sunglasses with flashing red lights was a bit of a stretch.  (Especially at an $80 price tag !)  But I was willing to try anything, and we started the supplements and the Eyelight Therapy protocol he gave us.  It was easy (10 - 20 minutes a day), and Isaac didn’t mind wearing them.

Two weeks later I went to pick Isaac up from preschool, and he was out on the playground, running around and playing.  (I nearly fainted.)  After I composed myself and got him in the car, I casually mentioned that I noticed he was on the playground.  I asked what had made him go out to play on this day (Remember, after 12 WEEKS of crying on the bench).  He replied with typical 4 year-old nonchalance, “I just feeled like it”.

That was good enough for me!  As the weeks progressed, I noticed his ability to deal with change better.  After about 4 months he told me his ears didn’t hurt anymore.   I am sure the dietary changes helped, but I am convinced the Eyelights did something in his little brain and allowed him to develop neurologically in a way that had been impeded before.  He is now 9 years old and has no residual symptoms whatsoever.  I am forever grateful for this doctor and the methods he used for

treating my kids. 

Isaac still wears the Eyelights every so often, as a kind of maintenance.  Once I asked him how the glasses made him feel.  Of course, he shrugged.  Trying to avoid overtly  leading questions, I offered a variety of suggestions --- happy, sad, hungry, sleepy?

He pondered for a moment and replied, -- Just good. 

 No further explanation necessary! J