What are ya gonna do???

Ah mia, you put words into exactly how i was feeling today as i left Sheing Mall, i felt so "blob" as your grandma would say.... thanks for the post, i feel like in a way it helped me verbally process the hard reality we face when we step outside of our "Mochaccino land" and into the city with a devistating amount of street children. But what sadens me the most is the fact that no matter how much i give or pay for a flower decoration from a deserving child, it wont take them out of the slavery that they are in, even if they have a really good sales day, tomorrow they will be out there again, joining the other millions of kids who are sold into the trade or forced to beg to bring home that "extra" amount. My family is here in the Phils for 10 days!!!! and we are having a great time, lots of stories already and it has only been three days. But today, for maybe the same reason the heavieness hit Mia, i felt that extra burden and responsibility for these little street angles. I am 20 years old and still have my family surrounding me showing me love and support, these kids were as young as 1 years old and had no family at all. How, in all the billions of people that live in the poorest of the poor in all the world, did i end up with my life? This is not a post instructing on how to apporach beggars, because honestly after living in this city for a few months have learned that you cant set rules on it, you cant make up your mind that you will only give to those that offer a service or who look really really poor, but you can hope that when you do say a little prayer or give some pocket change that it will be making a difference.

City of Angels

So, its taken me about a week to blog again, but not because I have had nothing to blog about, life is as busy if not more so lately as usual. Last week Kayla and I ventured out to Angeles City, the infamous Red Light District in the Philippines. Our experience was not necessarily a huge ministry out reach, the point in us going was to scout out the area to see if we could be of any use to these women or maybe even be able to talk with these women, who come from a variety of backgrounds and are of all ages. we saw children as young as twelve years of age standing alongside more mature ladies up to the ages of 55 ready to learn the trade of the underground industry that thrives at night. During the day these kids look like regular begger kids, and what you dont see is their boss that sends them out in the day and sells them out at night.
A University of the Philippines study in the late 1990s estimated there were about a half-million prostitutes in this country. The International Labor Organization, a United Nations human rights agency, estimates there are 75,000 child prostitutes in the country.
Orphaned children and sexually abused minors are more common in Angeles City than most places in the country. Filipinos claiming to have American fathers abound.
The trip was short but we did not fail to see the corruption that was right beneath us. ahhhhhhhhh, and what we didn’t realize was that by the time we arrived home, just right outside our house was a strip full of red lights and girlie bars. We really didn’t need to travel to Angeles City to get a glimps at what goes on at night in this big city. Here are a few pictures of the local district by our house.

8th Grade Sewing Comes in Handy...

A few pictures of birth number 1 out of 7 last shift.

Big sister taking a nap after her new little sister was born.



This last Tuesday i think, days are a little blurred after 7 births in 48 hours, was my first time suturing! On a real person...no pig’s feet or an 8th grade pillow, I made a huge-up grade to the real deal. And since most of you know by now that i am practicing to become a midwife you can guess were the stitching took place. Yikes. Ate Grace, an amazing Filipina Midwife, and Kayla, My suturing Queen, coached me as i made my first injections of lidocaine to numb some of the tissue, the rest was difficult but I had great teachers helping through it. It was so cool, maybe not so much for the mom, but she was handling it well. And i feel good about it, not so bad I think for a rookie. Sorry no pictures for this one....

Happy Mothers Day

Mothers are kinda a big deal round here, its fun getting to know the moms that come to our clinic; i get to see them starting a new chapter in their lives. i see them after delivery and i watch them adoring their babies and i see them just looking at them with this deep passionate love in there eyes, they talk to them and whisper little songs in their ears. And when i see the mothers like that it makes me so happy and i feel so loved by my mom. to think that when i was born my mother looked that intensely into my little eye's, well i think when i was born i had big bug eyes, but anyway, i know that my mom still loves me that way, but watching these mothers after birth is a good reminder to me that i am so cherished and loved by mom mom just like those babies. All around the world, in every culture, all ethnicities, women of all ages all have this one thing in common, motherhood, women will always be having/adopting babies into this world. and at some point we were all invovled in that cylce. cool

Shiphrah is the Coolest

The last few days I started my first 48 hour rotation with Kayla at the Antepolo Clinic, we had one birth of a beautiful baby girl… well she was cute but she was a defiantly a little crybaby for sure… The name of the clinic is called Shiphrah, named after one of the heroic Midwifes in the Book of Exodus in the Bible. I love that it is named after these midwifes. In this book it talks about how Shiphrah and Puah feared God more than they feared mankind. They were defiant when the King of Egypt, Pharaoh, demanded that all boys delivered at birth were to be killed. These women did not live by fear of this king, although at the time this king was the law, they knew that as midwives they were dedicated to the life of these voiceless babies. And when the Pharaoh asked them why they disobeyed his orders they told him of how the Hebrew women are not like the women of Egypt they were strong and lively and gave birth before the midwives could get there, which was obviously a little exaggeration in defense. This was the middies way of letting Pharaoh know that, no we didn’t obey and in their rebellious way telling him that he could not control the strength and growth of the Hebrews. As a midwife you have built an untouchable trust with the mother and with the baby. Families are intrusting life into your hands; these midwives chose to honor this trust even when pressure of the Kings request was upon them. I hope that I will be the kind of midwife that mirrors this character. I hope that the mothers that we work with feel that they have that same trust with myself and the girls that I work with. And I hope that in a time of distress and pressure I would know where to place my fear


Cute little houses next door to the clinic.

Another beautiful sunday senset at the clinic.

Spiderman 3!!!!

So today we went to see the greatly anticipated Spiderman 3. The girls and I had a great time last weekend on the roof preparing ourselvs for this day...To refresh our memory we spent the weekend reviewing 1&2, then yesterday bought our Spidy T-shirts, and because we bought 5 t-shirts from the spiderman collection Kayla and I recieved 2 FREE spiderman dogtags, which you will see us proudly wearing in the pictures below. I must say that the second is still probably my fave, although Venom....well ill let you all see it for yourselves:)