Anticipation

I love the excitement of anticipation. Since I was a child I have always loved having something to look forward to: a holiday, a party, a vacation. That hasn't changed. The weeks leading up to Christmas have always made me as giddy with excited anticipation as a little child :) I play Christmas music pretty much all day (especially now that I've found online free stations I can listen to...all day Christmas Jazz...listening to it right now in fact :)

Right now I'm also very excited about the fact that sometime in the next 3 1/2 weeks I will be attending another birth at my favourite delivery hospital of all time: Clinton Public Hospital :) Yes, we're a small town. We don't have a Starbucks, not even a McDonald's, but we are blessed to have a wonderful hospital with some amazing docs and some stellar nurses that I love to work with. One of the things I like most is that I now know most (if not all) of the delivery nurses, and they know me. This gets rid of that tension that a doula can sense any time she is in a room with a client and a nurse walks in that doesn't know her. That tension is a tough thing for me, and I work hard to dispel it as quickly as possible. I've never been at a birth yet where the nurse and I were not getting along and working as a team by the end of the birth (praise God!). But in Clinton, it's like working at home.

So...my birth bag is ready to go. My pager has a brand new battery. And I'm hoping this client holds on until at least Dec. 13 after which Joel has a chunk of time off and won't be back to work until after she is more than 2 weeks overdue. I have yet to miss a birth and this will be my 20th (big deal you say...), but since starting this job I've always believed that God will put me in the births I'm supposed to be at, and take me out of the ones I'm not supposed to attend.

It's all in Your hands. Thank you for the excitement and anticipation of new birth as we also prepare to celebrate the birth of Your Son Jesus :) Could I put in a small request that this doula baby doesn't decide to make it's grand entrance on Christmas day...Haha, it would be just like You to have some fun with that one ;)

Melanie