"What Made You Want to Be a Midwife?"

I've had quite a few people ask me this question and I'm sure there are more out there who are wondering. I sometimes have a hard time putting into words what I really want to say or explain though...

Anyone who knows my mom, knows that she is pretty much obsessed with midwifery. So I've heard about it my whole life and probably know more things then girls my age would ever want to know about having babies. 

Growing up I was never interested in being a midwife at all, my personal view on it was, "EWW! That is disgusting. Who would want to watch or help a woman have a baby?!" But then as I started thinking about my future and how I wanted my babies to be born, I wanted to be educated and able to educate other people on the pros and cons of home birth or birth with a midwife and hospital birth.

So I started thinking about being a doula. About a year ago, I talked to a doula who said there was a need for young doulas who could work with teenage single mothers who didn't have any support. I was really excited about that because it seemed like a wonderful ministry opportunity.

And at this point, I don't remember what happened....I don't remember what peaked my interest in pursuing midwifery instead of being a doula, or what made me decide to apply for Mercy in Action's intensive academic course (which would involve a lot of changes, such as moving to Idaho for school). But whatever it was, I applied for school, got accepted and decided to go, within the course of about two weeks.

My goal in going to midwifery school was to determine if I really wanted to pursue midwifery. I didn't feel like I would be wasting any resources if I went through the school and decided I didn't want to be a midwife because I would still be learning a lot. After about the first week of school, I realized that it takes a special calling and desire to be a midwife and that it was a lot of responsibility and commitment, but the more I studied and learned and saw the passion my instructors had for this field of healthcare, the more my respect and excitement and love for midwifery grew.

So "what made me want to be a midwife?" I think it was my mom's excitement and love for midwifery, the knowledge I gained during school, the passion my instructors had for it, and the desire and calling the Lord placed in my heart.

Midwifery

"50% of midwifery care, is education" - Rose Penwell

Exciting things happening!

Writing on my blog is definitely not one of my strong points....

Here's a little update on what is going on in my life right now.

My books for school

I decided to go to school to be a midwife. 
Not a huge deal, right? People go to school all the time!

I decided to go to Idaho for school...
Yeah, that's a little different story. For those of you who know me well, you know it's hard to get me out of Alaska for any longer than two weeks :D

I decided to do 18 months of academics in 2 1/2 months.
I'm pretty sure I'm insane.

Actually, I'm thrilled that I chose this option. I'm doing my schooling with Mercy in Action, the instructors are a wonderful husband/wife team and the other students are all great. Idaho is also gorgeous, which is a plus ;)

When I started talking about this with my family/church, I had so much support, and everything fell smoothly into place, so it really helped with my final decision and it's neat to see how the Lord has blessed so far.

I've had a quite a few people ask me what made me want to be a midwife, so I will hopefully (hopefully) post another post here soon, answering that question and also with a little more information about what I'm doing and hope to accomplish here and through this schooling.

Thanks for reading!
~Kluane

Refined as Silver

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48:10

   When silver is being refined, the jeweler takes a small amount and puts it in a crucible. Then he puts it over the fire and heats it up. But he doesn't leave it. He stands there watching it the whole time, because it has to get hot enough to burn out the impurities but not too hot, or it will burn the silver. The way the jeweler knows that the silver is pure, is when he can see his reflection in the silver, then he can turn the fire down. But this verse says that the Lord didn't refine Israel as silver, but in a furnace of fire. To heat a furnace, you have to shut the door...

We want to be refined as silver; held over the heat, but with the Lord standing there until He sees Himself reflected in us. We don't want to have to be refined in the furnace, because the door will be shut and He won't be standing right there with us.

"He Will Not Fail Thee"

Failure doesn't define you until you let it define you.

This quote came up in a conversation that I had recently with a friend about failure. Failing is something I've been thinking about a lot lately, especially because I take lots of tests at this point in my life and education. I'm always worried about failing because I know the people I respect and love are watching me and wanting me to do my best, and I don't want to let them down. I know that we as imperfect, sinful humans, are going to fail in different aspects of life, but I still don't like it, haha.

Well, last night after going to bed and not being able to sleep for awhile, I started reading my Bible to see if I could get my mind quieted down enough so that I could sleep. One of the first verses I read was in Deuteronomy.

"And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed." -Deuteronomy 31:8

I bet you can see what jumped out at me in that verse, "he will not fail thee" what a great promise! So even though I'm sure I will still struggle with this, I just need to make sure that I don't LET failure define me, and no matter what I or anyone else fails at, the Lord NEVER fails.

~Kluane