Resuscitation

After a beautiful three weeks in good old PA....I arrived back in the DR on June 11th.   Flew in on a late Monday night and caught a bus to San Juan on Tuesday.    Ahhhhh back in the saddle.   The mangos are flush.  And I mean, there are mangos everywhere.  Little boys are running around with bandaids on their heads from throwing rocks up into trees trying to knock them down and ending up with bruises from the rocks falling back on their noggins.   My teeth have been naturally flossed from the mango "stringy-ness".  There is a smell of sweetness (and of rotting fruit)  when we run on the backroads from all the mangos on the ground.   Everyday it seems that someone shows up with a bag of mangos for us.    And this morning I threw some in the blender with some guineos and ice and uffffffffff mango smoothies for breakfast.    Sweet.  Messy.   Like the life is down here.     It's hot and sticky and oh-so-lush.
And coming back.... there was some catching up to do.  Visits to be made.  Babies to be cuddled and friends to be hugged.    The pharmacy to be cleaned up a bit.   Prep for the teams arrival.  Rice and beans to be scarfed down like I haven't eaten before.  Oh and yeah- the need to be running because somehow the trip to the States involved eating at every restaurant on this side of the Mississippi and therefore an extra 10 pounds found their way to me.  Oops.   But onward we go.
Last week I was able to spend some time with the Sam and Terry Wellman team doing something I haven't done here before.   They (a team of 2 nurses, Sam and Terry, and a formula rep) travelled to 4 hospitals here close to San Juan and held Neonatal Resuscitation classes.     It was an amazing thing to participate in.   I've taken NRC multiple times...but I've never seen such excitement...such a desire to LEARN..from folks.   I can't exactly quote the maternal/infant mortality rate here...but after seeing what is AVAILABLE in some of the hospitals- I am humbled.   One of the nurses told me that they have a lot of babies die "on the way..." to another hospital where they might have supplies/equipment available.  Not all of the hospitals have fetal monitors (or dopplers or fetoscopes!).   Sometimes they don't have oxygen available.  One of the hospitals doesn't have even a single laryngoscope.   OR a warmer/incubator/heat lamp.  They don't have ET tubes or umbilical catheters or bulb syringes.   And yet....they use what they can.  They do mouth to mouth resuscitation sometimes with a piece of gauze as  protection.    They eagerly participated in mock codes with us.  They asked tons of questions.  They asked how things are done in the states....they asked if we could leave our "practice" supplies with them to use.    I can say without a doubt that this is single-handedly the greatest thing I have participated in during my time here.    I feel like it will SAVE lives.   I feel like education is the key and it was exciting and thrilling and humbling!   And one of my favorite parts is that was a SHARING time.  We took some valuable information from the hospitals and we were able to impart some valuable information as well.    I felt like it wasn't us coming in and announcing to folks how they had to do things.  Instead, it was a time to see what was working for them, review some new information and practice saving the lives of babies.  Phenomenal.
It made ME hungry to learn things again.   I met a midwife in San Juan at the hospital there and she said I could come spend the day with her.    It reminded me of how much I LOVE labor and delivery and watching new life come into the world.    We talked "shop" for a while and I was entertained to hear things from her that I would hear in the States....... deliveries, babies, stories stories stories.  I love it.    I think there were stars in my eyes.  
Anyway- all of these things are rolling through my head.   How lucky I am, again, to be here.  How good God is.   How Labor and Delivery comes around and reminds me that God calls us to many many things.....and even when I think that one part of my life is kinda put to rest...He brings it back again.
Oh and how much fun did I have with this group too!   Visiting sponsor families,  spontaneous Zumba classes in the kitchen,  laughing and telling stores,  squishing into a guagua and then piling out for the 2 flat tires,  having OUR Dominican clinic nurses (and Doctor Sandy too!)  participate in the classes and hang out with us, eating cinnamon rolls from the Mennonite bakery,  baking cookies with Terry late at night for snacks for the classes,  hearing first timers talk about getting their lives rocked, watching them leave with tears in their eyes, watching 8 year old Dawson grab onto "big brother" Monchy and not want to go....oh all of these things.     Reminds me of the lyrics of some song...How beautiful is the body of Christ.
And so it's Sunday morning.   Me and Laura and Monchy went to church at Central last night.  The youth service.  And I'm so not a youth but how can I NOT go....  we were singing and I was watching these kids raise their hands and sing their hearts out and share their lives with each other and us and listen some intently as Ronny spoke about being a Christian ISN'T about appearances as much as about our HEARTS.   And my heart was full.   Full like it might burst....might blow up into a million pieces.... that it's NOT how I appear (me and my extra 10 pounds and disastrous self esteem!)....it's how Christ IS in me.   Folding me up again and again and again in those brazos fuerte....  Cual grande.   Gonna stick with it.   :)

Home

Home.   And it's beautiful.

The funeral was beautiful.  The corn fields are beautiful.   My friends and family are beautiful.  My new baby cousin is beautiful.  Wow- I forgot how GOOD it is to be home.  

But of course I have two homes now.   And my two worlds came together really BEAUTIFULLY this trip, which is just fabulous.    The first two days of viewings/funeral are kind of a blur right now...but I think by Tuesday the 22nd I was almost speaking in complete sentences.    And since then it's been a  roller coaster of driving to visit pals and chilling at home and getting mammograms (boo!) and paying taxes (super boo!) and eating the most delicious food on the planet.  Strawberries,  sharp cheese, pretzels, STEAK, bloomin onions,  turkey hill chocolate ice cream, grilled asparagus (!!!!!), greek yogurt, sushi,  blueberries, kiwi,  buttercream icing on homemade cake...oh my gosh- I'm eating my way into oblivion.   And it's sooooo worth it.  I missed blueberries somethin' fierce!   Spring is the best time of year in PA; mom's flowers are jumpin and so are mine.   Peonies, delphiniums (sp?),  lilies,  hydrangea, cilantro, mint...all the herbs.... and oh the list goes on.  SPRING.   So glad I came.

Ahhhh the most beautiful girl in the world.  Going to her senior prom.  How cool to watch her get all prettyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...  She's going to graduate in like 5 minutes.  WOW.

Playing with the nephews.  Me and Donavon are equally obsessed with BabyMac.   :)

Landon and I on the kitchen floor.  Planes, trains, and automobiles.  

Me, Zack and Ezra at the Phillies game.  We were not letting a little rain get in our way of having fun!  

And the beat goes on.   I spoke in church today and shared some stuff.   The biggest news...to those of you who may or may NOT be surprised... is that I'm headed back to the DR for another year.   I love it.   And it's my other home.  And I'm just feeling beautiful about it.   

Here's what I said in church today..... (have I mentioned how BEAUTIFUL my church is....those folks are the face of the Jesus for me!)  I did okay til I got to the end and talked about how I love how God is unfolding Himself to me.  Then I kinda snotted all over the pulpit and got wail-y.  But it's all good.  I DO love how God is unfolding Himself to me.  

sooooo I’m Nicole Eby and I’ve been serving with Solid Rock International in San Juan de la Maguana, DR for the last 10 1/2 months.   Hopefully the video gives you a little bit of an idea what I do.  

I’d first like to thank all of you for supporting me in this endeavor adventure.   I am forever encouraged by you guys praying for me, sending such positive letters and notes, and doing things like donating medical supplies and vitamins to our clinic.   On my birthday, when I received the card shower from Cathy Case and this church, I was forever reminded that I am not alone in this calling, that we walk together as believers in this world, and that it is an INCREDIBLE blessing to have a church that loves on me like you do.  THANK you for that.

I’ve learned a lot over this past year....some tough stuff and some easy stuff.   I’ve learned that I’m JUST starting to unpack some of the culture and way of life that I thought I knew.  I’m JUST starting to get the inside track on stuff.     I feel like I’m just starting to know what I think I should be doing.    I love working at the clinic.  I love going out to the barrios and seeing the patients where they live and work.   I love working with our 6 schools, looking for student sponsors and helping our sponsors meet their kiddies.    But my most favorite thing is just doing life with the people.    It’s hard for us as Americans not to be defined by our accomplishments and everything that we are able to achieve.   But I am learning.... in the face of difficulty and sadness and celebration...that sometimes it’s more important just to be there.  One of my friends says “it’s more important that you are HERE with us....than anything you could give us”.   And that is humbling.  

It’s not that there aren’t needs that we are trying to meet, via surgeries and handing out meds, and trying to round up school supplies and focus on education.    We are DOING these things and always trying to do more.  But it HAS become more about building relationships and spending TIME with people, and PRAYING with people, as well.    In the DR there aren’t the safety nets that we have here in the United States....we can’t refer people to counselors as easily as we can here.  We can’t always produce the medicines they need.   Sometimes we have to tell people that things aren’t going to go as planned... or that we can’t help them.    Heartbreaking.    But what we CAN do is pray with them in the clinic, visit them in their homes,  talk to them about hope in Jesus.     Recently we had a patient who nearly died in our clinic.  And I was sick, kinda hysterical, nervous, so fearful.  Understandably so.   But I watched the Dominican nurses pray with her, before surgery and after surgery.    I watched the patient herself assure me that she was going to be fine, that she was in the hands of Jesus.   I FELT the prayers of everyone on our team as I scrubbed into that surgery.   My friends and coworkers came out to the clinic at 10 at night to pray for us and support me.   And the next day, when I kept visiting the patient to verify that she was INDEED going to live, possibly driving everyone else insane... the Dominican nurse Lilly put her hand on my shoulder and reminded me “Nicole, she was always in God’s hands... you have to have more faith”.    

It’s just not easy.   We are such broken folks, aren’t we.... struggling along in our insecurities and sin.    I thought if I was a missionary, it would be easier.  But living in the DR is teaching me, poco a poco, slowly slowly... to have more faith.    When Jesus is really the ONLY hope-  sometimes it’s easier to turn to him.   When life is wondrously messy, and it’s super messy there, it’s a beautiful thing to know that He really does have the whole world in His hands.   I need and receive constant reminders of this, of His grace for me and for what we are trying to do.    I believe it is Jamie The Very Worst Missionary who recently said something like “ If you sell people on the false idea that Jesus makes life perfect, then when their life falls apart (and it will!), so does their faith.   Jesus doesn't take away our burdens - He teaches us how to carry them gracefully.  “

And so I’m going back.   I’m going back on the 11th and I’m going to stay another year.   I’m going back to the heat and noise and motos and garbage.  I’m going back to help carry burdens and hold peoples’ hands and pray that God will sustain us together.  I’m going back to dominos and bachata and platanos.   I’m going back to Baby Nicole and Dan and Kari and Laura and Monchi and Chino and Nef and Margo.  I love it.  I love who God is unfolding Himself to be to me... in the DR... and sometimes I love how I am unfolding too.  

Thanks guys....