Just Pray.

The sweat that flows down our faces has become an all too familiar feeling. The first couple of months I laughed off the lack of filtered water or even shower water, the mosquitos and chiggers, and the muddy walks back home.

But now this is home and I have a harder time laughing things off because this is the reality of life here. I have had a hard time with the fact that although all of these things were new and exciting for me at first, I am now realizing that this is how families live here and they know nothing else like I do. I will one day return to life back home and this will one day become a dream. There is so much about life here that I am learning slowly. For example, the ice cream truck song we loved so dearly as a child, fooled me the first day I heard it here in Peru. I turned around to find the garbage truck passing by instead of the ice cream truck… disappointment. Ha.

I really wanted to fill everyone in on how life here is but words cannot explain how my experience here so far has been. I can give you a glimpse of some things. Well, life in the clinic… We have learned a plethora of things from IVs, shots, sutures and cleaning wounds to what medication is prescribed for different situations. The nurses in the clinic are Meliseanna Gibbons (a La Sierra graduate who has an immense love for God and the church), Jamie Welch (a loving spirit from Colorado who has such a caring heart for everyone that walks into our clinic and has the best facial expressions ever), and Wendy (a peruvian worker who is a volunteer here in the clinic, she is the youngest and eager to become a certified nurse). Then there is me… I am the "nurse in charge of the clinic" which really means nothing except for knowing where everything is and giving IVs whenever someone needs one. There have been so many RIDICULOUS things that have happened to us but I will not bore you with all of them. I will tell you about one of the many...

One of the most unforgettable nights so far here was the night where we lost a life and helped bring one into this world. Maria was with us for a couple of days. The first day she arrived she was incredibly dehydrated and malnourished. All I remember seeing was immobile bones. I was disturbed by the awful smell in the room whenever I walked into the room and looking at her brought tears to my eyes.  Her IV was ordered immediately and I went in ready for just about anything. Her blood was as thin as water and it poured out of her as if I were to open a faucet. I had no idea what to expect but I remember being determined to stay strong and help any way possible. The next couple of hours brought more bad news after a body examination…I never expected terminal cancer. And the next couple of days were just waiting… for her, her husband, and us. I did not know what to think when she passed away that Saturday night. I was feeling every emotion possible and I had so many questions for God and I had already expected it to happen. All I kept thinking was she smiled whenever Jamie and I would give her medication. We were just talking to her not too long ago… why did this happen? Lord… help me understand.

None of us had much time to dwell on this because moments later we were all in the clinic delivering a baby. I was actually trying to figure out how to put an IV in a woman who was having intense contractions. Suddenly when we least expected it...the baby started to come out. NO WARNING. We immediately got into position without much time to think and process what was happening. Seconds (which honestly felt like an eternity for me) passed by when we saw what should have been the head, but instead was the baby's foot. I remember praying with such a dire passion, "Please Lord, not the baby too." The clinic was silent to all of us although the mother´s helpless crying and the doctor trying to calm her, all we could hear was silence. The doctor was pulling and we were all spectators... helpless. God worked miracles that night through Dr. Percy's hands. And I will never forget that moment of pure warmth that ran throughout my body the moment we heard that baby's cry. That moment was the most beautiful moment I have ever in my life experienced because never did I fear, trust, love, adore God more than in that moment of my life.

Ridiculous.

That night was terrible and amazing. God helped each and every one of the people involved in that night's events. I cannot help and think that God is beyond amazing. The people he has put in my life up until now have been completely supportive and loving throughout every experience I have encountered. The adventures life brings here makes me fall even more in love with God each day. He has put a ridiculously amazing group of missionaries to help me grow in every aspect of this experience, to remind me to fix my eyes upon Jesus through everything life seems to throw our way (whether it be through unexpected death or the miracle that is life) and to remind me to just pray.

♥.

o.