Garage Sale

I can't sleep. I'm supposed to be setting up for our garage sale in just six hours, but I'm wide awake.

What a week it has been.

Tuesday night, I hosted the second gathering of the aspiring midwives support group. Once again, I thought it was a great success. Our group is now a total of about 15 strong, and there were about 10 people at Tuesday's meeting, not including the small gang of three-year-old girls (all sporting princess dresses) who come with their mothers. My sticker collection was a hit. What's so great to me is that the three little girls, all Mexican-American, all speak and understand Spanish. I'm envious. On Tuesday, however, I watched as one girl was being spoken to in Spanish by her mother in front of her new friends and then proceeded to respond with a yell of, "No, mama, in ENGLISH, in E-N-G-L-I-S-H...!!! Wow, the language self-consciousness starts that early!?

Another interesting part about Tuesday's meeting was that there were two women from Yemen who joined us. This woman and her grown daughter had been living in Yemen and working as midwives there until just recently. Somehow, they heard that they could come to the United States to receive formal midwifery training and pass a big exam so they could return to Yemen as credentialed midwives. Once they got here, unfortunately, they were hit with the reality of the true financial cost and extensive time commitment of the training process, both of which are prohibiting them from achieving their goals. They seem to be picking up what little bits of info about midwifery that they can, but they plan to return to Yemen in the near future. It was fascinating hearing about midwifery in Yemen and what their lives as community midwives are like. There doesn't seem to be much prenatal care at all, so the community midwife is called to attend births once labor is already underway. The danger in this set-up, of course, is that the midwife has no prior knowledge of the mother's health history, whether it has been a normal pregnancy, or whether the baby is full-term or in the optimal position. I would imagine this contributes significantly to the high infant and maternal mortality rates there.

On Thursday, I had my first official interview with a homebirth client. The woman who planned her pregnancy around my availability wants to hire me to be her midwife. I have my very first client! We met and talked for two and a half hours about how it would all work. She asked me a bunch of questions, I asked her a bunch of questions, and we laid out all the details. When we talked about money, she prefaced the conversation with saying she understood the absolute value of midwifery care and what my services are worth, and that she fully intended to pay a fair amount. And fair it is. She offered a price that was actually quite a bit higher than what I was expecting. It was so lovely. I'm still going back and forth between feeling terrified and ever grateful for this experience. It's a good thing I have nearly nine months to fully prepare myself.

Speaking of which, I finally received my fictitious business name statement from the county. Now, I get to take a copy to the bank and open up my small business checking account. Yay!

Louis and I are having a garage sale in a few hours. Actually, this was totally my idea. I so desperately want to get rid of the spare bed and lots of other things that are just cluttering up our home, so that I can make space for what's really important. I felt so strongly about having a garage sale that I decided to mobilize the neighbors and organize a block sale. We printed up flyers and walked them door to door a few weeks ago. Now, I'm expecting about 8 other families to participate in the sale tomorrow. I am beyond excited. Thus the insomnia tonight.

I'm amazed at how my days are so full lately. I love that I am able to do so many things right now. It reminds me about how people are always told to live life to the fullest. I think I am. I know how easily things can come crashing down, so I'm choosing to appreciate everyday, one day at a time. I'm really enjoying what I do. If I could fit in more exercise, a somewhat better diet, and more happiness for Louis, I'd be pretty content with life. I enjoy challenging myself to find (or create) peace wherever I can.

Somebody remind me of this the next time the in-laws come over.