Home again..?

We made it.
The flight was uneventful, actually. I slept for almost the whole thing, and didn't even have time to watch a movie or read more than a chapter of my book...Which sounds boring and all, but was actually quite an accomplishment for me. I'm not usually a very stress-free flyer ;)
And Dunedin...? Beautiful.

 We're an hours walk from town into Andersons Bay (I know because we walked it twice in the last two days before figuring out the bus schedule...), a lovely suburb of rows of brick houses with leaded and stained glass windows, white picket fences and cute little garages..Each house unique and vibrantly painted, set against huge rolling green hills and the beautiful blue pacific ocean.

 The centre of town itself is small and full of character. Feels like a combination of Nanaimo and Victoria, actually. Besides Dunedin having Noodle Hut instead of Noodle Box, chemist's instead of pharmacies, and everyone driving on the wrong side of the road, I could pretty much convince myself I was still in Canada. The similarities far outnumber the differences, so far.

We spent the entirety of Thursday afternoon and all day yesterday sorting out all kinds of boring things like insurance, bank accounts, student IDs, visas, and cell phone plans. Not very exciting stuff, but we got the see the city at least and learn our way around.
 Today was spent running around the farmers market in the pouring rain (yes, its summer here, and yes, so far it rains just as much as Ucluelet), and wandering around our neighbourhood appreciating how small the world seems with free across-the-world-calling and the same pacific ocean we left at home right outside our door.

ALSO!!! :
 TWO MORE SLEEPS. TWO MORE SLEEPS. TWO MORRRE SLEEEEPS!
 Haha. Is it ok to be this immature when I'm going to be in a bachelor of midwifery program starting in just TWO MORE SLEEPS? Maybe I just need another glass of wine...Don't worry. I'm only a LITTLE excited ;)

 Hopefully the pictures work, I'll be adding more soon.
xo
Kait

PS...Our landlords who live upstairs have a 9 yr old nephew who is over visiting often...His name is Caleb and he has ADHD and is completely off the wall bonkers, and an extremely cute little kid. He's decided that he adores Steven, who refers to him as "little dude", which, due to his lovely Canadian accent, makes Caleb fall over into a fit of giggles. I figured this was cute enough to mention..Caleb thinks Steven sounds like spiderman and that he thinks Canada is the coolest place to live "EVER!".

The chaos

 I would not be who I am or where I am if it were not for my mother. She's saved my life yet again by spending hours of the past two days helping me to organize my life into the small compact size of boxes and suitcases. I appreciate her, my dad, and my siblings so much for everything they have given to see me succeed.

  Where would any of us be without our moms, really? God is a smart God for creating maternal instinct.

 I'm leaving my sweet giant puppy tomorrow. I'm actually leaving a lot of things tomorrow, but my pup is the one heaviest on my mind as I head towards bed this evening. How is it possible to love a dog so much?? I didn't think it was. Although perhaps it's a possibility that I'm taking all of my emotional baggage about leaving everything I've ever known as home and placing it on my dog because it's too heavy to carry around anymore. Possibly.
 Or maybe I just really, really love my dog.

 I have about a billion things that I have to do before noon tomorrow... Including but not limited to repacking 2 of my perfectly packed suitcases because they are perfectly 10 lbs over my weight limit.  O_o .....oi.

 I don't know when I'll post again. It's kind of hard when there's a thousand different things that you're thinking about every day and a thousand different things that could make for interesting blog posts... Such as my sweet doula group and the meeting I had with them last week, and how much I love and am encouraged by them all the time! Or like the lovely farewell party my family and friends held for us on Sunday evening at Black Rock Resort.. Such a sweet time of tasty food and fellowship. Or theres birth and midwifery. I haven't even started reading my textbooks yet but I'm pretty sure I could write at least a blog post a day about my personal feelings on the subject.
I haven't really caught onto how best to blog yet.

 Anyway, the next post will probably be once we're in NZ. Or maybe on the plane. Or maybe before that in California. We're stopping for 4 days to go to Disneyland with my family...I'm SO glad that this worked out and that we'll have so much concentrated time together before I (literally) take off!

 God is good...I'm feeling better right now about this whole departure thing than I have yet. Today was a pretty rough day of sorting and sulking and staring at the walls and out the windows in remembrance of days past and anxiety about the unknown..But I am feeling better. Blame the red wine or the good company, perhaps (we spent the evening with Amy, Scott and Logan), but I'm blaming God for giving me just enough joy, excitement, and strength to make it though.

(remind me of that tomorrow as I leave my dog behind, ok?)

xo!

Every woman deserves a midwife

.. I was just leaving a comment on another blog that I follow (At Your Cervix) and I thought it was post worthy.

Wouldn't it be amazing if a Bachelor of Midwifery degree was offered at most Canadian universities, much like direct-entry Bachelor of Nursing degrees are offered now? I can't/don't understand what would be so much more difficult about offering such a degree. Imagine if our very own North Island College was to offer such a program. The revenue alone would make it worth it! Women would flock from all over the continent (and perhaps beyond) to access a direct-entry midwifery program offered in such a rural and beautiful location (I'm thinking the Comox/Courtenay campus)..Never mind the benefits it would have on maternity care here on the island. I know I'm obviously not taking into consideration the costs or struggles of starting such a program (I'm not even aware of all of them!), but I do know that I am pretty good at looking at the "big" picture, pretty good at dreaming, and pretty good at teaching. What better a place than the Comox Valley to offer such a program, what with the midwifery and natural birthing community already so large and so strong, and such a vital element of the lifestyle those from the valley know and love?

Who knows what it would take. But if no one ever takes the time to consider the possibilities in life, than we may as well stop living.

 Every woman deserves a midwife. How incredible would it be to be a part of something bigger than yourself, something bigger than helping one woman with one delivery (although that in itself is an amazing undertaking, is so worth it, and is basically everything I am aspiring to at this point). Although I clearly have no idea where the road ahead will take me, I can imagine I would love to teach midwifery one day. Is that too much to be thinking about when I haven't even been taught it yet myself?

The comfy life (can't i keep it? pretty please?)

 Bear with me, this is my first post on a very rough and still to be organized blog. I couldn't wait to write until I had all the annoying details sorted out, that's just not me. I'm too "big picture" to fix the font in the heading before writing my first post. I'm also too impatient.
 I'm impatient in a lot of ways, about a lot of things. I haven't even left for midwifery school yet, and I already want to be finished... No wait, I'm going to call that motivation, not impatience. Hm. Much better.

Have you ever heard the saying that comfortable isn't always best? Or anything else along those lines? I'm thinking bible-type analogies too, like the wide road not being the best to take, although it may be the easiest/most comfortable than the narrow path...It seems to be a pretty common line of thought. But stopping to consider.. something about it just doesn't make sense to me. Why do we crave comfort as humans, if its not necessarily what's best for us? I want comfort in every way and in every aspect almost more than anything else. And to tell you the truth, I'm very nearly there. Comfortable, I mean.

 Take this moment for example. I got home from work half an hour ago, and I'm curled up in the middle of a big old, worn in and worn out couch, beside a big fat purring cat, sipping delicious tea and giggling over funny blogs and chatting with friends on facebook; my huge dog snores, head snuggled comfily across my lap. It's two days past Christmas 2010. My husband and I spent the last week with family; snowboarding, tubing, skating, making cookies, singing carols (yes really), and eating a LOT of delicious food. My house smells like the pumpkin spice candles I got for christmas, and Ella Fitzgerald is crooning about sleigh bells and mistletoe.

.....Right now, I cannot for the life of me remember why I want to leave any of this (never mind ALL of it) to travel all the way across the globe, pay an extreme amount of money to attend school for something I have no idea if I'll actually, really love doing in the end, and spend 3 whole years away from almost everyone and everything in the world that I love right now.
...No Seriously. Someone please remind me why in the world I'm doing this.
...Because comfortable isn't always best. Then what is?

 Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbour as yourself.' All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."
(matthew 22:37-40 NIV)


That is.

That's all.

That's the point.

I think sometimes, when I'm comfortable, I forget. Because whats the point in doing anything, if you're already comfortable. There's no point in learning how to love God more, or bothering with neighbours or whatnot. "No thanks, I'm good". "I'm comfortable here. Thanks but no thanks God, I'll stay put"......I suppose that is an option.
 But if by leaving behind the comforts of home I also leave behind my resistance to change and growth, than maybe, just maybe, this uncomfortable stuff might have a point to it.
 If by leaving behind the comforts of home I also leave behind my "who needs God if I have my ___ ?"( insert: husband, dog, house, family, sanity etc etc etc) attitude, than maybe, just maybe..
it's worth it. (maybe).

a few of my comforts...