Birthdays and Busyness

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to AMELIA!! She's getting so big. We celebrated with family a few weekends ago and for her actual birthday she got a whole doughnut from The Doughnut Experiment. 

People have been asking "How are Africa things going? What are ya'll doing to get ready?"

When people ask that my mind kind of goes in about a million directions! Here's why....

On top of working, managing a household, raising two precious girls, and maintaining life, 
1. We are applying for passports for our girls so that we can apply for visas so that we can get into the country.  We can't get Visas, though, without proof of Yellow Fever vaccine. Michael has his, Madelyn is too young. So...

2. Amelia and I are going to the travel clinic this week to get our Yellow Fever vaccines!

3. Speaking of vaccines, we all have to get rabies and typhoid vaccines.  Amelia is getting her 4 year old vaccines early at two years of age (some people want to space them out... we see how close we can put them together! Hah! That's what you get for having a pediatrician for a mommy!  Oh yeah dad's a huge fan of vaccines too.)  Poor Madelyn will be getting some sort of vaccine almost every month between now and when we leave.  

4. Support raising. We may sound like broken records. Things are going well. We have raised our "one time needs" goal and now all of the "one time gifts" will go towards our HOUSE BUDGET!! WOO HOO!!!!!! Praise the Lord for all of the gifts that will make it possible for us to get to Africa! Michael and I have seen Him move people to give in ways we never thought imaginable. And I'll be honest, at some points I do get discouraged and feel like we are never going to stop asking people to support us. But one day we will.  We are so grateful for everyone who has already gotten behind us either through committing to pray for us while we are there, through financial support,  for general excitement for our move/adventure/ministry or any combination of those!!  It has been so fun sharing the story of our future life in Africa!!  All that to say, we are meeting with a lot of people to continue telling them our story and inviting them to be a part of our journey if they feel led to do so!  We truly believe that the Lord is in control and that He will provide what we need.  If you feel led to give financially, great.  If you don't, great.  If you feel led to join with us in prayer, great.  If you want to be our cheerleader and encourage us before we leave, great.  If you want to continue living life as if we are not going because the thought of us leaving is simply unbearable, you do what you gotta do ;) . But in all seriousness, we do not want guilt or a feeling of obligation to us to push anyone to support us.  We want this to be God-driven.  Ok done. 

5. Speaking of house... once funds start coming in for our future house, we will start thinking about what we will want the layout of the house to look like. We will likely be discussing this with a missionary in Cameroon who is a general contractor. Exciting!  

6. Michael had to apply to be a PAACS attending. Submitted that a few days ago. 

7. We are starting to think about our shipping container because it takes a long while from the time we ship it to actually receiving the container at Mbingo.  And guess what, folks. We are LESS THAN 6 MONTHS AWAY from being in Africa!    So not only do we have to figure out the logistics of the shipping container (what size container, likely 20 feet... what company to use to ship it... where to load up the container...how to get our belongings from our house to wherever they will pack the container...what can we live without now...AND what can we live without there if the container gets stuck in customs...).  So in celebration of being less than 6 months away, I have started to purge by...

8.  Cleaning out my closet. I just went through and got rid of all my spring/summer clothes that I won't be able to wear in Africa.  NOTE TO FRIENDS WHO ARE MY SIZE --- free clothes if you can come get them by this weekend :D Otherwise they go to Goodwill. 

9. We are also in the process of figuring out what to do with our house. We've decided to rent it out while we are overseas so we have to find a property management company. We also are going to turn our house into an LLC which apparently is the thing to do in this situation per our financial advisor!  Also, there are a LOT of things that need to happen to get our house rent-ready. 

Anywho, that's what we are doing right now :)  (Plus probably another 15 other things I forgot about.) We're learning to embrace the chaos and enjoy seeing God working through this time of transition in our lives.



OK side note, if you guys don't know Vivian, here she is. She is the MOST AMAZING nanny/friend/woman. She has blessed us by loving Amelia for almost 2 years now and is doing the same with Madelyn. She's a gem. Just thought I needed to put that out on the world wide web.

We went to Atlanta to meet with some people to share about Africa and while we were at dinner, Amelia hung out with Gigi and Papa and watched the Georgia Game. In this picture, she is thinking "If Georgia wins, I wonder if they will move to the #1 spot." Good question, Amelia. Good question. (They did.)

Amelia loved seeing her uncle Andrew :)

Hips, Boards, and Job Changes

Well hello!

Exciting things this month:

• MICHAEL PASSED ORAL BOARDS which means he is now a board certified surgeon!!! WOO HOO way to go Michael!!!
• Madelyn's hips are good 👍
• Jenn has a job change
• Support raising is going well!

BOARDS: done. passed. board certified surgeon. smarty pants. that is all.

HIPS: Madelyn was comfy and cozy flipped head up most of the time she was in mommy's tummy and since she was breech most of the time, her pediatrician (shout out to Dr. Amanda O'Kelly!!) recommended a hip ultrasound (*Side note for those pediatricians out there... can we talk about how NEBULOUS the recommendations for hip ultrasounds are for breech babies!?!) Anywho... her ultrasound was normal.  

JOB: Jenn had her last day working at Kids' Care (pediatric urgent care in AnMed Women's and Children's Hospital) last week and will start working for Children's Clinic in Greenville this week. This is to bridge the gap between when her contract was completed at KC until the move in April. 

SUPPORT RAISING:  As most of you who are reading this know, we have to raise $50,000 (one time need) and $7,000/month in pledges before we go. We are about a third of the way towards our monthly goal and about one half of the way towards our one time needs goal. Things are going well, but we still have some work to do! It has been amazing to see God work during this process.

Prayer requests:

• There are currently two pediatricians at Mbingo. They both will complete their commitments in December and we will not get there till April. Pray for a pediatrician to be available to bridge the gap.
• For guidance as we continue raising support and for wisdom as we start planing the logistics of our move. 

Praises:

• Michael passed boards
• Support raising is going well
• Michael isn't practicing surgery right now, but we have truly enjoyed the extra family time together!
  
  Amelia, almost 2
  
  
  Madelyn, 2.5 months

Scripture:

Psalm 25:4-6

Show me your ways, Lord,
    teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are God my Savior,
    and my hope is in you all day long.
6 Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
    for they are from of old.

I think a big thing that trips me up is that I am tempted to base my judgement of what is good and bad off what I know. And our thoughts are not Gods thoughts. We don't see the big picture.  

I'm not saying that it's "ok" when bad things happen, nor am I happy about it.  

But just like so many other things in life, I trust. 

I trust that He is sovereign. It still doesn't take away my confusion about some things.  

And I pray for God to show me His ways. 

Family of Four

Exciting things last month:

• Michael passed written surgery boards! YAY!
• Madelyn was born! YAY!
• We have a strong candidate for our nanny in Cameroon!!! YAY 
• Michael has a job!!!!

BOARDS:

Michael still has to take oral surgery boards in September and if (read: WHEN) he passes them, he will be a board certified surgeon!!

MADELYN:
Jenn had to be induced at 39 weeks for preeclampsia.  Thank the Lord she did not have any complications.  Labor lasted a short 6.5 hours, she only had to push for 8 minutes, and she was able to do it without an epidural!
We are adjusting well to life as a family of four.  Amelia is a great big sister!  Every once in a while she gets a little jealous and wants mommy to hold her, but otherwise loves to give her kisses and help burp her.

Photo Credit: Kasey Brown (thanks Kas!)

    

NANNY:
We are so thankful to have friends who we met when we went on our quick visit to Mbingo back in April who are able to help us with our transition! Ethan and Elizabeth are doctors currently spending 2 years at Mbingo.  Elizabeth knew of our need for a nanny and let us know last week that there is a Cameroonian girl who is interested in helping our family!  This is definitely an answer to prayer!  We will be talking to her (potential nanny) a little more to see if it will be a good fit but we are very hopeful that she will be able to keep the girls while Jenn works!

JOB:

Michael is sending in his signed contract as we speak.  He will be a consultant for GHS helping gather data from EPIC (electronic medical record) for research purposes.  He will be working about two days a week which leaves time on the remaining days for support raising and family time.

NEXT UP:

 Continued support raising

Jenn returns to work in September

Michael takes oral boards in September

Michael Graduates Residency!!!

After High School, it only took 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and 5 years of residency to get where he is today!! Congratulations to the wonderful Dr. Michael Harling! He has worked so hard to get where he is today. Not only that, he has been such a wonderful son, brother, friend, husband, and father along the way!!! I am so impressed at how hard he has worked over these years and yet is still able to make time for things outside of the hospital.  He truly is amazing!

Mbingo - it's like Bingo with an M in front

Mbingo - the name of the hospital where we will work
Mbingo - the name of the city where we will live
Mbingo - "the land of the antelope"

Before April, people would ask us "what will Africa be like?" and we really didn't have a clear answer!  But fortunately we were able to visit for a few days between April 10th and 18th and now have much better answers both to their questions and our own.  This post is a bit long, but feel free to skip to parts that pique your interest!  For the visually inclined you can just skip straight to this album.

HOW DO YOU GET TO AFRICA?!?

Our route this past trip was the following: fly from ATL (that's Atlanta, GA) to Paris, Paris to Douala, and then drive (8 hours) from Douala to Mbingo.
There IS an option to fly from Douala to Mbingo, a strong consideration for our move.  Eight hours in the car after ~17 hours in the plane with 2 little ones might push Momma over the edge!

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR THINGS IN AMERICA?

Good question.  We are still trying to figure out what to do with our house --rent or sell.  We will likely sell our cars as it would cost double their value to ship and import them to Africa.  We will send a shipping container with a lot of our smaller and some bigger things.  OH, and WILLOW NEEDS A HOME!  Let us know if you're interested in adopting a precious 4 year old mutt.

WHAT WILL YOU EAT?

Chicken pot pie, banana bread, pizza, fresh fruit, coffee made from beans roasted on the compound (if you really want a taste Starbucks sells some from a mountain not far from Mbingo), fried chicken and mashed potatoes, and pork tenderloin - just to name a few!  Those are just some of the foods we ate while we visited!  We did try a few authentic Cameroonian dishes which were also great.
There is a small market just outside of the hospital compound where we will get a lot of our food, but we also plan to have a vegetable garden.  Some of the more difficult to find items (cheese, ground meat) can be found in Bamenda - a city of 300,000 people around 40 minutes away from Mbingo.

WORK WORK WORK

OK, there are so many things to talk about here.
SURGERY - for a brief summary of what Michael will be a part of, please watch this 4 minute film (may require tissues)...
PEDIATRICS - first of all, there really aren't "pediatricians" in Mbingo.  There are Internal Medicine doctors and residents.  When there are no expatriate pediatricians around, the IM doctors take care of the pediatric patients.
3 Main Areas:

1. Pediatric ward - Doctor is in charge of the 20 bed unit, which is usually full
2. Maternity ward - Doctor is responsible for "sick" babies - i.e. any baby that has abnormal exam findings (abnormal vital signs, abnormal nurses exam, fever, etc.)
3. Pediatric clinic - Nurse practitioner run, however  Doctor is the "attending" and is needed at time for questions

There are currently 2 pediatricians at Mbingo, both serving for a 2 year period.  One will be gone by the time we get there and Jenn will overlap with the remaining pediatrician for about 6 months.  Pray that someone else comes!  We're not exactly sure what Jenn's role will be when we get there.  Stay tuned for those details after we move :)

Introductions

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