I'm still here

This post is dedicated to Delton Judd and to the ladies of Emmanuel BC in Purcell.  I am still here and I do occasionally blog.  :)

It's weird that I don't post more often because I am constantly writing blog posts in my head.  I also have at least 5 draft posts saved that are in some stage of completion, but have yet to make it to the published world. 

Here are some of my excuses for not posting more often:

1. I have an 8 month old daughter who is active and busy.  I can only do things like this when she is sleeping.  And most days the list of things that need to be done in those few short sleeping hours is much longer than what can actually be accomplished so blogging has to be relegated to the next day's to-do list.  and then the next day's.  and the next day's.  And to be honest, when given the choice between getting to take a nap myself or updating the blog...most days the nap feels infinitely more vital. 
2. I can't be signed in to my email and my blog at the same time.  Maybe there is some tech-savvy google guru out there who could figure out how that's possible, but I'm not that person.  Generally I don't just sit down and type and publish in one sitting (although I am today).  It would be great to be able to have both tabs open and move back and forth between my blog and the work that needs done over email, but I haven't figured out how to do so. 
3. Sometimes there's too much to catch up on so it doesn't seem worth the time to catch up to present day. 
4. This one is new today...they re-designed my blog dashboard so that I don't know where anything is. 

Enough with the excuses, here's what's going on.

• Catherine:   I can't find the charger for the camera battery so I can't post any pictures, but Catherine is 8 months old now.  Her hair is almost long enough to put stuff in it.  She is crawling, standing, laughing, bouncing, and drooling.  Her favorite game these days seems to be when I lay on the floor and allow her to use me as a human jungle gym.
• Moving to China:  Plans are moving along nicely to move back to Asia in August.  James is scheduling to speak with lots of potential partners about our plans.   I'm working on clearing out our home and deciding what to take with us.  We already have an apartment lined up for when we arrive there!  James is now working as the broker only four days a week, which gives us one day a week to plan for China.  All our documents have been sent to the university.  When they get us an acceptance letter, we can apply for visas and work on getting tickets!
• Business:   I've been spending more time on JLCS and we will be offering some online classes this summer.  YAY!  Send us some referrals!  www.languageandculturalservices.com!

I know this post wasn't very detailed, but I'm working on getting back in the blogging saddle.  And I'll work on getting some of the saved posts up in the coming days. 

Why I love James Judd #8

I only planned on doing 7, but the video of Catherine was a bonus. Today, on Valentine's Day, I love James Judd because he is willing to love me despite my many faults. I can be a bit compulsive about the way I want certain household chores done. I'm not always as positive or grateful about situations as I should be. I can be stubborn. I can be demanding of his time and energy. I like most things to be too scheduled. I don't always take initiative. I only make the bed if someone is coming to the house who might see it. I get grumpy with lack of food or sleep. I complain quite a lot. And this is clearly only a partial list. And he loves me anyway.

He is in Orlando now but sent me a text this morning to look inside the closet where the HVAC unit is. To my surprise, he had left a card and gift for me before he left for his trip. I am blessed to spend life with him!

6 months of CSJ

The day she was born one month old

two months old

three months old

four months old

five months old

and today. six months old. We ran out of rings to add to the toy :)

Why I love James Judd #7

James is in Orlando this week. Last night after we got off the phone I was lying in bed thinking of which reason I love him I would share with the world today. And then I wondered what topic we would be discussing if he were here. And I missed him. (And then I missed him even more when Catherine woke up multiple times in the night :)).
I love James Judd because he is my best friend. I love that most nights we stay up too late talking. Sometimes about serious topics, sometimes just telling stories, sometimes planning and dreaming about the future. I never get tired of spending time with him. He makes me laugh. He makes me cry (in a good way) when he's so sweet. (Of course he's made me cry in a bad way too, but that makes me love him more that he sticks the hard times out with me). He does things with me that he doesn't love to do because he know I love doing those things. He is my confidant. I can tell him anything without fear of judgement. I can be completely honest with him. I trust him completely. I love my best friend.

Why I love James Judd #6

This one is a bonus post for today.

I love James Judd because God combined our genes magnificently to make this cute girl:

Why I love James Judd #5

I love James Judd because we are a good team. I notice how we complement each other often, but when I really notice our teamwork is when James is traveling (when I am holding down the fort alone). I notice more all the things that he normally does or the things we normally do together. In our first house we didn't have a dishwasher and had to wash our dishes by hand. I don't like washing all the little pieces of silverware, he doesn't like washing the pots. I don't mind folding the laundry, but I hate finding the matches to the socks, which James doesn't mind. We tag-team almost all that we do. He is, in general, a big picture person and I am, in general, a details person. He reminds me to be thankful. I remind him to put action to his thoughts/plans/dream. We have the same goals and the same plan for making them happen, but each of us has a different role. I love him and I love being on his team.

Why I love James Judd #4

I love James Judd because he helps me. all the time. with virtually any task I can't complete on my own. Yesterday he helped me open a jar of salsa I couldn't open myself. He stayed up late helping me with our website. Recently I started a project where I turned a coffee table into a storage ottoman. (I should post pics of that later) I did fine disassembling everything, covering the top with padding and fabric, and cutting the covering for the sides. What I needed help with was the drilling and screwing. I was hesitant to ask because James hates projects and because I had gotten myself into this mess anyway. In the process of me humbly asking for help and him graciously consenting we talked about my habit of getting into situations like this one. He said something about how I always do more than he think I can do on my own but that's always less than I think I can do on my own. Anyway, now that we are looking toward moving, most of my projects have been suspended. but even if they aren't, I'm thankful for a husband who is willing to help me.

Why I love James Judd #3

I love James because he loves my family. There are days that loving my family is easier than others, and on the harder days, I get annoyed more easily than James. Like this morning when my dad came to take James to the airport 30 MINUTES EARLY. My dad is perpetually early, but the difference between 6:00 am and 6:30 am seems great when one is so very sleepy. I grumbled and complained, but James just got out of bed, got ready more quickly than planned, and reminded me (gently) that I should be thankful I wasn't having to get up to take him to the airport.

Why I love James Judd #2

I didn't get this posted yesterday because I went to bed at 9:15. I wished it could have been hours earlier. I worked at James' office yesterday answering phones, but I don't even think that is why I was so tired. It has just been an exhausting week and I needed one good night's sleep before I become a single parent for a few days while James is out of town.

So here we go.


I love James Judd because he is a hard worker who provides well for his family. The bonus of working at his office today was not only a day to do something other than care for Catherine, it was that I got to see James in his element. Nothing was particularly surprising. Almost everything about what a day in his office was like was as I imagined it would be. It was just a nice to see him there and watch/hear how he interacts with people....both the way he is respected and respects others. Yesterday was slower than most days, but it was still busy. James works long, hard days (especially now being one staff member down) and is still a very present husband and father in the evenings. I appreciate him!

Why I love James Judd #1

It's a week until Valentine's Day. I'm not a huge fan of the holiday, but I am a fan of celebrating our love and our marriage. Especially this year. The past few months we have heard many stories of failed marriages...in our own family, in our circle of friends, and a few more distant acquaintances. Our marriage is far from perfect, but in light of all those we know having marital problems, we have been talking more about what we can do to hold on to and strengthen our own.

SOOO, since there is a week until Valentine's Day, I'm going to post one thing I love about James or our life together each day until then. Surely anyone who reads this can handle only a week of mushy and sappy, right?

I love that James always seems to know exactly what I need. He has been working long hours at his job and we've had evening plans almost everyday for what seems likes weeks. Other than the weekend, we haven't gotten the kind of time together we would like. Today was going to be another day of him rushing home from work to grab dinner then heading out to a meeting. I was surprised when I heard him walk in the door earlier than normal and then announce that he decided not to go to the meeting either! But it gets better. He then said, "I just wanted to spend some time with my family." melt my heart! I have a husband who chooses us and chooses to spend time with us. The greatest think was that I didn't even have to tell him that staying home this evening was what I wanted more than anything (especially since we have church tomorrow night, then he leaves early Saturday morning for a conference), he just knew. And he acted on it and arranged his day to make it happen.


And an update. How did we spend an unexpected evening together? a romantic meal? watching a movie while snuggling on the couch? No. We spent it reconciling the last 3 months of bank statements of 2011 and preparing all our tax documents to give to our accountant. :)

perhaps it's worth trying

Check out this site where you can review products and complete surveys for compensation. I like thinking people care about my opinion. Ask James. I'm a sucker for customer service surveys...especially ones with incentives or prizes.

shameless plug and an update on 2012 goals

So here's the reading list I mentioned I was working on when I wrote about my goals for 2012. These are all books that I would like to finish. Most of them I have started reading, moved to something else, come back, went to something else and just never finished them. I should be finished with the top one this week. I've been working on Sacred Marriage since our pre-marital counseling. I've been working on The End of Poverty longer than that. And I've been working on The Shaping of Things to Come since 2004. 3 of them are new to me so we'll see if I can start and finish them before 8 years go by.

Now it's time for the shameless plug. JLCS (our internet business) is now an amazon affiliate, so if you go to ur site http://languageandculturalservices.com/ and use the link at the bottom to buy something, (I tried to put the link here to save a step but apparently I am html challenged) we get a percentage of the sale. Happy reading! I'll try to update about some of the others goals soon.

a prime example of something lost in translation

The first time I lived in China I studied Chinese at university with other foreign students. The vast majority of them were from Mongolia, some from Korea, and few from Japan, and one guy from Finland who never talked to me. There was also one British girl but she studied in a different department of the college so I rarely saw her. The result of this situation was that I had very few people I could speak English with. Some of my classmates spoke a little English, but the majority did not. I clearly do not speak Mongolia or Korean or Japanese. So, in order to be friends, we had to rely on Chinese, which all of us were just beginning to study, to communicate.
One of these classmates was another girl about my age from Japan (most of my classmates were significantly younger). She lived across the hall from me in the dorms. She is one of the kindest people I have ever met. We have recently reconnected on facebook.

A few months back she sent me a link to a blog post she had written about me. I'll link to the blog below in the original language. But, here is a very rough translation that one of the students who lived with us helped me with. I'll put my comments in italics.

"Asian (Mongolia, Korea, Japan) students at the University are majority, but European or American are rare. When I was living in a dorm room, there was American Jill, just across the hallway, very friendly, always smile and wave whenever we met. After getting close, sometimes Mongolian girls, Jill plus I, like a group members, we went to eat together. One time Jill and I were walking down the street outside the university and concerned about unusual look from other unknown people. When local high school students passed by, they said "hello!" meaninglessly. We were being glanced at. It seemed like stranger - Jill shrugged and was silent with troubled face, but I felt a little bad. Of course, they don’t have bad thought, but that made us get tired.
Jill was in the basketball club and she loves sports, she usually played with Chinese students, the whole Chinese terms of the game completely unknown to me. Even though our friendship was not deep, one day Jill invited me "Let’s visit my house", I went with joy. She already left the dorm, living in an apartment. She treated me with her cooking. She used Taco sauce which was sent from United States. But instead of a tortilla is a feast in the comfort of cake volume of takeout Chinese food. Yes, Noo! ! The volume tortilla cake? ! ! Was surprised and, surprisingly is a substitute. (Not sure) Here she is talking about a thin tortilla-like thing the Chinese eat with Beijing duck. They are much thinner than traditional tortillas, but it's much faster than making your own homemade ones. Also, we would fry them and make tortilla chips. As she said, it was only a substitue.

Jill's house is in Oklahoma, she said it is close to Mexico so they usually eat tacos. In Jill’s city, there are few white people, so she said she is minority.In the city it was really honored to be served the food we rarely have chance to eat.I could not forget the taste of that, but I tried to make taco again although there wasn’t taco sauce in the city?
This part makes me laugh. What on earth did I say in Chinese that made it sound like I am a minority? And I suppose in relation to China I suppose Oklahoma is "close" to Mexico, but I honestly don't remember trying to communicate that idea. Also, we "sometimes" eat tacos. Not "usually" eat tacos. So funny. I think it's funny because I can remember so many instances like this in language learning...times where you thought you had communicated one thing but later you find out you had actually communicated something entirely different. I also remember the early days with this group of friends she is describing having to stop a story for a few minutes to describe one word before we could go on with the story. I also remember us once calling eyelashes "hair of eyes." We all knew that probably wasn't the proper Chinese word, but we also knew we all understood each other.

● Most delicious things I ate at Jill’s house: Jill’s handmade tacos
● Most surprising thing at Jill’s House: Some photos from previous study in China, full of Bansokou arms (photos of our arms covered with band-aids). If you want to study in China from the United States, there are mandatory vaccinations, the number is overwhelmed. Japan did not need vaccinations, mixed feelings.
● Worse thing at Jill’s house: I was treated killing sweet chocolate cake.(how much sugar did you put to make this cake?! She made the cake by using cake mix sent from the United States, very valuable thing. I pretended to eat the cake like it is delicious . As I think the cake is a really valuable thing to her, I smiled, kept eating and couldn’t tell “help me please”. Now I think again, maybe it wouldn’t make her hurt if I had told the truth that it wasn’t that good.)Anyway, Jill had the best hospitality to me. Thanks Jill!! HA! I think of the gazillion times I was in some one's home having to eat something terrible and yet pretending to enjoy it. Little did I know I was creating the same situation for someone else. And who would have ever thought chocolate cake would be the perpetrator.

Here is the link to the blog in the original language: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ubrumongol/26793673.html

We're moving back to China!!!!!

As I look back over the last few things I've posted, they seem a little flat and shallow. The reason is because all that I have wanted to really say, relates to us going back overseas, which was the one thing that wasn't internet-posting public yet. But today is the day. James met with his Associate Leadership Council yesterday and his entire office today to break the news. He really wanted to make sure everyone in his office heard from him first, which is why we tried to keep the news off facebook and such. UNTIL TODAY!

Now, I can share that we've been moving in this direction since November....or since we came back to America....or since we got married...or since we became believers, I suppose. For the purpose of this blog post, we'll just start in November :)

When James took the job as the broker of his office, it came with a verbal commitment that he would stay for 3 years. Although we had talked about going back overseas at various times, when he committed the job, in our minds, we committed to be here in OKC for that duration of time. We would continue serving in our house church, continue hosting international students, continue attempting to build relationships in our low-income neighborhood, continue our internet-based business, and continue to follow as God leads us here in OKC.

The first weekend in November when I went to CT to visit my sister, James went to Tulsa to visit a cousin. I'll let him tell his story as he wants, but the gist of it is that James heard something from God while he was there that made him feel like it was time for us to begin praying about and moving forward with our plans to return overseas. About that time, he and the owner of his office were talking about the current state and future plans of his office and both mutually decided that the office could be better with someone else in the Team Leader role. This was our first big obstacle to overcome....release from James's job and therefore release to the 3 time commitment (that we are about 1 year into).

Since then, we have prayed, talked, fasted, and sought counsel from those closest to us. We were open to going anywhere, but at this point feel led to return to the city in China where we both served previously.

Our plan moving forward is to sell our house sometime after June 24th (so that we don't have to pay back the $8000 tax credit) and arrive in China sometime before the fall semester begins on the first Monday of September. James will study Chinese for year and then we will decide what's next, which will more than likely be some business venture.

My heart is so excited that each day it gets harder to stay connected here. But it has also given me a renewed energy to initiate relationships/make contact with old friends (which is something I haven't had in a long while) since I know the loneliness of being on the other side of the world with limited contact to friends here.

I'm also so excited about going that for every pleasant, exciting, and hopeful thought I have about returning, I try to temper it with one not-so-pleasant memory so that I'm not totally romanticising our return. For example, I think, "I won't have to drive anywhere and I can ride a bike where ever I want." Then I also make myself remember that 90+% of the male population smokes and non-smoking areas don't exist. Then I remember all the delicious foods I love to eat that I haven't gotten to eat in almost 4 years. Then I make myself remember all the foods easy to come by in America that I won't have access to there (cheese and hearty whole grains will be missed the most).

So these days I'm busy with our internet-based business, tyring to increase the traffic there so that it can serve as a means of support for us while we are there. Check us out at http://www.languageandculturalservices.com/ and show some love to our google-ad-supporters while you are there :) And I'm busy sorting everything in our house (if not physically, at least mentally) into 4 categories: give away, sell, take, store.

There will definitely be ways you can support and help us in the future, but for today, just rejoice with us!

a big announcement

tomorrow. :)

projects!

For a year or so (maybe more) my mother-in-law has been helping me learn to sew. This post is to show off some of my recent projects. Don't worry, this won't become a blog where you come to get cut DIY project ideas. I don't have nearly the creativity for that nor do I make enough stuff to become a pinterest or etsy sensation.

What I specialize in is taking stuff that was leftover or junk and making something not quite junk. (ie, the old tattered quilt that we turned in to the crib bedding).

This was a little dress that was in some hand-me-down clothes given to Catherine.
I took out the gathered skirt, cut apart the front and back and turned it in to a mom and daughter matching apron for a friend.
And the bottom of the mom-sized apron was made from an old dress shirt. Total cost for this project was $3.50 for the red bias tape (I think that's what it's called) I used to make the tie.
When I went to visit my sister in November, I borrowed a friend's sling. It was PERFECT for air travel with Catherine. I made this one out of leftover fabric from making curtains and leftover fabric from making another apron for a wedding gift for a friend. Total cost was $0! James loves that both his "girls" are wearing camo in this picture.
I made these towels for my sister and brother-in-law and a hooded towel to match for Jeremiah, my nephew. The "C's" were pieces of old t-shirts. The cost of this project was just the cost of the towels, which were on clearance :)

2012 goals

James and I made a list of goals* in July for our anniversary, so most of my 2012 goals are to finish up the goals we set then. Here is a partial list of those:

• get out of debt (save the mortgage, we're almost there!)
• finish our house remodel (the completion of this goal depends upon one's definition of "finished" as it relates to a home)
• take an international trip
• for me to have more/better depth in my friendships
• for James to find a hobby (at this point he has decided on meat-smoking)
• increase our passive income

And here are the ones I added at the beginning of this year:

• finish all the books I have started, read a bit, put down, started something else but never got back around to finishing
• be a better friend (better about correspondence, mostly)
• return to my pre-baby and hopefully even pre-foot surgery weight. (2 pounds down!)

So I post these so that you can feel free to ask me how my goal completion is going.

*I know goals are supposed to be measurable, but the ends and outs of how we plan to measure and complete our goals is beyond the scope of this blog post :)

What Catherine does when she should be sleeping

My mother-in-law and I made Catherine's crib bedding out of an old quilt that was mine from my childhood. We tried to use only the squares that were in the best condition. You can see in the picture below that this one square had one small tear. So what does my daughter do? Everytime we lay her down, no matter where we place her in the crib, she wiggles her little self over to that very spot and puts her little finger in that little hole.

I think she may be on the verge of forgetting about it or outgrowing the desire, but for weeks it seemed it was her favorite pastime. I'm not sure if I should feel proud that she is smart enough to remember where it is and wiggle herself (180 degrees at times ) to it, or if I should be very afraid of the strong will she may possess that even when I say "no" and move her to another spot, she still returns. :)

2011 year in review

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our wonderful friends and family! Here's a recap of some of the things God brought about in our lives in 2011.

In January we welcomed Yumi Yumoto to our family after Myoung Shim moved out last December. We have so enjoyed having her! She attends our house church with us and James has been teaching her to drive. She is a theater major and recently performed in OCCC's production of Romeo and Juliet. At the very end of last year we started a new business providing English-learning resources for international students. You can check out the website here: http://languageandculturalservices.com/ If you know of any internationals looking for tutoring services, please refer them to the site.

I also started working part time at a preschool near our house. It was perfect to get paid to watch toddlers sleep as the majority of the time I was there was their nap time. I worked there until the semester ended.

In February, James had a job change. He is still in real estate and still with Keller Williams, but is now working as the team leader/broker at KW's Northpoint office in OKC. We thankful for the way the office has welcomed and accepted both James and me as part of their family. Referrals of your friends and family who are looking to buy or sell are always appreciated. James will match them with one of his top real estate agents.

We also expanded our homestay by renting the duplex across the street from us in order to host male students as well as females. The guys slept/hung out/showered etc across the street, but would join us in our home for meals. Our Iranian friend Joshua and an American friend, Steven shared the place with the somewhat transient Saudi guys Mohammad, Hatem, Mubarak, and Rocky. (not all at the same, they came and went). We kept the place until September when we decided that we needed some time to adjust to caring for Catherine and being parents.

Kerry moved out in the spring and Kim finished the semester with us before taking a summer internship in Mississippi/Louisiana. With our homestay rooms available for the summer we had some Fulbright scholars contact us who were doing a 6 week orientation-type program at OU. And so we welcomed Nata from Ukraine, Samiha from Egypt, and Suci from Indonesia. Yumi returned home to Japan for a month and Kim's friend needed a transitional home so we also welcomed Sidi from China for a very short stay. Anyway, at any point in the summer we had about 4 girls and 2-3 guys. It was fun, but maybe a little more than we should have taken on at 8-9 months pregnant.

In July we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Knowing it would be our last one sans child(ren), we decided to take a trip. We couldn't fly or go far, so we went to northwest Arkansas where we toured a cave, (James really wants to make sure I use the word spelunking), ate at a working grain mill, and enjoyed 3 different municipalities' fireworks shows from our hotel room :)

Our biggest news of the year is the arrival of Catherine Sue Judd! She was born at 7:07 am on August 13. She weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces and was 18.5 inches long. She is now 4 months old, almost 12 pounds, 25 inches long, loves to be social, smile, laugh, wiggle and stand up, with some help, of course.

In September James's sister, Mettie, got married so we welcomed Sean Taylor to our family. He is a great addition. James's brother, Lee, has been married for more than 10 years, so it is fun for me to have someone else who is fairly new to the Judd family.

James officiated the wedding, I was a bridesmaid, and Catherine was the "flower baby." It was a great time for her to meet almost all of her extended family for the first time.

In November my mom and I went to CT to introduce Catherine to her Aunt Jana, Uncle Victor and cousin Jeremiah. I came home for a few days and Aunt Mettie and Uncle Sean came for a visit then helped drive me to NM to get better acquainted with Grandma and Grandpa Judd. We also got to see Uncle Lee, Aunt Traci, cousins Keilee and Jaylee, and Great Grandma Inalue. In a two week period Catherine and I had been in 8 states and seen everyone of her grandparents and aunts and uncles.

We spent Thanksgiving here in OKC with my parents and some former students and their friends. We had much to be thankful for this year! Thank you for being a part of it!

Birth story of Catherine Sue Judd

On Wednesday, August 10th we had our normal visit to the midwives. They made a comment about how with all the storms we were having that week, they were surprised that they hadn't had more births. I had no idea that storms tend to induce labor but I've since heard it has to do with barometric pressure. We were just happy that we had made it beyond 37 weeks so that we could do a home birth as planned. That night, it stormed again and I had pretty regular contractions the whole night. Sometime in the night the storm stopped, and almost immediately the contractions did as well.

We had 4 students living with us over the summer. One was scheduled to fly out on Friday. I woke up on Friday morning and somehow just knew it was going to be the day. I was having contractions but they were quite irregular and manageable. James went to work, but I called him to come home to take Nata to the airport. I wasn't in heavy labor, but I also didn't feel like driving to the airport. James came home to make the airport run and to wait for our daughter's arrival. He took this picture as he was pulling up. I had gone out to water the garden. He thought it was crazy that I was out, but again, I wasn't feeling that bad yet and I needed some kind of distraction.

We just hung out most of the day and tried to rest and prepare for what was ahead, although we had no idea what that would be. Our friend Elena who would be attending the birth arrived from Stillwater sometime late afternoon or evening.
My contractions were coming more regularly and becoming more difficult as the evening wore on. We called our doula, Crystal about 9 pm. Crystal came and suggested we call the midwives to see if they were ready to come yet. Yvonne, the midwife arrived about 10 and checked on me and baby. Things were progressing well, but she didn't think it was quite time for them yet. She suggested we try to get some rest. Midwife and doula went home. I really, really tried to follow that advice. I think James was able to nap some, but I was anxious and in pain so I couldn't sleep at all. It had also begun storming again so maybe she was waiting for the storm to assist her arrival. About 1:00 in the morning I had James call and everyone came back. It was really time now!
Here are Taryn and Yvonne, who attended the birth along with Crystal, our doula, Elena Barton, our friend, and my mom.


Because I had never had a baby before I didn't really know what to expect, although we tried to be as prepared as we could be. We had watched DVDs from the library, we read, and we had asked questions. We had talked through labor techniques with our doula and the midwives. We had a TENS machine, a birth ball, and other "tools" we had planned use. I didn't have some exact plan in my mind for how it would be, but I definitely didn't think I would just scream like a banshee to get through the contractions, which is what ended up happening. Seriously. I just screamed, moaned, hollered, and howled. I didn't utilize very many of the other things we had prepared. I just thought, "Well, the screaming seems to be working for me, so I'll just keep dong it." The funny thing is, all our students were upstairs and only the one directly above our room had any idea anything was going on.
Catherine Sue Judd, named after both grandmothers, (Mary Catherine and Nyla Sue) was born in our home at 7:07 am right at sunrise. :) She weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces and was 18.5 inches long. Most of that length seemed to be her fingers and feet.
She was born "en caul" which means my water never broke so part of the sac was still draped around he at birth. En caul births are rare and carry a number of superstitions such as not being able to drown, having special insight or sixth sense, and others. Our midwives also said there is a superstition that girls born en caul will grow up to be midwives.
My mom was present for the end of labor and the birth and she cut the umbilical cord.

Here is our first moment with our daughter. Please excuse my hair :)

More than I remember the pain of the actual birth, I remember my throat hurting so bad from all the screaming. And my voice was hoarse. If it's true that babies recognize voices first, she probably had no clue who I was because I sounded like a man who had been a smoker for 20 years! I also remember my neck being sore from pulling a muscle in my neck.

Her debut after being cleaned and swaddled:

Our first family photo: