Wes's cousin, Rachael, had her sweet baby boy, Jackson Connor, on April 2, 2009 at about 5:30pm. He was 7lbs 4oz and was 20in long! :) She had a very scary delivery! She went into the hospital at about 7pm April 1st having contractions and high blood pressure. The next day they broke her water and induced labor. Jackson was still not budging. Because of her high blood pressure, toxemia or pre-eclampsia occurred which is very dangerous for the baby and especially the mom. They finally gave her a c section at about 5:30pm. Jackson was fine! He was beautiful and healthy! Rachael, other than being drained, was ok as well. Wes, his family, and I left the hospital and went to his parent's house. While we were starting a movie, we got a call that Rachael was unresponsive and hemorrhaging!! We all freaked out and raced to our cars and flew to the hospital. On the way, we called and got many prayer chains started. I also called my mom. She used to be the Head Nurse for Labor and Delivery at Jackson Hospital and I'd been updating her all day. When I told her what was going on, she said that she was hoping it wouldn't happen, but she kind of expected it because of the toxemia. She also said that most of the time, the mother does not make it. We were all just loosing it! It was terrible. We just prayed and prayed. Finally, after nervously waiting, we learned that Rachael was OK! Boy, were we relieved!!! It was truly a miracle! She is still doing fine, but does still have high blood pressure. Please keep her in your prayers! Jackson Connor is doing wonderfully (other than gas) and is such a BEAUTIFUL baby! Wes and I are such proud "aunts" and "uncles". And, for now, I believe my baby fever is cured for a while. Please continue to pray for our lovely cousin Rachael and her beautiful baby boy, Jackson Connor. Thank you!
This semester I have been taking a Literacy class at AUM--only 3 more semesters to go! The class is 3 classes in 1 and counts for 9 hours. So far this class has been the most meaningful class I have taken at AUM. I have learned so much! I feel like I have really discovered my passion--teaching Literacy. Reading and Writing have always been my favorite subjects--I have even wanted to write books since the 2nd grade--so it definitely makes sense that I would enjoy teaching this. This class was really a revolutional class--my professor taught us the new, non-traditional ways of teaching Literacy and I LOVE IT! Through my experience at Maxwell, I can definitely see that these strategies are WAY more effective than the old, traditional, rote practices. Another discovery I made is that I would really love to teach 1st grade! I used to think I wanted to teach 3rd-5th, but this experience has really helped me to see how great it is to teach at the 1st grade age. They are like little cute sponges. :) They are also still at the age where they want to please their teachers. I guess it helped that the children were so wonderful. So well behaved! You can definitely tell that the teachers have taken their time with the children to teach them how to behave. I feel that I became very close with my little group and I will miss them so much. My cooperating teacher was also amazing! I really learned a lot from her and hope to stay in touch with her. She was sooo sweet! I feel that we have a lot in common and I know I could learn so much from her! She is moving to another department next year and she wanted to have a fresh start, so she gave me all of her classroom stuff including her turtle! Now we have a turtle named Pokey Dot :) . I don't know how I will ever repay her! This has truly been one of the most amazing experiences I have had so far at AUM (and I've been going there for almost 4 years). I am so sad it's all over!! I seriously almost cried when I was making my kid's goodie bags for the last day! I can definitely tell that this is what God made me for :). I only pray my Internship will be this great of an experience...
