Rachel & Derek

More Singapore Fun

2011-06-01T09:28:00.001-06:00

First Four Days in Singapore (How Many Things Can You Pack into Four Days?)

2011-05-20T04:43:00.002-06:00

2011-04-30T10:11:00.004-06:00

Valentine's Day Dipsea Trail

2011-03-06T15:32:00.001-07:00

Christmas break is over!

2010-12-31T11:26:00.003-07:00

It's hard to believe that two and a half weeks passed so quickly, but here we are on new year's eve looking back on all the good times we had. Christmas was wonderful with my mom and my brother in town and Katie back from Georgia. Bindi got a cute little bumble bee car from Grandma Mitchell (Denise) which she's been buzzing around in. Lots of great presents from all the family - thanks to everybody. Derek and I went to the Monterey area for our anniversary. We went to the mission at Carmel-by-the-Sea, did the 17 mi drive at Pebble Beach, and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had planned to go whale watching on our last day, but the trip was canceled. Guess we'll have to go back a different time. Overall it was a great Christmas break and we're looking forward to another long hard semester before we get to go see our family in Singapore!

Merry christmas!

2010-12-14T22:40:00.004-07:00

It's over! My first semester of medical school is over! And as far as I know I passed all my classes, although I won't get final grades for awhile yet. To back up a little, Thanksgiving break was great - my mom came down and watched Bindi for us so we could take a little break. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Derek's family in Gridley and Derek fried his first turkey. We hiked Feather Falls near Oroville and we posted some pictures below. Also, we visited Apple Hill near Sacramento for our fried Ryan's birthday. It's a place where everything is apple- apple pies, apple turnovers, fresh apples, apple jam - it was delicious and fun. In other news, my mom and brother Jesse are coming down for Christmas - Jesse is coming all the way from Japan. Bindi is growing up quickly - she's learned to stand up (with assistance) and to sit up from a laying down position. She jabbers all the time (as demonstrated in the video) but no real words yet. I'm sure we'll have some great new pictures to post after Christmas.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

2010-09-12T20:52:00.004-06:00

My first 2 months of medical school have gone surprisingly well. Even though it's every bit as hard as I thought it would be, I've managed to keep my grades up and still spend at least an adequate amount of time with Derek and Bindi. I'm trying not to get too involved in unnecessary things, but there are a lot of things that I have developed a strong interest in. Health policy, for example, is something I've been interested in for years, but here I can actually become a member of the AMA and help pass legislation. Student-run clinics is another thing - they throw us into the clinical scene without much experience. They have us seeing our own patients, performing exams, making diagnoses, etc. before we learn the material in school (don't worry, there's a preceptor at each clinic who is an experienced doctor and makes sure we're not doing anything wrong). There's church and there's extracurriculars (like ultimate frisbee fridays) and it all adds up to a pretty hectic lifestyle. But it's a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and I love the people I work with, and Derek makes everything better by being a perfect stay at home spouse. In fact, we went to Ashland, OR for my surprise birthday trip over labor day weekend. It was my first time to OR and I loved it. We did a speed boat excursion on the Rogue River, went to the Shakespeare Festival and saw Twelfth Night and went caving at Lava Beds National Monument. Bindi went to the cabin with the rest of the family for labor day, but we had a good time without her. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our camera, so I'll just have to include some photos I find on the internet. That's about it for now.

2010-07-04T20:13:00.002-06:00

Back from Texas!

2010-07-04T14:18:00.003-06:00

We spent the past three weeks with family and friends in Texas. The first week was in Houston with Scott and Angie- Scott (Elder Briggs) was the missionary that baptized me back in 2000. Derek was able to do some work for them such as building a riser for stadium seating and starting a secret playhouse under the stairs. We also were able to peruse the Houston scene - we ended up going to the fine arts museum, the children's museum, the museum of natural science, the aquarium, the zoo, the space center, and to the beach in Galveston. We were able to see my friends Zeina and Alan, who were my calculus study group at UT Austin, and their new baby Jonah. Also, Angie decided to have her baby Keller 3 weeks early while we were there. After Houston, we went to visit my Aunt Lou and Uncle Ray in Austin and went to the Salt Lick with them (one of TX's premier BBQ restaurants). We saw the old German town of Fredericksburg and climbed Enchanted Rock with Bindi (her first hike). I almost forgot the blue bell ice cream factory in Brenham, TX, and we ate Krispy Kreme with my old roommate Lindsey in Austin. We're kind of obsessed with Krispy Kreme since they closed down all the Krispy Kremes in our area. Anyway, after that we went down to see my dad in San Antonio. We found a really awesome Mexican restuarant with him called Taqueria Datapoint. We went back to Houston and picked up my mom from the airport (she had gone to visit her family in Singapore)and took her home to Longview. She watched Bindi for a few days for us while we went and enjoyed Dallas. In Dallas we went to Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor, saw Toy Story 3, and went to the temple. It made up for a lot of dates we had missed this past year. In Longview, we went to my favorite restuarant the Butcher Shop. It was supposed to be a mini-high school reunion, but only my friends Tiffany and TJ showed up. We saw them again the next day at Bindi's first birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's. Their two kids James and Jade were there along with Bryan and Maria's two kids (Bryan was my childhood friend) Sean and Natalie. Jade actually had the same due date as Bindi but was born two weeks later, so it was a joint birthday party. Yesterday we left from the Dallas airport and came back home. But tomorrow we'll be making the big move to Sacramento and I start school on Tues. Vacation is over!

Surgery Update

2010-05-22T13:02:00.002-06:00

So we ended up having to stay a second night at the hospital because Bindi wasn't eating enough to keep her hydrated, so she needed to stay on the IV a bit longer. But we were finally able to go home Thurs afternoon. But first we stopped by Shriner's hospital where Bindi had an appointment to get her pinkie fingers checked out. If you remember, her pinkies don't straighten all the way. The good news is that she won't need surgery on them, just some splints and occupational therapy. After that appointment we picked up her meds and headed home. She still had some trouble eating until Fri afternoon, but now she's doing great, almost back to her normal eating schedule and even eating baby food and yogurt. We'll probably take her off her pain meds tomorrow because she doesn't seem to be in any pain anymore. In the meantime, we're enjoying taking things easy in Gridley and getting ready for our next move to Sacramento in July.

Loads of Stuff

2010-05-18T11:44:00.004-06:00

So, obviously it has been a few months since we last updated this thing. Over the past couple weeks, a bunch of stuff has been happening. It has been crazy busy. First of all, Derek graduated on Saturday with a degree in General Studies. The graduation ceremony was nice in the sense that it only lasted 2 hrs instead of the scheduled 4. Afterwards we had an awesome BBQ with our good friends Lucas and Merridy. Then it was a crazy packing time so that we could exit Reno on Monday. I forgot to mention our awesome yard sale which we created a huge hype about but ended up being more of a bust. We got a few dollars here and there though. Monday was a crazy day, although we did have the help of our awesome family members and friends. The day would have been a great accomplishment except that the van battery died before Derek had even left Reno. I ended up getting to Gridley in the Subaru half an hour after Derek left Reno. He didn't arrive until 1:30 am. And then on top of that, Bindi's surgery was scheduled for 7:15 am this morning. That meant of course a very short sleep and a drive to sacramento at 5:45 am. We're really lucky that Bindi was able to have her surgery today, however. We hit a few bumps in the road: the first being that she got sick last week. Of course the doctor asked if she had had a cough or cold within the past week and we said that she had had a small one. That was a real blessing from God: even though she was sick, it only lasted about 2 days instead of the customary 6 with the common cold. She did have a phlegmy cough this morning, but the doctor said it would be ok to proceed. Also, yesterday they were supposed to call with the time of Bindi's surgery (they always keep you in the dark until the day before). But when they did call, they said that she was only scheduled for an ear tube replacement, a much simpler and shorter surgery. Therefore she was not scheduled for enough time for a cleft palate repair, but we fought for it and they worked it out in the end. So here we are in the hospital with Bindi. She's doing really well, but I can't say that I wasn't traumatized a little with all the pain she went through. The procedure took about 2 hrs while Derek and I were in the waiting room. When we went in to get her, she was screaming and crying, which turned out to be just because of the confusion of waking up from anesthesia. She does have a lot of pain in her mouth because of all the stitches, so she's not able to eat normally yet, but the doctor said that by tomorrow she should be right as rain. And she's been sleeping pretty much all day, which is great for recovery. Derek and I weren't expecting to stay the night because they told us we wouldn't have to, but they sprung that on us after the surgery. We're not sure where Derek is going to sleep since they only allow 1 person to sleep with the baby, but worse comes to worst, he'll sleep in the car. So that's our life up to this point. A few other minor points to mention: I'm applying to the navy now instead of the Air Force since we found out they're still accepting applicants for the fall semester; we had a great time at Frenchman's Lake with our friends from University Village a few weekends ago, we had a great mother's day: Derek took me to the Grand Sierra Resort for the evening and we went to a drive-in movie and watched Iron Man II and ate ice cream; the next day we made Ethiopian food for Denise and the girls came over...I guess that's about it. Happy Mother's Day to al those mother's and grandmother's that we forget to say that to. We've included some pictures of Bindi's first attempts to feed herself. Enjoy.

Easter +

2010-04-08T11:22:00.003-06:00

Wow, I thought I hadn't been keeping up with the blog because nothing interesting has happened. But after reading the last post I realize that monumental things have happened that I haven't written about. I guess it was just laziness then. Anyway, found out that he will be able to graduate this semester with a degree in general studies. Although we were hoping that he would be able to get his degree in secondary education English teaching, that would have taken another semester's worth of work and might not have made a difference. To be a teacher in California you have to have a bachelor's degree (any bachelor's degree) and then take a year's worth of masters level courses. So regardless of what your degree is in, the process is the same. We felt like it was a good move for us. Especially since I was accepted into UC Davis medical school in Sacramento! I decided to go ahead and enter the 5 year program (instead of the 4 year program), which will include another masters degree. It is the Rural-PRIME program which has an emphasis on practicing medicine in rural, underserved areas. I could work in a place like Loyalton or Gridley where there are few specialists, and primary care doctors tend to do a lot more specialized work than they would in larger cities. I think it will be a great program. This was our first choice of medical schools since it is so close to Derek's family and Gridley. Also we just had a feeling that this was where we needed to end up. I was also accepted to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, but neither one of us is that keen on Utah. The bad news is that I was not accepted to the Air Force scholarship this year. I went for the Air Force physical back in January (that was the soonest I could do it since you have to wait for 6 months after giving birth) and was temporarily disqualified because I was underweight and because I had had gestational diabetes during pregnancy. (I hadn't realized I was underweight because we don't own a weighing scale, but apparently all that breast pumping had been depleting my calories without me knowing it). After to their standards they had to disqualify me, but I was told that all I needed was a waiver, which shouldn't be hard to get since I was so healthy. Unfortunately, they had to send my paperwork to the surgeon general to get a waiver - a two month process. By the time all my paperwork came back, it was too late. All the scholarships had been given out. Fortunately, I am in a five year program and the scholarship is only four years. In other words, I am reapplying for the scholarship for next year, and according to the recruiter I have a very good chance of getting it because I'll be one of the only ones to have my application in by October. So that's when I'll find out - October. In the meantime, we'll be surviving on financial aid and odd jobs. It won't be fun, but we've got to do what we've got to do. The good news is that I won't be spending five weeks away for Air Force training this summer. I was not looking forward to that. UC Davis starts on July 26, and we've got a busy summer planned in the meantime. Derek graduates May 15. Bindi has cleft palate surgery May 18. We need to find a job to earn some money for the summer, and then at the end of June we'll be going to visit my family in Texas. On July 6, there is a pre-matriculation program for UC Davis that lasts for 2 weeks. You have to apply to get into it, but if you get it, they'll pay you $500 for expenses and teach you all about how to be successful in medical school. A good deal no matter how you look at it. We may or may not be able to go to the coast this year for Derek's family reunion up in the red woods. But we've got a busy time ahead of us and a lot of worries before we get settled into med school. But we have faith that everything will turn out according to God's plan.

PS Bindi's the cutest baby in the world. Check out her Easter pictures.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T17:46:00.004-07:00

Well it's 2010 now. The start of Bindi's second year of life and our third year as a married couple. A lot has happened since the last post. We went to Gridley for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom and brother came down from Texas to see us. Jesse had to return to Japan after spending Christmas with us. It was great to see him, it's been a year and a half since we have. My mom seemed to really love seeing Bindi, we're just sorry that her visits are so few and far between. For our second anniversary Derek surprised me with a trip to San Francisco. Unfortunately I got food poisoning the day before and ended up being too weak and sick to do all the activities Derek had planned. We even missed seeing 39 steps at the theater, which Derek paid quite a bit for and was nonrefundable. So we decided to try and celebrate our anniversary again at new year's. Unfortunately, Derek came down with some sort of flu, but we went through with our plans anyway. I guess we're just not meant to have time to ourselves this year. In other news Bindi had her ear surgery and came out just fine. In fact she seems to be able to hear better and be in less pain now than she was before her surgery. Not that she seemed to be in much pain before, but she has been less irritable since. She had a really great first Christmas. She's really going to be spoiled with all the toys everyone got for her. There are some cute pictures of her opening presents that we'll attach. Derek is already into a new semester - wintermester now and spring semester in a couple of weeks. It's going to be a busy time. That's about it for now, at least that's all I can think of. Hope everyone had a great holiday and happy new year!

Bindi at 4 months and other news

2009-11-08T23:21:00.008-07:00

A lot of fun stuff has happened since the last post. We really should write more often. Derek got a job, although it was not with the Geek Squad. He's a receptionist/video media producer with the school of education at UNR. The good news is that he doesn't have to work weekends or holidays, the bad news is he only gets 20 hrs a week at $8.50 an hour. I'm pretty happy about that though, it still seems like he's gone all the time and the little bit of money really helps (although we're still awaiting his first pay check). I think Derek is enjoying it too because he is able to do something he's really good at - making videos. As far as med school interviews go, the interview with the Charles Drew Medical School in LA went well. I got lost on the way there and ended up in the middle of Inglewood, but I found my way in the end. I was late but I think I still made a good impression - there were two interviews, one with faculty and one with a student, as well as a writing sample and a group problem solving exercise. I wasn't expecting the extra stuff, I don't think many other med schools do that. Anyway, they only accept 24 students and they interviewed 120, so we'll see. I've got the UC Davis interview and a U of Utah interview coming up next week. I'm really not looking forward to it, mostly because I'll be away from Derek and Bindi for two days in a row. I also found out a little bit of bad news - if I get accepted to the 5 year program at UC Davis, the Air Force won't accept my application for their scholarship until after the 1st year. That would leave me with a hard decision to either decline the position or find a way to pay for the first year. That's enough on that subject. The most important part of our post is Derek's b'day and Halloween. I surprised Derek with a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park, which you can see pictures of down below. Denise watched Bindi over night and we stayed in a "resort" close to the park. Their "cabin" was actually a motor home decorated like a cabin, but that was our own complaint, the park was awesome. We really enjoyed the hiking and the weather was beautiful. After the park we went to Gridley for the Halloween party. We all dressed as teenage mutant ninja turtles. Bindi was adorable. You can see pictures below. Also, I might include pictures of Corine's wedding which I went to on Sept. 12. She was beautiful with her 5 month pregnant belly and little Ava in tow. She made a beautiful flower girl. I think that's about it for now. We'll at least write again after Thanksgiving.

Happy 3 Month Bindi!

2009-10-17T14:23:00.002-06:00

Actually we're kind of late for her 3 month birthday, but we thought we would celebrate with a blog post anyway. She's doing great - since the last post she's started smiling and laughing, which she does frequently. In fact, we're going to try to post some video of her laughing. Nothing new to report health-wise except that she has started on an acid reflux medicine which has greatly reduced the reflux and improved her mood. Also, Bindi's ear surgery is scheduled for Dec. 22. In other exciting news, Derek is interviewing for a job with the Geek Squad through Best Buy. We're really hoping he gets the job because we're in dire financial straits (not to mention that Derek would be awesome at the Geek Squad). Also, I have two med school interviews coming up at UCLA (Oct. 24) and UC Davis - my top choice (Nov 18). We're really excited that about these interviews because it probably means that these schools are seriously considering me (because the interviews are so early). That's about it for now, we'll have some more pictures for Halloween because we have an awesome costume for Bindi, and I'll have news about my UCLA interview.

Baby Blessing

2009-09-06T20:20:00.000-06:00

Tahoe and Robinson's Mine

2009-08-23T17:49:00.003-06:00

so derek took me to lake tahoe for my bday. he surprised me and got his mom to watch bindi for a full 24 hrs, which is no joke considering how many times she gets up in the middle of the night. but we had a great time at a hotel with a hot tub and a private beach. we also played a rousing game of mini golf and went on a hike around tahoe rim trail. we also spent some time up at buck's lake giving the baby her first outing to robinson's mine. school's starting on monday so i won't see as much of derek as i'm used to. that will be an adjustment. in other news, we found out that the baby will need a minor surgery to implant some tubes in her ears. her eustachian tubes are too small, causing equilibrium problems and probably affecting her hearing. so before she gets to the point where she's trying to develop speech, we need to get those tubes in - probably around december. that's about all that's new and exciting.

Happy 1 Month Bindi!

2009-07-28T23:19:00.001-06:00

Did you notice that we decided to spell her name without the 'h'? Bindi is eating very well and weighed in today at 8 lbs 9 oz. She gets cuter by the day. Check out the baby glamor shots.

Going home...

2009-07-17T14:51:00.007-06:00

Sorry folks, we have been pretty bad at updating the blog over the last few days. There has been a whole lot going on, and without the endless hours of boredom at the hospital we have been having a hard time finding time to blog. So here is the most recent update. Bindi is home, we came home on sunday afternoon and we couldn't be happier. The primary issue has been her feeding. Her digestive problems have not been an issue what-so-ever, we thought because of the omphalocele that she would have problems with her bowels. But the surgery went so well the only real problem was one we didn't know would be factor, her cleft palate. She has a cleft in her soft palate, so it's not visible, but it makes it impossible for her to create suction. Long story short, she is not able to feed very naturally. It was a lot of work to try and figure out what we would do to get her to feed. The ENT lady had us try various specialty bottles, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, she suggested we go to babs-r-them and buy a "nuby" bottle. The entire bottle is silicon, so it allows you to basically squeeze the milk into her mouth, then all she has to do is swallow. A day after buying the bottle Bindi drank all of the milk with out the need for the feeding tube. This was such an improvement the ENT lady took the feeding tube out. The next several days were full of frantic attempts to learn how best to feed her. Once she started gaining weight and feeding well, it was only a matter of time before we could come home. Now, it's been exactly a week since coming home from the hospital. Rachel and I are both pretty wiped out, every night i get up to feed the baby and Rachel gets up to pump. Still I prefer this much more than being at the hospital still. Being home with Bindi has given us the chance to actually feel like parents, and we like it, so that's probably good. Bindi's scab from her surgery is healing nicely and should hopefully be gone around the same time an umbilical cord usually falls off. Other than that, all's well. We are so blessed to have our little one safe and sound, and we thank all of you for your prayers and support!

A few more things to say

2009-07-01T20:28:00.003-06:00

Just to play catch up on what news has come our way lately - we've seen the genetic counselor, the pediatric surgeon, and the ear nose throat doctor since we last posted. The genetic counselor doesn't have anything new to report - a summary of her condition: no heart problems to speak of, not too many physical abnormalities except for her long fingers and toes, she does have a cleft in her soft palate (which is at the back of her throat rather than at the front of her mouth) that will cause some eating difficulties and would cause speech problems, but they're going to correct it at about 10-14 months of age. Possible problem with her pinky fingers not being able to straighten, which may or may not need to be corrected later in life. Although we have no idea what developmental problems could arise in the future, we are grateful that she has done so well so far. It's a good sign that her disorder is not severe. She has been able to eat very well considering her cleft palate, and even tried to breast feed today (although she didn't care for it). She lost a little weight (as most newborns do), but as soon as she's able to eat normally and starts to gain weight again, they'll send her home. Probably another week. I'm still recovering from my infection, not quite able to walk for more than a few steps yet, but since being discharged from the hospital last night I've been doing a lot of sitting, which hasn't been possible before. Having trouble with breastfeeding (or rather breast pumping), so I'm going to meet a lactation counselor tomorrow. We've moved to the Ronald McDonald House, which is not a bad place to stay. Also I've been busy eating at all the restaurants that were on my list to eat at once I was no longer diabetic. I have crossed off Pizza Hut and Diary Queen. Krispy Kreme coming soon. Don't worry, it's just a binge while I'm recovering from birth, then I'll be back on my healthy schedule. Being a mom is great!

Forgot to mention that Jack and Danielle got married on July 9 at the Sacramento Temple. Luckily we were able to attend and see their beautiful ceremony while the baby was in the hospital. They're going to be a very happy couple.

News!

2009-06-28T23:42:00.003-06:00

Just for everyone following faithfully, here is the newest news. First off, thanks for all your prayers and support. Rachel isn't feeling too hot, the nurse is going to put in a new IV, and they are afraid she might have a small infection. Bhindi, on the other hand, is doing much better. I got to talk to the head surgeon and he showed me Bhindi's new belly button! She is doing super well, and the doctor said she should start eating food immediately! That was really great news considering we were told a few days ago that she could be here for a month, but now it looks like it might only be a week! I am attaching some photos of the repair itself, the black stuf is just pen marks the surgeon used to make sure the repair was symmetrical. They also took the stomach tube out of her nose so i took a few pictures of her face without any funky tubes sticking to it. I have to admit, we are pretty good at this baby making thing, although it might be hard to convince Rachel to do it again anytime too soon. Rachel just got her IV and is feeling a bit better, hopefully we will be out tomorrow, but for now we love you all! Love, Derek and Rachel

Bhindi's OK!

2009-06-27T20:18:00.003-06:00

A short update to say that Bhindi just got out of surgery and is doing fine. In fact, her omphalocele was so small that they said it was more like a herniated umbilical cord than a real omphalocele. The great news is that she might be able to come home with us within the week. That's such great news, as were expecting to be in the hospital for around a month. She's just a trooper I guess. She's recovering in the NICU now and might be able to take food soon instead of just IV fluids. In fact, she's already produced some poop, which is a great sign that everything is in working order. I've been practicing with the breast pump, although I haven't produced milk yet. We've got at least another day in the hospital before they kick us out, which is great because I'm still in a lot of pain from all the ripping and stitching. That's about it for now, now it's just a waiting game to see when Bhindi will come home with us. We'll keep you updated.

Our Experience in the Hospital

2009-06-27T13:02:00.004-06:00

I thought, now that I'm feeling relatively ok and have nothing better to do that it would be a good time to summarize our actual experience for posterity's sake. So we started our drive to the hospital at 8 am June 26. We called as soon as we were on our way, as per instructions, and were surprised to hear that they were swamped and may not be able to take us. They told us to call back in ten minutes, at which point they said they would be able to take us if we didn't mind waiting in the lobby awhile. So we continued on. Upon arrival, we stopped to ask for directions to labor and delivery at the transplant clinic. You would think they would have just pointed us in the right direction, but they checked their records, didn't find us there, and called my OB clinic (at a different hospital) to confirm that we weren't lying to them and trying to get a free induction. 20 min later, they finally pointed us in the direction of labor and delivery, where we ended up waiting in the lobby for about 2 hrs for another patient to vacate the room. They finally took us back around 10 am but did not start our pitocin drip until around 1:30 pm. A few hours later I felt like I was going into active labor, but the pain amazingly wore off without the aid of drugs. finally around 6 pm, a not so people friendly doctor came in for a check up and then proceeded to break my water bag. When I asked what she was doing, she said we're breaking your water bag. When I mentioned that we hadn't been informed that that was going to happen right then, she very condescendingly told me that I was here for an induction and that the water bag had to be broken because I wasn't progressing. Fine with me if they had just informed me that that's what they were going to do. Especially since immediately after I went into strong, regular contractions. It was all they could do to get the anesthesiologist there in time to give me an epidural. The nurse (who was fabulous) was my biggest advocate in making things as painless as possible for me. She informed me that the doctor I had had the bad experience with was not the most sympathetic - most of them would make sure you got the epidural first and then break your bag. Those 30-45 min or so between the bag breaking and the epidural were the most painful of my life. Derek was the best support person, helping me to remember my breathing and letting me break his hand during the contractions. Unfortunately the epidural was not completely effective because of the positioning of the baby and reduced my pain level from a 10+ to a 7. As I progressed, however, it went back up to an 8-9. It wasn't long before I had transitioned and started getting bearing down pains. Once again nurse Lisa came to my rescue and delivered the baby almost single-handedly. She did a fantastic job. I still ended up pushing for 1.5 hrs, but it wasn't as painful as the contractions were. I did end up tearing quite a bit which led to an hour and a half long stitch up session after baby was born. What a special moment when her head finally popped out, followed shortly by the rest of her body and then the placenta. She was beautiful in her newborn alien way and I couldn't help but smile and laugh in spite of the pain. They took her almost immediately to the NICU and Derek and the grandmas followed her up. I wasn't able to see her again until the next day, but they actually allowed us to hold her for awhile before she went in to surgery. Actually she might not have gone into surgery yet, as they haven't notified us, but we were told she would go in today or tomorrow. The good news is that they said her omphalocele was very tiny and so prospects were good. She looks like a beautiful baby and has very long fingers and toes (typical of 9p-), but other than that, no physical manifestations of her genetic disorder that we know of. We'll know more soon, I think we're going to see a genetic counselor. So there will be a lot more news coming soon, but that about summarizes our experience so far. I definitely am less inclined to have another baby soon, but I'm sure that goes away with the pain. I still have a great deal of pain in my crotch and rear(scientifically speaking) because of the many, many stitches I have in them. We'll be here for at least another day or two for me to recover and then we'll hopefully move to the Ronald McDonald house. We'll keep everybody updated!

The baby has landed!

2009-06-27T10:13:00.002-06:00

At 12:55 am last night Bhindi Mitchell was born at a good 7 pounds 4 ounces. Mom is doing well, although we are both bummed about not being able to hold the baby yet. Bhindi will be going in to surgery sometime today, so we are anxious to see how that goes. We all didn't get into bed until 4 am last night, so excuse us for not being as in touch as we had intended to be. Rachel is recovering, slowly but surely, but will still be in the hospital for a day or two more. Anywho, thanks to all of you for your prayer, and we will try and keep you all updated. Here are the only two photos of Bhindi we have at this point:

hey again

2009-06-27T01:12:00.001-06:00

rachel is pushing like crazy, the baby should be coming sooner than later!

hey!

2009-06-26T23:36:00.001-06:00

in transition, nurse says about 30 minutes to an hour and we should be having a baby!

Dear Family in the Lobby

2009-06-26T22:44:00.003-06:00

Rachel is in active labor! Rachel was feeling wonderful with no pain, when the doctor came into check her, the doctor didn't feel like she was progressing fast enough so the doctor broke rachel's water without even asking! it was crazy, and rachel was in immediate pain, each contraction was really bad. After aot of pain they finally got the epidural in due to the quick thinking of our nurse, who is awesome and advocated for us. About 30 minutes after the epidural was put in rachel is starting to feel much better and each contraction is almost bearable. Right now she is in regular active labor and at 6cm dilation. It looks like this baby might be coming out tonight after all! Love you guys!

Hurray.

2009-06-26T14:36:00.004-06:00

Dear Family and loved ones,
I am writing this from the "birthing suite" that rachel and i are going to birth in. Yesterday we went to the OB and they said that Rachel was already 4cm dilated. Needless to say they advised us to not wait until the 30th to be induced as was the plan. They wanted us to go straight to the hospital last night, but we held off until this morning so that our moms could be here and we could get our clothes and what not. So now here we sit, rachel is just about to be put on pitocin. It has been a bit nerve racking sitting in the hospital waiting and waiting. But hopefully, it will go quick and we will get to meet our daughter. Rachel is doing really well and is an awesome super trooper. We will update the blog at some point, but no promises from here on out. Anyway we love you, Keep us in your prayers!

Love, Derek and Rachel

Short and Sweet

2009-05-12T19:37:00.005-06:00

Great news! We went to the doctor last Friday, and the cardiologist could not find the hole in her heart that the OBGYN had found. What does this mean? Most likely, it's not there! We have to go back to the cardiologist in a month to make sure, but this is great news. Although she still has 9p- syndrome and she will need surgery for her omphalocele, the scariest thing was the heart problem. Also, she's been very active even now in the 8th month. We were worried that her movement would slow down as she got bigger as this is common in 9p- babies. They just don't have the musculature needed to continue moving around in a cramped space. So most likely she is going to be strong for a 9p- baby (or maybe that's just the talk of a hopeful mother-to-be). We are strongly leaning towards the name Bhindi now, as opposed to Jaya, which was our first thought (my grandmother's name). Also, this post was an excuse to add more pictures. Derek and I recently bought a slide/negative converter to scan all our old negatives. I dug up pictures from the trip to Tanzania in 2003 and wanted to post them on our blog. I've also been scanning Derek's mission pictures and some family pictures, which will be coming soon. Other than that, we are getting to move down to Gridley, CA in the Sacramento valley on May 18 and are excited for some relaxing cabin time before the baby is born.

The News Keeps Coming

2009-04-26T18:20:00.003-06:00

No matter what happens at this point, we have an optimistic outlook. But to share the latest news...

1) I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. That has been an interesting journey. I always vowed to stay healthy so that I would never have diabetes and be denied sweets for the rest of my life. My only comfort is that a) this only lasts until the baby is born and b) developing gestational diabetes is not related to the mother's diet, but rather pregnancy hormones interfering with the production of insulin. In other words, I didn't eat to many sweets or carbs, it just happens randomly to 5-10% of women. However, I do have to control my blood sugar by severely altering my diet. My daily routine is:

7:30-7:45 am: wake up, take blood sugar level (yes I do have to prick my finger)

8:00 am: eat breakfast (I have to eat two carb servings and at least one protein with every meal - usually two pieces of toast and eggs - no fruit or milk allowed)

9:00 am: take blood sugar level

10:30 am: eat snack (usually crackers and cheese and one serving of fruit - I can only have two servings of fruit a day and it must be during morning and afternoon snack)

1:30 pm: eat lunch (all of my meals must be eaten on a time schedule and cannot vary by more than 15 min - it's a bummer for scheduling)

4:30 pm: eat snack (including one serving of fruit)

7:30 pm: eat dinner

10:30 pm: eat snack (this is when I usually indulge a little and eat something sweet - but the most I can eat is one cookie and a half glass of milk because milk is also considered a carb)

Since I cannot go for more than 10 hours without eating I have to go to sleep after 10:30 and get up before 8:00 every morning. Anyway it hasn't been the end of the world and I've learned a lot about diabetes and how to eat better. Unfortunately I've started losing weight, which the doctor is not going to like. But I am going to eat a huge bowl of icecream after the placenta is gone and my blood sugar levels are back to normal.

2) In other news we found out that the baby has a heart defect. They found a small hole in her heart which may or may not be a big deal. We'll find out in a few weeks when we meet with the pediatric cardiologist. But we are optimistic that it won't be too big of a deal. At this point, all you can do is put your faith in God and know that whatever happens is His will. When you're doing what's right and trying your hardest, you can be assured that everything that happens is for a good purpose and is a blessing from God.

3) Not having to do with the baby, I took my MCAT two days ago and man was it hard! I've been studying everyday for the past 3 months and yet there were so many questions that I just didn't know the answer to. My only hope is that it was a hard test for everybody. Since it's scored on a curve, if everybody did badly, I might have done well in comparison. I'll know on May 25. It's pretty intimidating since our whole future depends on its results. I won't be able to get into medical school or get the airforce scholarship if I did badly.

That's about it for our news I think. Derek finishes school on May 12, after which we'll be moving down to Gridley. It will be much easier to go to the doctor in Sacramento from there. More news forthcoming!

PS Here are some pictures of Morocco from my trip during summer 2004. I went there to study US-Middle Eastern relations. I found them and had the negatives scanned, so I thought I would include them in the blog post.

Our precious daughter

2009-03-22T19:01:00.005-06:00

We are so bad at keeping up with our blog. A lot has happened since the last one. We left off last time with the trip to Africa and finding out that we were pregnant. We had an awesome time with the Suresh family and my mom in Gridley over Christmas. Derek took them snowboarding for the first time, which they really enjoyed. We spent a few days playing in the snow and some days seeing the sights, like the Jelly Belly factory and the fish hatchery. We had such an awesome time, we really miss them. Derek had to return to Reno the day after their departure to get to his wintermester in Reno. We've enjoyed living with Denise and Jessica, although it's taken me some time to get used to the cold. Derek goes to school all day on Tues and Thurs. I usually go with him so that I can sit in the institute and work on my MCAT practice. I'll be taking the MCAT on April 24. Wish me luck! I find it more difficult to concentrate and retain information when I'm suffering from pregnancy brain. I've been looking hard for an opportunity to shadow a doctor, but so far, none have arisen. My application for the airforce scholarship for medical school is in, and now they're just waiting for my MCAT score and for me to be not pregnant anymore so that I can have my mandatory physical. In more important news, Derek and I found out that we're having a girl, which we're both excited about, and also on a less happy note, that she is going to have Alfi's syndrome: an extremely rare genetic disease that causes mental and physical handicaps. It was very hard for me to hear the news at first, although Derek has taken it very well. Over the past few weeks, however, we've come to see what an amazing blessing a special needs child is. We've talked to many families who have children with different special needs and have joined a support group for Alfi's syndrome parents. We know that having a special needs child will require a lot of sacrifice on our parts, but we are going to try to be the best parents that we can. Most of the parents we talked to have told us how their special son or daughter is like an angel in their lives - that their siblings tend to be much more compassionate and service oriented, and that they as parents are more humble than they would otherwise have been. We are excited for the challenge and the blessing, and we know that we will love our little daughter all the more. We would appreciate everybody's prayers however, not just for us but for our daughter. Alfi's syndrome is very different from child to child and can range from mild to severe, which we will not be able to tell until she starts to develop after the first year or two. God has a plan for us all, and now we'll understand that to an even greater degree!

Info about Alfi's Syndrome: http://www.rarechromo.org/information/Chromosome%20%209/9p%20deletions%20FTNW.pdf

In Africa Together

2009-01-12T21:25:00.003-07:00

I was working with Kristin (Brown) during the semester on her project in Uganda and Kenya. We had to create lesson plans for Dr. Page's class and do a report on our work with an NGO for Warner Woodworth's class. So what better place to concentrate on than Uganda. Our work in Kenya involved Koins for Kenya, the NGO that Kristin is a board member of. In Uganda we worked with Reach the Children to implement the Grow.Learn.Give Program, which Kristin and her mission companion Michelle had started. Anyway, I had expected merely to work with Grow.Learn.Give from Utah, although I knew that Kristin was planning a trip for November. In October, we came across the Fulton Fund for which an application was due at the end of the week. We decided to go for the grant as a long shot for both Kristin and I to go to Africa for free. Unexpectedly, we got the funding. The next step was to break it to Derek that Kristin and I would be going back to his mission in Kenya without him. I finally told him and we got to discussing possibilities of him coming with us. He did a lot of research to get funding to create a documentary on the Grow.Learn.Give Program and on Koins for Kenya. Most of the attempts were unsuccessful. In the end, I told Kristin about our dilemma, and she and her friends arranged partial funding for Derek to come and be our videographer. We had to buy equipment for Derek to use (which he later sold for a profit), but we were very excited to be going to Africa together for the first time. As we might have mentioned before, we first became interested in each other when we learned that we had both lived in Africa and could speak Swahili. Now we would get the chance to visit East Africa together. We left on Oct 28 and returned Nov 9. The first week was spent in Kampala, Uganda where we stayed in a nice (by Africa standards) hotel. We worked with two wonderful people: Patrick and Madinah. Patrick was the director of Reach the Children and Madinah had expressed the need for a program like Grow.Learn.Give which addressed menstruation education and supplies for primary and secondary school girls. We went around to different schools that had started to implement the Grow.Learn.Give Program and conducted interviews and focus groups to assess the progress. It was just wonderful to interact with the children and have them sing to us (see pictures below). On the Saturday of Derek's birthday, we took a trip to Jinja where we rafted the headwaters of the Nile. Sadly (and luckily) the waters were not as intense as I remembered from my previous trip to Uganda, as a damn had been constructed which slowed down the rapids. Grade 5 rapids are still intense, even if they're not as good as I remember. After completing our work in Uganda we left for Mnyenzeni, Kenya - a small village. It was quite a change from the fast-paced capital of Uganda. Kristin was there to represent the board at a neonatal resuscitation workshop. We didn't attend much of it, but went around to the village taking video and pictures of the people. Koins had implemented a program to provide lights for some of the best students so that they could study in their homes even after dark. Derek created some wonderful documentaries on the work done there, which we will try to attach to this post. It was so wonderful to speak Swahili again. The people have so much more respect for you if you speak the language. We also met a wonderful guy, Anthony, who directed the Koins for Kenya Program. One exciting event that occurred during our time there was the election of Barack Obama as president. All of Kenya went nuts when they heard that "their son" had become president of the United States. It was fun and inspirational to see. We reluctantly left Kenya at the end of the week and returned home. By this time I had some serious suspicions that I was pregnant as my period was late (sorry for underage readers)and I had begun to experience slight stomach problems. By the time I got home, my illness had become stronger, so I decided to visit the clinic. I found out that I was indeed pregnant and decided to surprise Derek. It was a difficult week transitioning back from Africa, having morning sickness, and worst of all, having to defend my thesis. But by Thurs. evening it was all over (at least the jet lag and the thesis). I was too sick to go out to a restaurant, so we ordered in, and I gave Derek a "birthday" card congratulating him on our pregnancy. He had a fun reaction. I wish I could have taken a picture. So that in a nutshell is our trip to Africa and the week after. I'm so thankful that we got the chance to do that together, as we may not be able to do something like that again for a long time.

Zion NP

2008-12-07T12:13:00.002-07:00

Wow, has it been that long since we've updated our blog? That's pretty pathetic. So much has happened since then. I'll try to go back and recap. Ah Zion National Park, what a beautiful place. You'll see pictures below of Angel's Landing and the Narrows. Angel's Landing is not the best place for an acrophobe, but I felt very safe the whole way with chain hand rails. Beautiful views from the top. The Narrows is not the best hike to do in October. The water was around 40 degrees. When I first stepped in, it felt like knives were stabbing my feet. I'm talking in the singular because Derek had no problem with any of this. I decided I would be able to press on and after some pukies (feel like you're going to puke because it hurts so bad, usually caused by the cold), my feet adjusted and we were able to hike 3 or 4 miles at depths up to our thighs. When we reached the canyons (I can't remember what they were called) we hiked to a waterfall and then turned around and hiked back. Good thing too, as it was getting dark and cold. Looking back on the time we spent at Zion NP I realize that I was pregnant at the time, which makes me feel hardcore. I'll talk more about my pregnancy in the next entry about Africa.

Autumn Hiking

2008-10-12T23:35:00.004-06:00

Derek and I have been spending our weekends hiking at different places around Utah. After all we are planning to move to California in December, so it won't be half as easy to explore all of Utah's beautiful national parks. We have some pictures from hiking Y mountain, some hot springs near Spanish Fork, and Arches National Park. Also, Derek's brother Jack and his girlfriend Danielle along with Derek's sister Katie came to visit us for general conference. We were able to go and see the Saturday afternoon session live, which is always a treat. You can really feel the Spirit in such close proximity to the general authorities of the Church. There were some fantastic talks too. That's about all that's new with us. Unfortunately, adventures are hard to come by during the semester. We've both been pretty busy with homework, but we're enjoying our time. Sorry for this half-hearted blog, but I'm trying to watch the Simpsons.

Singapore again!

2008-09-03T21:56:00.001-06:00

After finishing our stint in India we said good bye and headed off to Singapore to finish off our awesome summer adventure. At the beginning of the summer we really enjoyed spending time with our family in Singapore, so we switched our schedule around a bit so we could visit our Singaporean again. In addition to this my sister Katie and my Aunt Susan planned on meeting us in Singapore for a couple of weeks of fun and frivolity.
We had a great time in Singapore and Malaysia. Unfortunately some crazy stuff went down- my Aunt Susan was feeling ill as soon as she got on the plane to come to Singapore. She said she was fine, but complained that her stomach hurt. One morning, after we got back from a killer trip to Tioman island in Malaysia, Aunt Susan woke us up and said she needed to go to the emergency room. It turns out she had been suffering from serious kidney problems and didn't know. Within the next day and half her kidneys and heart had completely shut down and she passed away shortly after. After Rachel and I made all the necessary arrangements to repatriate Aunt Susan's remains we returned to California for the funeral. After the funeral we went up to the cabin to spend time with my grandma, the break sorely needed after the last couple weeks.

All the things that have happened since the last time we wrote

2008-08-02T11:07:00.004-06:00

And those are a lot of things. Sorry for our negligence. So the weekend after Amritsar we went to Jaipur in the beautiful state of Rajasthan. Before I begin, let me say that you can tell the difference between my posts and Derek's posts because mine are historical...and Derek's are interesting. Jaipur was established in 1727 by Maharaja Jai Singh II as the new capital of Kachwaha dynasty. It has been claimed to be the first planned city in India. I'm not sure what that means; the traffic didn't seem to be any better than any of the other cities we had visited. But we did meet a nice auto driver who acted as our tour guide for the entire day. Some of the places we visited included Amber Fort, Jantar Mantar, Jal Mahal (Water Palace), Surya Temple (otherwise known as the monkey temple) and Chokhi Dhani (otherwise known as Indian Disney Land). Amber Fort (pronounced Ah-mer instead of like the girl's name) was a beautiful Fort up in the mountains. We could have spent hours exploring the miles of walls of Amber Fort. Maharaja Jai Singh II, who created Jantar Mantar, was an astronomer. The site contains the largest sundial in the world as well as a lot of other contraptions that track the orbits of planets and the movements of the stars. It was one of our favorite places. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves for Jal Mahal and Surya Temple. Chokhi Dhani was amazing. It is a really popular tourist attraction for Indian tourists, but not that popular with foreign tourists. There are huge figures of dinosaurs and other scary animals as well as festive statues of people playing instruments and dancing. We went through the Indian version of the Jurassic Park ride, which was a little cave structure with dinosaur sounds playing on loud speakers. When you reach the end of the cave, there is a "life-size" t-rex waiting to greet you and take pictures with you. There were some great traditional dancers as well who got Derek and I to get on stage, and the best part was dinner. Dinner was a traditional Rajasthani meal in which we sat on the floor with a stainless steel tray and bowls. The servers came around putting different curries and breads in our serving tray until we were too full to eat anymore. It was delicious! Ok, enough about Jaipur already. The next weekend we stayed in Delhi to go shopping and run some last minute errands. My goodest Irish friend Richard came to visit us briefly, and then returned to work at his NGO in Kolkatta. Our last week in Delhi was a good one. I had a lot of work to finish with the WHO and Derek took care of all of the things we forgot to do. I think I'll write a separate post about work with the WHO soon, but for now we're in Kerala in the city of Kochin where we visited our first beach in the last two months! We're about to get on a train to Kannur where we'll be meeting some relatives for a few days before returning to Singapore. Home is on the horizon!

Amritsar, The Golden Temple, and the best March Fighting ever

2008-07-14T05:07:00.005-06:00

This past weekend Rachel and I completed an adventure of near Epic proportions. We caught the train Friday afternoon and arrived 6 hours later in Amritsar in the northern state of Punjab. Amritsar, for those of you who are Bollywood savvy, is the city featured in 'Bride and Prejudice'. It was a truly awesome trip, after arriving at around 11:30pm we made our way to the golden temple and slept in the pilgrim's lodging just inside the temple complex. The lodging was rudimentary, but the price was right (Free-ninety-free). The beds were wooden planks with thin mats over them. It made for a long night, but it was a great experience. After our restless night in the bowels of a pilgrim horde we got up and went into the Golden temple complex. The temple is one of the most amazing places in the world. The golden Temple is the holiest place on earth for the Sikhs, and as far as Indian temple's go it's not hard to see why, the temple is just amazing. It is surrounded by a huge lake, and that is surrounded by a white marble courtyard all around the temple. The entire area is covered with pilgrims from all different religions, but the Sikhs especially are reverent and kind all around Amritsar. It was raining most of that day so some of the really neat places we were able to go we did not take pictures of.
One of the other place we went to was the silver temple, this temple is the Hindu version of the Golden temple and looks very very similar. They call it the Silver temple because of the solid silver doors that adorn its marbled halls. The silver temple is much smaller than the golden temple and is much less impressive, but it was interesting to see the differences between Hindu and Sikh priorities. After the silver temple we went to another temple in Amritsar known as the Cave Temple. The cave temple is a shrine for a lady that died in the 1970's and is supposed to be like a patron saint of fertility. So basically if your a young lady and you need to have a baby you go to the Cave Temple.
The temple is interesting, it is not really adorned with precious things like most of the temples, it is mosiaced with glass and mirror, giving it the appearance of a fun house. Also, there are portions were you have to get on your hands and knees and crawl, there is even a part were you have to wade through some water, giving it the artificial appearance of a cave. We are not sure what the symbolism of the cave theme is, but it was funny any way you look at it. Probably the most peculiar thing we did on our trip was attend the border ceremony at the pakistan-india border in Wagah. So every single night, just outside of this small town you find a ceremony at the only official border crossing from india to pakistan. The ceremony basically consists of a whole bunch of people gathering at either side of the border, for about an hour they play music and people dance and cheer. Then at about 6:30 they start the official program where in soldiers in huge fin looking hats march around and yell a lot.But that's not the best part, after marching around and yelling, the soldiers march towards the gates of the other country and then the Indian Soldiers and the

Pakistani soldiers have a march off. That's right, the soldiers try to outdo one another by stamping and kicking high in the air. The whole time the crowds are just going nuts and the competition is fierce. After their little march fight, they shake hands and close the gates. Then they lower the flags at the same time and that's that. Afterwords the crowds converge on the soldiers to get signatures and pictures. It is seriously like a sporting event, and we have never seen anything like it. All in all it was a great trip with a lot of neat things to see and do, but the best was probably just the beauty of the Golden temple and the amazing Sikhs all around that were so nice and so reverent.

Weekend at the Taj Mahal

2008-07-08T01:13:00.003-06:00

We went to Agra this past weekend to the home of the Taj Mahal. Our traveling buddies were Ben Smith and Krista, one of Rachel's friends from work. We took a 3 hr super deluxe "executive class" train from New Delhi at 6 in the morning. Apparently executives are treated very well in India because we got a free newspaper and fresh rose when we got on the train, and then a 3 course breakfast was served to us throughout our trip. Not to mention that we had to lean forward to reach our tray tables because there was so much room between our seats and the ones in front of them. Upon arrival in Agra, we hired a driver to take us around for the day. Our first stop was Fatehpur Sikri. Here's a little Fatehpur Sikri history for you ala Wikipedia: It was the political capital of India's Mughal Empire under Akbar's reign, from 1571 until 1585, when it was abandoned, ostensibly due to lack of water. It is located in what is now Uttar Pradesh, India. It's made of red sandstone, so any of the pictures you see with red stone are probably in Fatehpur Sikri. After that we did a little sightseeing and ended our tour of Agra at the Taj Mahal, truly a wonder of the world. The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum that was built under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. He was later deposed by his son and locked up in Agra Fort. When he died, he was placed beside his wife in the Taj Mahal. According to legend, Shah Jahan cut off the hands of all his workers after they finished the Taj so that they could never replicate their work. Also according to legend, there was supposed to be an exact replica of the Taj Mahal made of black marble built across the river for Shah Jahan's tomb, but when his son deposed him, the building was never constructed. Upon further research, we found out that these legends were unfounded and probably untrue (too bad!) We spent a few hours at the Taj Mahal just sitting on the upper level and watching the sun set over the river. We took the Delux train back in time for church the next morning. On a sad note, the Smith family had to return to the States to take care of their ailing grandparents. We expect them back in a few weeks.

redfort

2008-06-29T05:16:00.000-06:00

Ramnagar and the "Delux" Bus

2008-06-15T07:29:00.002-06:00

This last weekend we had the chance to go to Ramnagar to visit the Jim Corbet national tiger preserve. We spent a grueling 8 hours overnight ride on a "delux" bus that turned out to be a stinky sweat hole that was overcrowded and not airconditioned. It made for a great night, rachel and i got approxamatly no sleep. Afterwards we hired a taxi and went on a trek through the jungle to an old temple. Then we went to the tiger reserve and saw some awesome tigers. Afterwards we got dinner and then caught the night train back to Delhi. All in all it was one killer weekend. Also Ben and Naman went with us, it was a party all day. Good times with good people!

Thank you everyone...

2008-06-09T00:12:00.002-06:00

First off, thanks to all of you who are praying for us. Rachel and i are being blessed way more than we ever would have warranted on our own. As you all may or may not know indians think americans are rich. Even nice well intentioned indians think we're loaded. So the lady rachel works with here in delhi at the WHO that was gracious enough to let us stay at her place is charging us 50$ a night. That's right, she is charging us approxamtly 4 times more than we were paying in the states for our own appartment. Needless to say my greatest desire was to abandon that place as quickly as possible. So rachel and i both fasted for a place we could actually afford, and that day at church we met the smith family. They offered us a place to stay for free- as if it was no big deal, like the miracle that they had just preformed for us was small change. Anywho things are great in derek and rachel land, just thought i would let you all know.

ALSO: Just to let you all know you can leave comments, if you have questions or comments about blog posts please comment and we will respond quickly. I feel kinda of bad that this blog is more like an infomercial and less like family bonding. In addition to that notice, i am sorry but pictures may decrease, due to the fact that it is stupid to roam the streets with a 1000$ camera. Anywho, i hope you all will still read.. Love Derek and Rachel!

In India... finally.

2008-06-07T05:55:00.000-06:00

Since the last post, we have left Singapore behind and started our adventure in India. Times were tough for the terrific two-some. Tiger airways, our supposed “budget” airline forced us to abandon 13+ kg of our possessions to be picked up upon our return to Singapore. Included in these beloved possessions was Derek’s famous satchel, which he has been depressed and moody about since. After a 4.5 hr flight from Singapore to Bangalore, we found out that we’d be forced to journey far, far into the heart of Bangalore in order to find acceptable lodging. (We landed in a new airport, just 2 weeks old that was far from the city.) The next day we explored Bangalore and were nearly trodden/run over a plethora of times. Bangalore is swell; the temperature was fantastic, the people were nice, and the food was great. That evening, we caught another flight to New Delhi on a much more pleasant budget airline, IndiGo. We arrived around midnight and found a taxi driver waiting with our names on a crumpled piece of paper, which he was holding up. After an hour and a half drive and a search for the house of a WHO employee in the dark, we found the house of Ms. Madhu Sareen. We will be staying with her for the next week and then possibly moving in closer to the city. In the morning we started our first day in New Delhi; Rachel going to work at the WHO and Derek exploring the city. Work at the WHO was pleasant. Rachel’s boss is a nice man from the Maldives who will be guiding her on creating a document to evaluate the Healthy Settings program in Southeast Asia. In order to complete this task, Rachel will need to make calls and send e-mails to all the country offices around SE Asia to ask them for progress reports and then compile them into a document. There are many other interns working with her, from places such as the US, Nepal, Myanmar, and many other countries. We are hoping to travel with them on the weekends to sites around India. While Rachel was at work, Derek wandered aimlessly throughout the greater New Delhi area. After making 3 or 4 new friends and hours of searching, he finally arrived at the mission home. He will probably be trying to work with the missionaries and a humanitarian aid couple, as well as possibly teaching institute. THE END.

last days of the Sing-Era

2008-06-07T05:54:00.001-06:00

The last few days of our stay in Singapore were spent seeing a few sights that we had not yet gotten around to. One of these was the famous Singapore botanical gardens, which included a 150 yr old tree and incalculable numbers of orchid species. Singapore has one of the best orchid hybrid production facilities, and it was fascinating to see how they created hybrids and how many beautiful orchids there are. We also spent this time practicing our nature photography skills, and Rachel tutored me (Derek) on photographic technique. We also celebrated our smallest cousin Jonathan’s birthday. One of the highlights of the evening was throwing Derek into the pool. The whole family came together to participate in this warm and loving activity, wherein Derek practiced being a dead weight and the family practiced dragging dead weight 100 m across cement to a pool. We also went to Chinatown with Rachel’s mom and attended a cool Hindu ritual at a local temple. We really enjoyed our time with the family, it was amazing getting to know them again after so many years and we are hoping to come back through Singapore for a week or two before going back to the States.

Singapore to Malaysia and back again...

2008-06-07T05:52:00.001-06:00

One of the many places we were able to go with the Suresh family was on a super cool trip to Malaysia to Melaka and Kota Tinggi. We left early Sunday morning and drove up to historic Melaka, the original home of the Southeast Asian Peranakan, or in other words, half Malaysian, half Chinese people. The town is riddled with historic sites from conquerors and colonizers, including the Dutch, the French, and the English. After a brief but informative visit, we got back into the car and traveled to the Eastern coast of Malaysia to a small town named Kota Tinggi. Auntie Evelyn was fantastic enough to reserve a cabin in the rainforest reserve just outside of the city. We had a great time playing cards, table tennis, and “throw pears at the tree” games. Also, the entire area was infested with birds that made really super-neato sounds. Some of them would mimic you, and this caused us and the kids to spend countless hours trying to convince the birds to say something interesting. That night, we chartered a boat to go up the Kota Tinggi River to see the fireflies along the banks in the mangrove trees. The fireflies were beautiful; they hovered in the branches of trees in large numbers trying to imitate Christmas lights. The person steering the boat, wanting to give the passengers a memorable experience, drove the boat into the mangroves, where Derek was able to capture several fireflies for the enjoyment of the kids onboard. The next morning we got up and went to the Kota Tinggi waterfalls, where they have built several super cool water slides. (See pictures). It was a neat place because there were no tourists, only the native Malaysians, including fully garbed Muslim women, playing in the water. We returned that evening to await the arrival of Rachel’s mom, who would be flying in around midnight.

Picture Commentary

2008-06-06T00:34:00.002-06:00

Shona and her new malaysian hat, she so cute it hurts to look at her. And she is popular too. Really Popular.

We couldn't help but snap a photo of these two monks touring an old british fort that had once been a dutch church.

the beautiful waterfalls of Kota Tinggi

Buddhists are neat.

2008-05-29T20:50:00.002-06:00

So a while back we took a drive to a reserve to see birds, but it was raining and al we saw was some monitor lizards and a whole pack of mosquitos. Then we found monkeys playing in the streets. Afterwards we had lunch next to a buddhist temple and decided to visit. Ps. Buddhists are swell folks.

Singapore Zoo

2008-05-29T20:42:00.002-06:00

So uncle Sureesh, auntie Evelyn and Shankar took Rachel and I to the singapore zoo. It was by far the best zoo i have ever been to. They let the orang utans roam free all over the zoo. Before you correct my spelling of orang utan you should know that orang utan is malaysian for "forest man". Yeah, thats cool. Long story short it was a blast and we all had good times. The family here has really been great, they have catered to our every need and given us so much! This sunday we are going to some waterfalls in malaysia, i am pretty stoked.

Thailand, good times

2008-05-24T09:58:00.002-06:00

Fun in the Sun- East Coast Singapore

2008-05-19T20:10:00.001-06:00

This last monday the whole crew went for a fantastic holiday to the east side of Singapore. It was a long drive, all of 15 minutes- considering singapore is an island everywhere is close to the ocean. We had a great time swimming in the sea, playing roundus, eating icecream and lying in the sun. It was a really great time had by all. Later that night we all went to auntie shobi's house and had dinner with the family, afterwards we played cards and had a super wonderfully time. Singapore really has been a blast, Unkle Sureesh and his family has really taken wonderful care of us and shown us all the sights. So far singapore has been a blast! Anywho, tommorow we fly to phuket, thailand, and Rachel and I are excited to go to Thailand and see the sights! Love you all.

Cabin fever!

2008-05-15T11:20:00.002-06:00

First and foremost o would like to apologize for the disturbing lack of new photos on the blog. We have an amazing camera, but it is so nice and so large that we rarely take pictures of the more mundane particulars of our travels. Right now i am sitting on a bed in the heart of Singapore. After a grueling 14 hour flight from San Fransisco to Hong Kong the 3 1/2 hour flight on to Singapore seemed like a cake walk. I must be honest though- being almost 14 hours ahead time wise has lead to both Rachel and i feeling brutalized, jet lag is an understatement. It is now 1:30 in the morning on Friday the 16. Back home it is 10:30 in the morning on Thursday the 15. ugh. All in all the flights were pleasant and for the most part went off without a hitch. We arrived in Singapore to find a plethora of Rachel's family waiting for us. They all seem like great people and have been more than hospitable. I am now ready to pass out, as is Rachel. Ergo, Fairwell, more to follow. Love Derek and Rachel

Sticking to the trail-

2008-05-07T07:58:00.003-06:00

In an attempt to stay true to our commitment to post to this thing, i will now post- to this thing. Anyway, this last few weeks have been a whirlwind of visiting madness. On Wednesday the 23 of April we finished with Utah, sub-letted our apartment and left. The girl who rented our place is great and we are excited about not paying the rent all summer. After the long drive from Utah to California we arrived in Loyalton and had a splendid time with my mom. Activities included going to a Scottish-games event and seeing hundreds of burly scots bare their nethers, doing lots of thrifting in Reno, walking in the high mountain desert with my mother and generally having a good time. After a week or so of rollicking we flew out to Dallas to visit the other side of the family. After landing in Dallas we drove to longview to spend some time with our lovely mother Sree. We also attended the funeral services for one of Rachel's great aunts, and then picked up brother Jesse from the airport. Jesse, by the way, has just finished Officer Candidate School for the navy and to be quite honest is a rather hard-core chap these days. After good times in east Texas we drove back to Dallas and picked up Rachel's dad. The three of us then went on a splendid road trip down to Austin and then finally ending up in San Antonio. In San Antonio we spent the day looking for apartments for Gary ( Rachel's dad), we found a really nice place that makes our basement back in Utah look like a basement from Utah- if you get my drift. After returning to Dallas and spending the night we are now preparing for the long flight back to Reno and then an even longer flight to Singapore. Long story short things have been crazy good times in a box. Well, hope to keep y'all updated, feel free to comment on stuff if you feel i am being too descriptive, or not descriptive enough. We love you all.

The End is Near...

2008-04-10T23:09:00.008-06:00

Recently it dawned on me- Rachel and I have but few short days before we embark for the distant lands of the Far East. For those of you concerned i thought you might appreciate a tentative schedule of events.

April 22- We move out of our apartment and head for California to spend time with our lovely family.
April 30- We fly from Reno to Dallas, to spend time with our other lovely family.
May 8- We fly back from San Antonio after attending a Wedding of one of Rachel's close friends.
May 14- After one last week with our family we fly from San Francisco to Singapore to see more family abroad
June 4- We fly from Singapore to Bangalore to visit with more family on the southern coast of India
June 12- We board a sleeper train for the 36 hour long ride to New Delhi.
August 20- After a fantastic summer in paradise, we fly back to San Francisco and the cold embrace of Mother USA once more.

This is a very rough schedule of events, so if you happen to reside in any of these general areas and would like to see us, please let us know! More schedule related updates to come. In other news Rachel and I have been grinding away at the millstone. The time between the last post and now has been fraught with little more than the hum-drum beat of our lovely day to day lives. In preparation for India we have purchased a new lens for our camera. Both of us are quite excited and hope to use the camera to post many fantastic pictures on this very web-log. Speaking of pictures, Rachel and I attended the Festival of Color at the local Hare Krishna temple. It is a fantastic festival in which is celebrated the defeat of a devil by Krishna himself. After an effigy of the devil is burned, to represent his defeat, everyone in the crowd throws bags of colorful chalk to represent the beautiful colors of a new dawning day. There were upwards of 2000 people hurling chalk at each other- it was a blast! Enjoy the photos- Love, Rachel and Derek

The Truth

2008-03-09T18:03:00.000-06:00

That amazingly accurate description of our first meeting was donated by my lovely husband Derek. I am now here to correct a few small errors that I perceived in his description. For one, his name did not sing in my ears the first time I heard it. To be honest I thought he was a little cocky and I was not at all interested in dating him. It was only through brave perseverance on the part of my dear husband that we ended up together. I did find that my first impression was mistaken and that he was actually the most amazing specimen of male perfection that I had ever met...but that came much later.

In the Beginning....

2008-03-09T17:32:00.000-06:00

Dear World,
This blog is the result of hours of research and complicated surveys. To be honest it is the result of a desire of the creators of this blog, namely Rachel and Derek Mitchell, to chronicle in some small part the adventures of their life together.
It all started on a sunny day in mid-May 2007, in the quaint little town of Mesa Arizona. Rachel had recently returned home from a mission for the LDS church, and decided to go on an adventure. She, along with a mission chum, ventured to Mesa to work for a Non-Profit wilderness youth rehabilitation program called Anasazi. After a tearful departure from her family, she packed her things and drove from Texas to Mesa, which I can tell you from personal experience is no small feat. After hours of driving and days of preparation she and her chum finally arrived on this sunny May afternoon to begin training. She sat resolutely in her chair waiting patiently for the training meeting to begin.
It was precisely at this moment when Rachel's life changed forever. Through the door walked one of the most stunning specimens of male perfection she had ever beheld. Derek Mitchell, the name sang through her mind as he introduced himself to her. It was only a matter of time until they were married and living in congenial bliss.