Sorry we got a little ahead of ourselves! We are just finishing up our letter. In the meantime, feel free to browse older posts. They give a more in-detail summary of our year up until Kai's birth in August. Love you!

Jordyn, Tyler, and Kai

Welcome our little man!

It's been weird to be a mom, because while I know that he's my baby, I don't think the full reality of it has set in yet. I'm not sure when it will hit, haha. My mom loved taking pictures of him, and I'm glad she was there!

The next photos were taken over the next couple days while we were still in Boise.

Right after we got back to our apartment.

  His first "bath." I can't wait for his cord to come off so he can have a real bath!

She stayed with us until Wednesday, but it was crazy back at the house, so she needed to go back home. I wanted to have the extra help, so Tyler and I packed up and went to Firth after Kai's Dr. appointment that morning. He had gained almost all his weight back (6 pounds 9 ounces) and the nurse there measured him at 19 1/4". It was a long drive right after having a baby, and I about had a breakdown when I had to try and nurse him in public. It was too hot to stay in the car, and I knew I couldn't handle sitting in a bathroom stall, so we ended up finding a booth at Arby's, and it was really stressful. He was crying because he was hungry, but I couldn't hold him right without pillows and trying to navigate the nursing cover. Hopefully I'll have a better grasp on it next time I need to nurse in public. We stayed with my parents until Thursday the 22nd, then headed back to Boise. Kai had a second Dr.'s appointment (weight up to 7 pounds 5 ounces already!), and Tyler had a dentist appointment.

These next few photos my mom took while we were staying with my parents for a week.

 

Tyler starts school/work on the 26th, so then I'll really be on my own! It's tiring to get up every 3ish hours to feed him, but fortunately I have about 2 more months off of work, and maybe he'll be sleeping a little longer by then.

Anyway, it's amazing to see the miracles in our lives. I had a humbling moment when I realized that Kai isn't MY baby. Heavenly Father has allowed me to take care of this little spirit, and that's a pretty big responsibility. It's just one more way that I've seen the Plan of Salvation active in my life. Thank goodness for the atonement, because I know that I won't be even close to being a perfect parent, but Heavenly Father is a perfect parent, and through Him, I can raise a family that will be strong in the Gospel.

Happy anniversary to us, happy birthday to our little man!

Up to this point, night shifts at the hospital were doing well, Tyler moved up to Boise to be with me, and we were pretty much settled in to our apartment. Tyler's brother, Kendall, was coming home from his mission in Sapporo, Japan, on Friday August 9th, so Tyler went to southern Utah on Thursday to welcome him home. He took the car so that in case I went into labor he could leave immediately rather than having to wait for a flight out. That left me carless, but I know a few people who would be willing to give me a ride to the hospital if I needed it, and a girl I work with gave me a ride to work Thursday night.

Our 2-year anniversary was August 10th, but because we thought he might come early, we had already gone to dinner a week before. Worked out well since Tyler would be in Utah on our anniversary anyway!

Friday morning I had a Dr.'s appointment, so I just stayed for the appointment and planned to ride the bus home. The Dr. said I was about 70% effaced but "not really dilated," and he thought I would be fine until Monday night when Tyler would get home. I missed the bus, but I was able to call a wonderful girl, Abbie, from the ward who came and rescued me so I didn't have to either wait 3 hours or walk home. I got home and slept for a couple hours before getting back up to go (Abbie also drove me to this) to my "functional review", a test the hospital wanted me to do to make sure I could do my job ok with my shoulder, at 1:30. This consisted of me lifting a basket around (table to waist-height shelf, shelf to floor, and table to high shelf, plus some others), and each time I did it, the guy would add a weight. Anyway, it was a LOT of lifting, especially for someone as pregnant as I was! 

My water broke while I was there (around 2:30pm), but I wasn't totally sure if that's what it was or not, so I waited about an hour and a half before I called my cousin Stephanie to let her know. I had told mom and Tyler before that I thought it was broken, but I wanted to know for sure before I called Steph. I told her that I wanted to wait around at the apartment instead of going to the hospital, but she said I'd better call Labor and Delivery and make sure they didn't want me to come in right then. I called the hospital and they did want me to come, so I called Steph back and asked her for a ride. By the time she and Jason got there around 5, I was started to have some pretty good contractions. They did a test to make sure that my water really did break, then actually admitted me to the hospital. I called Tyler when they decided to admit me and told him he'd better get on the road, but I didn't know if he was going to make it or not. I intentionally waited to tell him to come because he had just driven the 9 hours down there the day before, and I really wanted him to see Kendall. The plane was scheduled to land at 5:52pm, and by the time he got off the plane, Tyler was able to spend about a half hour with Kendall before he hopped in the car. My mom also scrambled to gather last minute stuff and headed over.

My nurse, Missy, checked my cervix as soon as I was admitted (around 6pm), and I was dilated to 5cm. By about 7pm the contractions were coming fast and hard, and I was super exhausted because I had worked a night shift the two nights before, then stayed up all day because I had to go in for the functional review. The only way I could tolerate contractions was standing, and my legs were shaking! I knew there was no way I could have enough energy to go through the labor if I didn't get some sleep, so I got an epidural. It was a good thing I did because it slowed the contractions down a lot!  Steph and Jason stayed with me at the hospital, and Jason gave me a priesthood blessing. When my mom called to check on me at about 8:30pm, I they had just checked me and I was dilated to 7cm. Mom had got there about 10:30pm, and Steph and Jason went home. My nurse and the Dr. new I was progressing pretty quickly, but they agreed that as long as the baby seemed to be alright, they would try not to do anything to speed it up and I could try to wait for Tyler. 

 Me as I waited for Tyler to get there. I tried to sleep between the contractions.

At about 2am my nurse went to get some "lunch", and while she was out, another nurse came in and wanted to check my cervix because the doctor was getting worried I would have the baby without her there. She said I was fully dilated and that the baby was right there close (and who knows how long I had been that way), and that I could start pushing if I wanted ! Tyler was still a good 2.5 hours away by our calculations, but everything looked good by the monitors, so the doctor said I could try and wait until Tyler got there. I was feeling a LOT of pressure with each contraction, and a couple times I called the nurse in to make sure I wasn't having the baby even though I wasn't pushing. I think Heavenly Father wanted Tyler to be there because I was able to wait until he got there at about 4am. 

 Tyler as he walked in the door!

As soon as he got there, the nurse called the Dr. and started setting everything up and told me to start pushing. Partway through, the Dr. told me I could reach down and feel his head if I wanted to. It was surreal! After what seemed like forever, little Kai was born at 4:54am on August 10, 2013! It was pretty crazy, but I know that Heavenly Father was watching out for all of us because everyone was able to get there safely before he was born, and there weren't any complications. (Sidenote, because the Dr. knew I was an RN, she let me see my placenta, which was surprisingly small, even to her, haha.)

That little purple thing in the middle at the bottom is some part of the baby, not sure what though, haha.

Welcome Kai Noah Whiting! He weighed 6 pounds, 9.6 ounces, and measured 20" long. When we left the hospital, he was down to about 6 pounds 2 ounces, but eating alright and still just perfect. Happy anniversary to us :)

July: Temporarily husbandless and labor pending

We moved up to Boise on Monday, July 1st, got a lot of stuff settled in, I went to my appointment with HR to get my paperwork done on the 2nd, then we went back to Firth for the 4th of July. On the 4th, we watched Jace run the Firecracker 5K in Idaho Falls, ate at the community pancake breakfast, my dad and I went to a garage sale while Tyler took a nap, then we canoed/floated the Snake River before eating dutch oven dinner and watching the Idaho Falls Malaleuca fireworks show. We came back to Boise on Saturday, went to church Sunday morning, and I dropped Tyler off at the airport to fly back to Utah. We didn't really want to be apart until mid-August, which had been the original plan, especially it would be so close to my due-date. However, we didn't really know how to fix it at that point, so we decided to just play it by ear.

The next week is when it got interesting. I had just started general orientation at the hospital on July 8, which was conveniently one floor above my OB's office. I was having some funny cramping down low for a couple days, and I wasn't sure if that was normal or not, so I went down to the office on Wednesday July 10th to ask the nurse about it. She was unavailable, but they sent me across the hall to be monitored because they thought the cramping might be contractions. I didn't really feel like they were contractions. I just thought it was him pushing up towards my ribs, because he had been doing that for a while, with the addition of the low cramps. Anyway, they did a non-stress test (NST), and sure enough, I was having contractions! They were fairly consistent, but not too strong. They sent me back over to the Dr.'s office because he wanted to check me out. I wasn't dilating or anything, but because I was only 33.5 weeks along, he was worried that I might go into labor. 

Originally he suggested I be admitted to the hospital to be monitored, but I told him that we didn't have health insurance yet since I had just started working. He then suggested I just stay home and rest, but told him I had just started orientation and wanted to get through the general part because I didn't know when they could reschedule me. He reluctantly agreed to let me continue, as long as I exerted myself as little as possible, took some medication to stop the contractions, and got steroid shots to help the baby's lungs develop (which HURT by the way). For the rest of the week, I parked in the "patient parking" and did very little at home. My wonderful cousin Stephanie and her husband Jason came over that Friday, helped me do a little cleaning (since we still had a LOT of our stuff to unpack and put away), brought me dinner, then took me back to their house for the weekend. I wanted to go back to my apartment Sunday morning so I could go to church at my ward and try to make a few more connections, especially since at this point Tyler was still in southern Utah! I didn't even know when he would be coming up! I was having a lot of contractions that morning, about every 5 minutes, so Stephanie made me stay there. I was a little reluctant, but I'm glad I did. I don't like to ask for help, but it was really nice to have someone watching out for me so I didn't have to be alone. It was scary knowing that the baby might come so early without Tyler there with me.

I continued on through general orientation and started onto the floor for precepted orientation the next week, and things didn't seem to get any worse. I went back to my Dr., and he said I still wasn't dilating so I could keep doing what I was doing. I kept taking the medication, but let me tell you, it had some interesting side effects. Like clockwork, about a half hour after I took the pills, I would get lightheaded, dizzy, and feel like I was going to fall over. Not a good thing when I was trying to take care of patients! I had been doing fine with them before I was on my feet, but that first shift, I learned I needed a plan when I about fell over in front of the charge nurse. I worked it out with my preceptors to take the pills about 20 minutes before we went to lunch so that I was feeling fine by the time I had to go back out on the floor. I worked day shifts for a couple weeks, then switched to nights on the 30th. I was actually scheduled for the 29th, but I got confused with my sleep schedule and missed it! Oh my gosh, I thought the world was going to end. Luckily, as a new employee they were nice and rescheduled it. Note to self though, don't do that again!

Me after my first 12 hour shift as an RN, 34 weeks pregnant and exhausted!

Although I started to work on the floor at 34 weeks pregnant, for some reason Employee Health was having a cow about my shoulder, not my pregnancy. They wanted me to go into a Dr. to have it evaluated, which was impractical because it would take forever to get into a specialist, and I didn't want to pay the big bucks for it anyway! After talking to several people, Employee Health was able to schedule me a "functional review" at the rehab center (more on that next post). 

Night shifts went pretty well, and although the time is inconvenient, I'm actually glad I'll be on nights for a couple reasons: 1) Nights are a little bit slower paced, and I have a lot to learn! 2) If I work nights, there will only be the 3 hours in the evening where Tyler has class that someone will need to watch the baby, and that's if I work on the days he has class. Otherwise, one of us will always be home and the baby won't have to go to daycare!

Next post: Happy Anniversary to us, Happy Birthday to little man!

The past year (almost)...oops!

Oh goodness, where to start?!

Let's just do a little time-line here to get caught up. Bear with me!

2012

August: After our stay in Uganda, Tyler and I planned a trip to a small island off called Zanzibar, located just off the coast of Tanzania. I had misplaced my passport in Uganda, but I was lucky and the US Embassy in Kampala was able to issue me an "emergency" passport. I didn't realized I had lost it until the morning we were supposed to fly out to Zanzibar, and from the time we first got to the embassy to the time I walked out with my replacement passport was only 2 HOURS! I couldn't believe it. We got to the airport just in time to catch our flight, although getting through security was a little tricky because my passport number didn't match what was in the system, and I didn't have a stamp for coming into the country, haha. One of our favorite places in Zanzibar was the Restaurant on the Rock, rightly named. We had to wade through the ocean to get back to shore after the tide rose while we were eating.

September-December: Fall semester was fairly uneventful. We moved in with a wonderful couple, Howard and Norma, where we lived for free in exchange for me helping get Norma ready in the morning and at night. She had a stroke about 30 years ago and has a difficult time doing most things, but she has the most wonderful attitude. Although there were a lot of days I wished I didn't have to make the sacrifice, I will never forget the lessons I learned from her. I started my "capstone," meaning my least semester of nursing school. I worked at Shriners Hospital for Children in Salt Lake City taking care of post-surgical patients. I really loved that population of patients. For one, the kids were great. Secondly, the families were so appreciative because most of them would not have been able to get afford these orthopedic procedures for their kids. For Halloween, Tyler and I dressed up at characters from the Disney movie "Up." I was Kevin, the big bird, and Tyler was the house. We had a lot of fun putting our costumes together, although they both took a lot more time and effort than we originally planned on! We spent Thanksgiving in Bluffdale with some of Tyler's family, then finished up the semester before heading to Toquerville for a few days, then up to Idaho to spend Christmas with my family. We got big news over Christmas break--We were going to have a baby!!!

2013

 

January-April: Tyler started his last semester in January and we decided now was as good a time as any for him to go on and get his Master's degree. He applied to a few schools, and we waited and waited to see where he would be accepted. Winter semester was a bit slow for me, as I was graduated, but didn't really have plans to get a job because I knew we might be moving. (It wasn't too unfortunate though, because I was having morning sickness. I was glad I didn't have to try and work through that!) I took the NCLEX (national nursing exam to get my license) in January and passed! Wahoo! In mid-March, Tyler learned he had been accepted to Boise State University's Master of Public Administration program, so we made our plans to move to Idaho. I applied for a nurse residency program at St. Luke's hospital and began the wait to hear if any of the units were taking on new graduates. We both walked at BYU's graduation at the end of April, then immediately packed up our stuff and sent it up to Idaho with my family while we moved our "necessities" down to Toquerville for the summer. Tyler's mom, Angie, was able to marry Clark, the day after graduation in the St. George temple. It was such a beautiful experience, and they both looked so happy.

May-June:  Tyler started working for some guys in his home ward who own a logistics company. I still didn't have a job since I knew we would be moving to Boise in a few months, so trying to entertain myself while Tyler was at work was interesting. I took on a few sewing projects, and nearly exhausted the internet, haha. Tyler made a trip to DC (May 15-19) for a BYU Political Science national convention, so I went up to Idaho for a few days. While I was there, I got a call from St. Luke's hospital saying that the med-surg unit was interested in setting up an interview, so I figured that I was as close as I was going to get until we actually moved, I'd better head over and do the interview in person. Unfortunately, I hadn't really packed dress clothes, so my mom and I went shopping to try and find me some maternity pants to wear. We made a quick trip to Boise for the interview and looked at some apartments while we were there. While I was driving back to Utah (a couple days later), I got the call offering me the position! We decided that this was a really good opportunity for me to get my foot in the door in nursing, so we decided I would move to Boise to start working while Tyler finished his commitment in Toquerville. Leighton and Sharon (Tyler's brother and sister-in-law) came down for Memorial Day, and Sharon took some really great maternity photos for me before they left (you can view the rest of the photos at Sharon's blog, Enchanted Window Photography). My dad and I made a quick trip to move all of our stuff over from Firth to Boise around the 20th of June, and Tyler and I planned to finish moving stuff in the first week of July since I had to go to the hospital to process everything with HR on the 2nd.

Below: My little friends I created while sitting at home

Above: Tyler in front of the White House. Below: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

Below: Tyler, Leighton, Me, Liam, and Sharon heading to the lake for Memorial Day. Bottom: One of the many great photos Sharon took for me.

July's happenings will be in the next post. This one is long enough :)

Humanitarian Aid

There is a lot of controversy over aid and whether it does any good. Some scholars have found that it helps while others have found that it not only does not help, but hinders economic growth. As for my opinion, and especially after seeing development problems first hand, I believe aid can benefit individuals if you know exactly how the funds are reallocated. Before we left for Uganda Jordyn and I decided we wanted to do a mini humanitarian aid mission (on the side, since we were really there to do research) which consisted of acquiring school and medical supplies to be given to an orphanage and health center. We were lucky to get around 4 suitcases worth of donated supplies. Also, through generous donations we received close to $260 to go towards needs as we saw fit. With those funds we were able to do some amazing things. We bought 2 nebulizers and gave them to two different health centers in the rural areas around Kampala. In Uganda, thousands of children die because of asthma--something preventable. The problem is that they just don't have access to inhalers. Ssimbwa, our contact person who took us out to the health center, had a daughter die from an asthma attack which made our donation feel that much more real.

                                               (Ssimbwa, Jo, and a nun @ the health clinic)

Also, there is a big problem with children passing exams in primary school(K-6) in order to go on to secondary school (7-12). The problem is that the children who go to primary school don't receive any support from their parents because their parents believe that since the government is providing free schooling they should also provide everything else like school meals and supplies. However, the government doesn't fund lunches or supplies so when it comes to math class many students don't have their geometry sets, which consist of a ruler, pencil, compass, protractor, eraser etc. which are not very expensive but they don't have them because of their parents' ignorance. They need their sets during their exam but since only a couple have them they have to share which takes too much time to score well. So, we bought 138 geometry sets and had them sent to a couple different schools. Hopefully those students will do better on their tests next time around.

                                        (Ssimbwa's family and us holding up geometry sets)


So, I got the opportunity to visit northern Uganda for a couple of days and interview LRA abductees. It was a very humbling experience. We met Samson while we conducted the interviews because he worked at the hotel that we were doing them at. The LRA tried to abduct him but he put up a fight and got away. However, he lot his left eye and three front teeth in the scuffle. He told us that he was sick of people making fun of him because he had no front teeth. He was a hard worker and real sincere so we decided to get him some teeth. You should have seen him beam when we told him what we were going to do! He was so, so grateful.

 (Samson before and after shot)

In Kampala, there was a cool guy that we met from the ward in Kololo. His name is Bryan and he was preparing for his mission. He recently lost both of his parents in the 2010 terrorist attacks and was living with his handicap grandma and little sister. He delivered pineapples and mangoes to us that he grew on his farm in order to make some extra money. He was in need of a couple suitcases and clothes for his mission so we helped by buying him some suitcases. He got his call mid July and is going to the Durban, South Africa mission. He is currently there and serving the Lord faithfully despite the hardships and trials he had to endure. We are very proud of him!

                                                                     (Bryan and I)


These few stories were just the tip of the development ice burg. There is so much need and so little we can do about it. It is something that has been troubling Jordyn and I because the more we studied development the more we realized just how complicated of a problem it was. Many times we felt that our efforts were deeply insignificant compared to how much need there is and we got discouraged because of it. However, after being home, and reflecting on the happenings in Uganda we have realized that the only way to develop countries suffering from poverty, famine, disease, and conflict is by spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. The blessings that a person receives from living the gospel will outweigh any amount of aid. It is comforting to know that there is a Father in Heaven who is concerned about his children's needs and wants and is waiting to bless them according to their faith and works. We are so grateful for the knowledge of the gospel and have seen so many prayers answered in miraculous ways. It is nice to know that the church is the same no matter what continent you are in. We love you all very much and are very grateful for all of your support and help in our adventures!

Wet and happy

 We did lots of research this week. Jordyn has been figuring out the best way to track attendance from 13 rural schools levels P5-P7 (equivalent of 4-6th grade). I have been surveying people and trying to get them to open a savings account with local partner SACCO's. It's a bit exhausting at times but what makes it all worth it is at the end of the day we all get together and do group dinners while sharing experiences for the day. Weekends are sacred here since we only have so many of them and since there are lots of places to go and things to do. This past weekend we probably did one of the coolest things all summer. We rafted the Nile!!! It was like early Christmas to me since the last white-water rapid trip I took was as a scout. It was an all day thing and they fed us meals along the river at different check points. We hit 8 rapids in total with the highest rapid at 16-20 feet. My favorite part was when we went over the mini waterfall and when we flipped the raft! When you fall out and submerge it feels like you are underwater for an eternity even though in reality it is only a few seconds. Needless to say it was a good adrenaline boost. We also had fun swimming and pushing each other off of the raft. I can't believe we only have 2 weeks left in Africa ahhh!! This place is beginning to grow on us already.