Comes in Threes

It is a great myth that good or bad, things come in threes. A friend of mine reminded me of that this spring when I discussed the three incredibly positive and excited opinions of the first three people I had discussed my proposed Christian prenatal program too. She added that if three positives were given in short succession that it was an important sign.

Not one to put a lot of weight on this theory, I was pleasantly surprised today to find indeed three very similar and awesome things happened to me, one right after the other, this morning. The first was to pick up my email and to find a warm note from Ann Douglas, fellow speaker and writer, she is the author of the "Mother of All..." series and other excellent books on the perinatal period. Here is her website (one of them). She just returned home from Baby Boom, a baby fair in Ottawa and had a blast. We have been emailing back and forth about speaking in general and upcoming engagements, honourariums and so forth, exciting fun! She answered a few key questions I have been wondering about, an important email for me as a speaker.

I was leisurely skimming email again when I recieved a phone call from Dr. Stonehawker. A wonderful Christian man, he founded the only shared care maternity program in Alberta (midwives work in a hospital setting and are funded through Capital Health through a unique funding program, in a province where midwifery is not funded). The hospital it is based in is a five minute drive from my house and is a very sought after program. Anyway, as a professional member of our church, he was asked to review my Immanuel's Healthy Family Ministry proposal by church council. He took it upon himself to call me to personally congratulate me on the hard work I had done on the proposal, the program itself and how excited he was to see it's inception. He also asked if I had been in contact and had discussed this program the shared care program midwives and staff. I told him that I had talked to most of them, all of whom welcomed it with open arms. They were so excited about it that they asked if they could help promote it within their facility. He closed the conversation with his wanting to sit down with me to learn more about the program and to get to know me better. He has long been an advocate of midwivery and doula support, possibly as a result of his many mission trips as a physician.

Moving on to fixing a Quickbooks glitch, which has kept me from accessing my accounting software for far too long, I finally found the answer on their forums. I had no sooner fixed the problem had it up and running - finally, when Madeleine Hegholz called. A wonderful, passionate and very knowledgable IBCLC, she is also an RN who worked for may years as a postpartum nurse. I have always referred my clients to her first if there was a breastfeeding problem. We caught up on what each other had been doing since I moved away and back again. She told me of the exciting work she has been doing as the president of the Canadian Lactation Consultants Association and her daughters journey towards her own RN degree while I told her of my work with ICAN and my fourth homeborn child who joined our family while I was away. We said our fairwells with her promising me one of her new breastfeeding pillows she had designed and made herself. I can't wait to see it!

This left me pondering if this is a sign from God, that three so incredibly positive things that happened in quick succession, was his answer to my prayers to not leave the birth industry. Hmm.