Over a year ago, my nurse manager started talking about this new relationship Children's was going to undertake. We would be working with Saudi Arabia for a year. After spending a couple of weeks in Saudi Arabia last June, she came back and asked if I had my passport. When I told her that I didn't, she encouraged me to think about it and has been very supportive. My job would be to help with teaching the nurses there about NRP(neonatal resuscitation), STABLE(stabilization of the neonate) and working with new equipment. This is something that I do all of the time at Children's. The hospital had made a commitment to send a team to 3 different cities in Saudi. Each team would be there for a month.
After talking with my family about it, my sons in particular were excited for me to try a new adventure and have been very supportive of my going. I also did a lot of praying. When everything started to fall into place I felt like it was what I was suppose to do. Several people have said that they could never go and couldn't believe that I was going. How could I go there with the way they treat women over there and that it is a Muslim country. My response has been that it isn't my job to change the culture but to teach the nurses how to take better care of the babies in the NICU. The next decision was what month could I go. It was finally decided that I would go in July. I know the hottest month I could have chosen but I will be right on the Red Sea in Jeddah.
I am leaving Minneapolis on July 8th and returning on July 29th. Many friends and family have asked that I keep them updated and I decided a blog might be the easiest way to do it as not everyone is on facebook. My prayer requests are for peace as I start packing and preparing to leave in a week, also for the long plane trip, and finally that I will be safe while I am there. I am sure that I will have more prayer requests as things come up.
Stay tuned.
