Masai Giraffe

Anna and I (Toanh) recently visited Ong Ngoai and Ba Ngoai (Vietnamese names for Grandpa and Grandma) in California. My parents took us to the San Diego Zoo. What an amazing place. This 100-acre zoo is home to over 4,000 animals and 700,000 exotic plants.

As part of our admission pass, a 45 minute guided double-decker bus tour was included. I’ve been to a lot of zoos having a 6 and 3 year old, but I have never learned as much as I did about animals as I did during this tour.

As an OB/GYN and a mom, I was especially fascinated by the Masai giraffe’s reproduction. The Masai giraffe has a 15-month gestation (let me help with the math…that’s six more months than we have to endure!). She gives birth standing; and the delivery involves “dropping” the calf six feet to the ground - head first. This has litigation written all over it in human world. The fall does not hurt the calf but does cause it to take its first big breath. Baby giraffes are about 6 feet tall at birth and weigh close to 200 pounds. My 6#1 oz cesarean delivery with spinal anesthesia pales in comparison. Most giraffes have a singleton pregnancy but twins do occur rarely. Sadly, over 50-75% of giraffes in the wild die within their first year of life (mostly due to predators).

Yes, I learned all of that in about a 5-minute blurb during the tour. I am pretty sure that Anna was not as interested in this part of the tour as I was. She seemed more interested in the guy walking by selling cotton candy. At any rate, I am looking forward to seeing these Masai giraffes in Kenya. I am quite certain they will not need any of my OB/GYN services.

That's my son

On Wednesday, Leo and I (Bryan) attended our New Life/Baptism service at church. We were introduced to the congregation by our pastor and were able to come up on stage and share about our upcoming trip. (Unfortunately Toanh and Anna were in California). It was great because Pastor Brad's teaching that night was about service. But the true highlight of the evening was Leo.

For some background, in my younger years, I had an affinity to the song Love Shack (especially if a karaoke machine was involved). Well much to my delight, Toanh's brother has recently purchased a karaoke machine and I had just sung a version of the song last week with my kids.

Flash forward to Northridge church - center stage with my son, pastor Brad, and the eyes of the congregation watching. Leo was very enthralled with the microphone I was holding and was in hot pursuit to get his hands on it. As we bowed our heads to pray for our trip, Leo says to me "Daddy, I really need to have that microphone so I can sing Love Shack!" That's my son.

Why?

We have been trying to decide how to start our blog. We admit - we are new to this format of communication. It seems fitting to start with an explanation of "Why?". Why did we decide to leave our jobs, take our family to Africa, and "disrupt" our lives?

In 2007, we thought we had it all - a new house, 2 healthy children, and successful careers as OB/GYNs. But there was an uneasiness in our hearts. We felt as if there was something more we should be doing. It was at this time we changed to Northridge Church. This move lead to a re-examination of our lives, faith, and goals. We began to focus more on our family by working fewer hours and realized we had talents we could use for service. And since this time - everything has fallen into place. Our pastor taught us that "where God guides, He provides" and He has truly guided us through the many decisions needed to make our medical mission trip possible.

We were able to sell our house, find a long term mission placement, and arrange a leave of absence from our jobs. On September 13, 2010, our family will board a plane for Kenya and start our "journey." We will be working as OB/GYNs at Tenwek Hospital, a missionary hospital with the motto "We treat, Jesus heals."

Although we know there will be many struggles ahead, we are resolved in our faith and our commitment to serve others. We would like to thank our families and everyone who have supported our decisions and hope you look forward to our "blogging" updates from Africa.