One lucky girl

When I was in high school I had a day that changed my life. Remember "Take Your Daughter to Work" day? Well instead of going with my Mom, I went to spend the day at a school with another woman who went to my church. That day I met my first speech-language pathologist. I remember thinking that woman had the best of both worlds: she got to work with children, but didn't have to deal with crowd control. 

From that moment on I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I graduated high school and got into a good college. I survived college and got into graduate school. In grad school I learned more about my choosen profession and the areas of specialty I wanted to pursue (feeding babies of course). And then, finally, all my dreams came true... I was an actual SLP. 

Luckily I am one of those people who truly loves their jobs. And while I may not like all of the paperwork, there is nothing better than helping a baby eat and sending him home with his family. 

This week was a great example of that. I got to send three babies home with their parents. One I had worked with for months, one for weeks and one for just a couple of days. Each off the babies made huge amounts of progress in the time we worked together. Each set of parents grew in the level of confidence in feeding their baby. Each family hugged me goodbye. At least two of the babies, I'll be making cameo appearances in their babies books (years later they'll wonder who's that happy girl with the glasses and the baby bottle). 

Much of my current job is similar to the job I had back in Atlanta. Some of the biggest differences:

- In the last 5 months I have only worked with one red headed baby and not a single blond. Most of the babies born in Hawaii have dark hair. 

- I've met several families who've had their baby while on vacation. This means lots of discharge recommendations to accommodate for different states and different countries. For one baby we got a speciality bottle from Japan!

- Instead of using Spanish interpreters, we have a computer that translates Marshallese, Chukese, Tagalog, Japanese and Mandarin.  

- Instead of being called ma'am I'm referred to as Auntie.  

But overall these differences are quite small. And wether it's GA or HI, I love my job. And that makes me one lucky girl. 

And now for the pic of the week:

This is actually a #tbt from my week with sister. But with it being the middle of the week, I really miss the beach & wouldn't mind a shave ice in my hand!