okinawa hai!

CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE Last week we opened a new post about pregnancy and childbirth at Lester Naval Hospital for discussion, in order to update the information for all our mommies (and daddies)-to-be.  This week we’re heading off-base, returning to a discussion about In Vitro Fertilization for those couples who may be requiring assistance in [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE We have two types of posts on Okinawa Hai that receive a huge amount of comments from our readers, both in the form of questions and answers.  One of these is about housing, for pretty obvious reasons: we all have to sleep somewhere at night.  The other is about being pregnant [...]

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I always wanted to adopt but was never able to. I was a single 24 year-old female serving in the United States Marine Corps and adoption is expensive. I got by but let’s face it, I was no Angelina Jolie. I didn’t make the movie star paycheck and with the hours I worked, child care [...]

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MOPS Cards CONTRIBUTED BY MEGAN PARKER Your three-year old spilled his orange juice, and while you are on your hands and knees cleaning it up, you notice the stale Cheerios from days gone by hugging the floorline that meets the wall. You crawl farther under the table, promptly bang your head, and eventually pick up [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER HANSEN Twice a year MCCS offers an International Adoption Workshop through the Marine and Family Services Center. The workshop covers issues pertaining to both international & domestic adoption (don’t let the title fool you!). Adoption is possible while living in Okinawa. Before my husband and I were married, we discussed the possibility [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY JOELLE YAMADA First, I grabbed my name tag and folder and said hi to everyone.  Next, I got on the scales – always my favorite part (sarcasm!) – charted my weight gain on the cool graph that allowed me to see my progress over time.  Then I took my own blood pressure, charting [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE My daughter was born when we were stationed in Germany, and I always felt grateful that the society we lived in was not only accepting but encouraging of mothers who chose to breastfeed their babies. No matter where we went, it was easy to find special “Mother Rooms” in public locations, [...]

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She loves having babies. No, really. She loves being pregnant. She loves laboring and birthing her children into this world. So much that she’s done it three times. Each time she chose to experience things naturally, without drugs, and with little to no intervention or assistance. As I listen to her speak I realize that [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KIMBERLY MITCHELL I take it back. We’re going to have to save zenzai for another day. After 3 1/2 hours, we are 4% of the way done with our video upload. That is not good. Maybe by next week it will be finished. Maybe by next week, the black cloud of doom that [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KIMBERLY MITCHELL I think everyone’s parenting style is unique. You do what works for your family and what you think is right. And sometimes it fits in nicely with what your friends and family think you should do. And sometimes it doesn’t. I would venture a guess that at some point in your [...]

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