When my first husband, Brent, and I began to explore the secrets and dreams of our hearts through the burgeoning of our relationship, we discovered, young as we were, we’d both given a lot of thought to the sort of marriage we desired to enjoy and the way we intended to rear our children. From our courtship to[…]
Twenty-seven years ago, at 119 Iroquois Street in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the chilly, snowy, wee hours of Sunday, December 8th, 1991, Hannah Evangeline Woodard–now Simmons–burst into the world. This is the story of her birth, as told in my book, A Midwife in Amish Country. Three months after our autumn wedding, Brent quit his job[…]
“To everything there’s a season… A time… And the Lord’s made everything beautiful in its time…“ Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 This season… Since I was of cognitive thought I’ve experienced the span of days from ThanksGiving through Christmas to New Year as a single, wondrous season… A season brimming with the very warmest of memories… A[…]
Good morning, Friends! I’m offering half off signed editions of both my books, A Midwife in Amish Country and Nourish + Thrive from Black Friday through Cyber Monday or until those I have in stock are gone! Click here to take advantage of the sale! Kim Woodard Osterholzer, Colorado Springs Homebirth Midwife and Author Books by[…]
As I said when I shared in regard to our Christmas traditions last year, Brent and I “wanted to cut sharp against the grain of American culture and tradition, and we were aware that the pursuit of our cross-current ideas would require the forging of a new culture and the crafting of new traditions.” We wanted to keep things[…]
Many thanks to Danica Donnelly for inviting my to share how I feel about birth photography on her blog! It was a joy to write a short story about a thing I cherish so! And I do cherish it so! Yes, I’m a midwife and I get paid real money (well, usually–I’ve been known to[…]
Oh my gosh! What a great time! I treasured the opportunity to spend an afternoon sharing what I treasure with two most authentic men and their audience. Sam and Blaine Eldredge of And Sons Magazine invited me to join them for this week’s podcast to, as Sam put it, “talk about birth! Our audience is[…]
Amish America recently sent me a list of questions their readers submitted in response to an article about my book. Erik Wesner, the site’s editor, gave me permission to share a few here on my own site! I thought I’d start with this one and fill in a bit more of the story. “Are you[…]
3:49 a.m., Saturday morning, October 27th The jangling of my telephone jolted me awake. “Mom—I just hit another deer.” … I’m incredibly proud of my daughter, Hannah Simmons, one of southwest Michigan’s handful of wonderful homebirth midwives. … Hannah tagged along to a number of births through her girlhood—invited by expectant mothers in hopes her[…]
The theme of my posts these days seems to be “done is better than perfect!” So, here’s another little snippet of my life for you taste. It’s not perfect, but it’s done, and I do hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I did living it! Here we go! We threw a party[…]