In the Spotlight

What gets you out of bed on a weekday?

Honestly it’s the knowledge that every extra minute spent in bed is an extra five minutes waiting in the kiss and drop traffic out the front of Donvale Christian College. We have five kids, our mornings are hectic!

What was your first paid job?

Maccas. I worked at Croydon McDonalds with my school bestie Melanie Bourchier (Burns). We lived a couple of houses apart when we were born, we went to the same kinder, Prep to Year 12 at Donvale, worked at Maccas together and something I’m still so excited about 20 years later- I got the exact same enter score as Melanie Burns!! I thought it was just the greatest thing running Maccas drive thru on a weekend morning with Mel. 

Thinking back to your years at Donvale, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then?

I wish I had chosen subjects that I enjoyed rather then the ones I thought would get marked up, and I wish I had played more sport. 

Who in the public eye would you most and least like to work with?

I would most like to work with Chilli Heeler. She is hero worthy and I reckon she’d make a great midwife. I actually don’t know who I would least like to work with! 

What is the strangest situation you have been in at work?

At St Vincent’s I worked in plastics. That is a very strange ward with very strange surgeries. We did leech therapy where we used leeches to help save body parts that we had reattached. Frequently on night shift I would discover that someone had left the rock off the leech tank holding the lid down, so then we would find escapee leeches all over the ward all night.

I got to care for patients having pretty crazy surgeries. I looked after a man who had a hind quarter amputation and so to cover the deficit they attached his foot directly to his bum. They did other surgeries which required more skin to grow on a man’s hand, so to enable this they embedded his hand into his hip for a few months until the skin had stretched and multiplied and they could then harvest it. I also got to look after Australia’s first hand transplant which was pretty cool. 

Now I’m a midwife where I am surrounded by the miracle of pregnancy and childbirth. The whole process is absolutely strange, but it is also incredibly amazing and wonderful and miraculous. 

Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?

My friend Brad, because he is a lift mechanic. He was permanently rostered at St Vincent’s when I worked there because their lifts are always broken. Or otherwise I’d kinda like to be stuck in a lift with my husband Scott so that we could actually chat without the kids interrupting every second minute. 

What book are you reading at the moment?

Readers. I read a lot of readers with my prep and grade 2 daughters. Some of the readers are so old that they were readers back when I was in primary school.  I'm also reading The 27th Annual African Hippopotamus Race at bedtime to my eldest 3 kids. We just finished How to Eat Fried Worms. 

What was the last CD you bought? (Or album downloaded!)

For King and Country. Whatever the Year 4s are using for worship of a morning is generally what ends up being downloaded and played on repeat. 

What song will always get you on the dance floor?

Our wedding song L.O.V.E. by Nat King Cole. We had a lady choreograph our wedding dance for us. We cringe at the memory of it, neither of us have any idea why we actually did it, but it does makes us laugh a lot remembering it.

Where is your favourite place in the world?

The creek. We have a creek at the back of our property which the kids love to spend hours playing in. I love watching them explore and I really appreciate that such a beautiful and peaceful part of God's creation is right on our back doorstep. I love going there after heavy rain with the fresh air smell, and watching the creek bubble and flow, while putting on a worship song and instantly my heart feels calm.