Memphis Democrat
July 13, 2006

Rachel here, reporting on two exciting weeks at Dancing Rabbit. I missed the early deadline last week because of Independence Day.

Probably the most exciting event was the addition of our newest and littlest member. Aurelia Mae Sterling was born to DR members Sara Peters and Ted Sterling Friday June 30 at 11:59pm, the last possible moment of the month. She ' weighed 7lb 7oz, was 21.5 inches long, and has been delighting her parents, ' friends and one set of grandparents in her first week of life. Sara ' labored at home for much of the day before potential complications ' indicated a transfer to Scotland County Memorial Hospital. Her support ' team traveled with her, including Ted and other DR members Tony and Tamar, ' and the nurses and Dr. Schneider were wonderfully accommodating, capable ' and kind. Aurelia was born naturally as her parents had hoped, and turned ' out to be the first natural birth at the new Women's Center. Sara and Ted ' are so pleased to be parents and can't imagine a better place to raise a ' child.

But Aurelia was not the only birthday. July is almost the official birthday month at Dancing Rabbit and we have already celebrated several. Cecil was in India for his birthday and we had to make do with a static-y phone call. But he returned a few days later and folks performed "spectacles" (a Dancing Rabbit tradition) to celebrate. Jennifer invited several of us for a Girl's Night Out in Kirksville for her birthday. It was fun to see the group of women in their fancy dresses getting into the pickup truck to play pool and eat out. We celebrated Tom's birthday with an "exploding movie" projected onto the wall of the Common House. And there are more birthdays to come.

Even though we have been on break from our visitor program, we have had a huge influx of guests. We had three different groups over for our Neighbor Series, including the Feeney family. Sara and Ted had several friends come through for the birth, including Jes and her son Skyler. Jes is a former member of Dancing Rabbit and is still on our Board. Former member Jacque also visited with her son Narayan.

We hosted a house concert for a group of musicians traveling across the country in a car running on biodiesel and vegetable oil. First, they led a coloring book workshop and then three singer songwriters played a concert. We also hosted a group of 40 Taiwanese high school students for a tour. They have been living in Kirksville studying English for 5 weeks at Truman and came by for the day to experience the diversity of how Americans live.'

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