The Japanese have come, now we can have a baby

This pregnancy has been a lot different from past pregnancies for Holly. The best thing about this pregnancy is that Holly has been quite healthy. She hasn't had the constant morning sickness like she has had in past pregnancies. In past pregnancies, the constant sickness made it so that by month 9, she was willing to do anything to make the pregnancy be over. She would go on long walks, do jumping jacks, go on bumpy car rides, smell strange herbs, eat weird foods or anything else that may induce labor.

With this pregnancy, Holly has felt great. She has also been extremely busy. As a result, she has tried to avoid anything that may induce labor. She's had a long checklist that she MUST complete before the baby could arrive. Last week the doctor offered to strip her membranes (which is suppose to help induce labor). She turned down the doctors offer, because her list was not yet complete.

Well today, Holly crossed off the last thing on her list of things to do before the baby arrives. A group of school administrators from Japan have been planning a trip to Utah for the past 2 months. They specifically wanted to come to Summit Academy (where Packer & Holland go to school) because Summit is teaching Franklin Covey's 7 Habits program to their students. Summit is unique in that they are teaching the program to elementary aged students. The 7 Habits program is typically not introduced until a student is a teenager.

These Japanese administrators are hoping to implement the program that Holly is teaching at Summit into their private schools in Japan. They represent over 20,000 students in Japan. The administrators came to Summit today to watch Holly teach a 7 Habit lesson. They were accompanied by Franklin Covey's general manager of operations in Japan, Franklin Covey's research analyst and executives from the Franklin Covey corporate offices. They all spent close to 4 hours at Summit Academy observing the 7 Habits program and meeting with Holly to discuss future opportunities. As would be expected of the Japanese, they video taped every minute of the meeting. They intend to take the video back to Japan and use it as an instructional training guide for all of the teachers in their school system.

They are very interested in having Holly personally go to Japan to help them develop their curriculum (a 7 Habit curriculum does not exist for grades K-6) and to train their teaching staff. They asked if it would be possible for Holly to go to Japan before having the baby. She said probably not, since the baby is due in one week. They are trying to convince her to come in September once school starts again. If she is unable, they will send their curriculum developers to Utah to meet with her here.

The Franklin Covey employees from the corporate offices were so impressed with the 7 Habit program at Summit that they have offered Summit all kinds of resources for upcoming years. They've also asked if they can do a case study on Summit Academy. They have offered to provide Summit Academy with a curriculum developer to help expand the formal K-6 program.

It was also fun for Packer because Holly used Packer's class to teach the 7 Habit lesson. All of Packer's class learned several phrases in Japanese, Japanese greetings and a Japanese song to present to the group. They had Japanese decor throughout the classroom and really made them feel welcome at their school.

So now that the Japanese have come, Holly can finally have the baby. In fact, right after the Japanese left, Holly went straight to the doctor's office to have her membranes stripped.