Introduction: Jim and Jan Fly the Coop!

We are off on a year of teaching, travel, adventure, and, no doubt, some memorable mis-steps. After more than thirty years of our much-loved day jobs as a nurse and an educator, we've rented our home, packed a couple of suitcases, and are aiming to make new friends in our greater (world) community as we share our life's work along the way. We left June 15, 2013, for our first stop in California where we visited with my sister, Nancy, and her family, and then we joined them for a week of snorkeling and relaxing on the island of Hawaii. Right now we are in Honolulu for a few days, pointing West...and planning to keep going that way.

Jan has contacted lactation, childbirth and parenting professionals, as well as nursing educators, about HUG Your Baby. She is delighted by the enthusiastic response of professionals engaged in the important work of supporting new and expectant parents. Thus far, presentations are scheduled in nursing schools, parenting institutes, international conferences, lactation, childbirth and doula organization, and hospitals in:

Seoul, Korea
Tokyo and Kagawa, Japan
Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart, Australia
Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Thailand
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I am traveling with my musical, Ariel's Way. I plan to meet with international schools and producers who might be interested in his adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. In addition, I'm entering retirement with a new (and, perhaps, not surprising) passion: educating and supporting new fathers. After years of editing Jan's HUG materials, and decades of being "Dad" to our now-grown sons, I think that I want to help new fathers become the good dads they hope to be. "Dad's Got The HUG" has been conceived and will be growing towards birth during our year of travel and study.

Jan and I plan to take you with us--in spirit and in stories. If our experiences with HUG Your Baby are of interest to you, you might take an occasional peep at The HUG blog found at http://givethehug.blogspot.com. Our more personal experiences will be documented here in our Tedder-Henderson blog (http://tedderhenderson.blogspot.com).

You are invited to take an occasional peep at either blog, or to receive our periodic postings by email. (To receive the posting by email, go to either blog, click "FOLLOW THIS BLOG BY EMAIL" in the top right box, and add your email address. Don't worry! Unsubscribing at any moment is always an option!)

We feel blessed by the people who have supported and encouraged us these many years, and who, in so many important ways, have made possible our own growth and development. If you are reading this blog, you are one of those people. Please let us know if you have international contacts who might like to meet HUG Your Baby or to learn about Ariel's Way!