I never really planned to get active in the dialogue but was planning to
"look & learn." However, as usual, I find it hard not to participate. I
quietly introduced myself to Kathleen so she wouldn't be too concerned about
the stranger who joined Lactnet.

But since my story about the Rabbi & the pearls brought several "who are
you's" from various people, I'll introduce myself formally.

First, the "padre" comes because I'm an Episcopal priest who serves a
congregation in Dallas. The parish has a deep interest in healing and
reconciliation (we have a very active Parish Nurse Program, a full service
counseling center, and other outreach activities.) After a number of
personal incidents  as well as many incidents while doing pastoral care to
members of the congregations I've served I received the church's permission
to start a Home Health Care Agency, which I did in 1993. Slowly we have
expanded from Medicare only into exploring Medicare type programs. One of
the greatest needs we saw was providing maternal/infant nursing. The nurse
who started us down this track was transferred to Tennessee after converting
the whole staff to bf advocates. As administrator I'm trying to learn all I
can about various programs, both public (Medicare/Medicaid, WIC, etc.) and
private (expanded Employee Assistance programs for companies too small to
have maternal/infant coverage on their regular medical plans.)

I continue to be amazed at the openness on Lactnet. I pass on a lot of the
traffic to our nurse who is now studying to be certified so we can continue
the program. At times, with the volume of paper I print trying to reproduce
the interesting things in the digests, I almost think it would be cheaper to
buy her a computer and get her her own e-mail address.

Thanks for allowing me the privilege of learning so much from you all!
Richard G."Dick" Copeland
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