I can, already, pretty much assure you that this will be a completely random post. I don’t have much of an idea of what I want to say and its been a pretty typical week for me. Aside for a few things, this week has just been the normal life of Amelia.
So, Thursday at work (I’ve had to change a few details of this story), P came in to see me about his heart. It was the first time I had seen her and so I was getting a complete history on her. She admits to me that she uses meth quite often. Drugs, and sex, have unfortunately become very popular conversation topics for me at CHC. So, I tell P about all the horrible things that I have seen meth do to people and reasons why, with her particular health problems, she was terribly at risk of causing serious harm to herself. She admitted that normally she didn’t tell this to her doctors but that she didn’t feel like lying that day. I thanked her for her honesty and we continued talking. I decide that she needs some testing and I let one of my best volunteers go in to do the testing. I go back in the room a little while later and I can tell that P and L are having a very intense conversation so I just told them I would come back in a bit and I start seeing another patient. The next thing I know one of my counselors is asking me if I referred P to them. At this point, I didn’t even recognize P’s name; I had already moved on. Our counselor says, “P just got saved.” I was completely caught off guard. Later, L and I went to lunch across the street and I see P in the parking lot and she was thanking me incessantly for what I had done for her. I don’t know that I have ever felt so inadequate as I did then. I responded to her but I kept telling everyone, “I didn’t do anything.” When L and I went to lunch, I asked her what happened when she was in the room with P. She told me that she walking in the room and P was sobbing. She asked P what was wrong and she told L that she just couldn’t quit doing meth. L asked her if she would like to know how she could have power to not do meth to which P quickly responded yes. L told her about Jesus and the power we have in Him and how we don’t get clean to come to Jesus but we come to Jesus and he cleans us. L took P to our counselors and they immediately connected. When L and I were going to lunch P and one of our counselors were also headed to lunch. P is now paying off her debts in the neighborhood and is meeting regularly with all of our people. Our counselor came back and again was talking about what happened and again I told him that I didn’t do anything. He said “Isn’t that the best thing? We don’t have to do anything? God does everything!” which is obviously what happened. I will update you as I here how P is doing.
Also, when I eat lunch at the McDonald’s in our neighborhood, I usually try to eat in the corner because people there always know who I am. L and I went back in the corner to eat last week, and this plump old man comes and sits in the booth behind us and says “Girls, its getting cold outside” which we affirmed with a nod. Then he looked at L and said “You got a few dollars to spare?” ,”No”, “Well, can you buy me some food? I’m hungry.” At which point, I chime in “Well, why don’t you go over to the church to get some lunch?” (There is an episcopal church across the street from us that serves free lunch to whoever wants it every single day.) He looked at me, laughed, and said “Because I don’t like that food.” Who said beggars can’t be choosers?! Apparently in my neighborhood, you can. :)
In triathlon news, I am beginning to look like neither of these women :) however, I have successfully completely all of my different distances for each event this week. I rode the tri bike for the first time and didn’t die. I have run a bit and am finally getting in pretty good running shape, and the other night I finally made it back to the pool and swam my full race distance. Resuming swimming when you are 15, or 20, or 30, feels quite different. Among other things, even my feet are sore now :)
Lastly, in very exciting news for me, I am heading to Auburn to see one of my favorite families, and another one of our dear old auburn friends, next week. Unfortunately, the last time J and I took a picture together seems to be when her eldest son was a baby :) But I am excited about getting to spend some time with them and their newest little lady.
Much love.
This post has absolutely nothing to do with anything that I usually write about but is a joy of mine and therefore and I am going to write and post obnoxiously too much. I love flowers. I took this picture almost a year ago. They are flowers that I “collected” :) from the neighborhood.
However somehow between then and now, life happened. I’m not sure exactly what happened to my poor plants. I just decided to do other things and I have neglected them. But my poor plants are hearty little guys and just need a little love and hopefully will be beautiful again in a few weeks. I decided to do before and after pictures and pictures of todays progress. You’ll have to come back soon to see the new after pictures.
Just a side note, as most of you know I don’t have children. So many of the analogies in the Bible have to do with families, and while I do have a great one, I don’t have one of my own, so I am sure that I don’t understand what it means to love a child like a parent. What I realized today is there are also a lot about tending to the fields, good and bad soil, and pruning. I had my own little enjoyed moment with those analogies as I worked with my flowers today. I think you should give it a try – having plants that is :)
before
after
before
after :(
before
my favorite before
sadly, after
So, I started over. I dug up all the good plants and threw away the dead ones. Put new dirt in all the pots . . .
the goods
ready new homes
Now, I wish I had some exciting picture to post of all the beautiful flowers in their new homes, but alas, the “soon” title. So, hopefully, one day in the near future I will have this to look at :)
my dream
Much love to each of you – especially if you made it this far this time :)
From one of my favorite authors:
For thou, O Spring, canst renovate, All that high God did first create – R.W. Emerson
Well, I took a little unexpected break from my blog because the death virus came to visit me and there was not one part of that visit that I enjoyed. I got to be off of work for a couple days for the new year which was a lot of fun but then the true flu showed up at my doorstep. If you had seen me, you would have been very much inspired to go get your flu shot :) It’s absolutely miserable . . . but I am better now and have made it back to work which has not lost any of its liveliness and vibrancy at all!
These stories are from yesterday alone!
I see this patient, Larry, that was shot and bled so much that he now has what we call an anoxic brain injury (basically from not getting enough oxygen to his head.) He is a young guy and his family is doing their best to take care of him but he is a lot of work. He has no physical abilities at all anymore. He is still able to talk but many times, people with brain injuries also hurt their frontal lobe which is in charge of your speech and personality. It’s not a good thing to ding. Many of these people who are still able to function, but become completely different people than they used to be. In the more severe situations, they will still be able to speak but lose all control of what they are saying. Unfortunately, often times, the words they repeat are horrible – even in people who never used bad language at all in their lives. Its kind of strange and I don’t completely understand it but it’s not an uncommon occurence. But Larry is physically incapable of doing anything, literally, and then he has also injured his frontal lobe causing the above problems.
So, Larry came in to see Dr. Record and the dentist yesterday. I saw him the first time and he was repeating what he said but was not using bad language but recently he came in and saw Dr. Record and the Dentist and just screamed, “B&#%$!, B&#%$!, B&#%$!, B&#%$!, B&#%$!” incessantly. So, we were prepared for his visit ( he has to be brought by ambulance.) Well, the ambulance crew showed up and here comes Larry screaming as loud as he can over and over ”You F*&$ing B*&$#!!!” all the way down the hall, to a room, during his exam, etc. Well, Dr. Record asked me to go in his room to do something. I went in and he started say “B*&%$!” repeatedly. (It’s so bad that his mother keeps his mouth covered with a rag to try to tone it down a bit.) I had talked to him before so I just looked at him and said “My name is not bitch. My name is Amelia.” To which he responds, “Oh, Hi Amelia. How are you?” It just made me a laugh.
Also, yesterday, Savannah, a new nurse practitioner student, started working with me. I forget that some of the things that used to seem so shocking to me, aren’t quit so shocking anymore – ie my boarding home patients. You can never be quite sure how they are going to act and honestly I think they really know how they are going to act either :). I asked Savannah to go get our next patient, Ms. B. Well, Savannah, who has already been a nurse for 3 years, takes forever to get her vitals. I thought it must be because she is new. Finally, Savannah shows up and says, in her sweet, soft spoken voice, “I think you’ve got your work cut out for you.” She wouldn’t let Savannah get her blood pressure or her weight because “the devil did it.” :) I see it’s a boarding home patient here’s this and says that its my typical patient. Since it was Savannah’s first day, she was just going and seeing the patients with me. Normally, when I go in the room, I introduce myself and shake hands with the people – I’m not sure why I started that but I do. I introduced myself to Ms. B and went to shake her hand and she sat there with her arms crossed and said “I can’t shake your hand.” (Just to get a good picture, she has on a brown flowered dress with bright purple knee highs that don’t quite reach the bottom of her dress, sandals, which show her purple knee highs, and a big fluffy green jacket.) I try to ask her history and she kept saying “I just have symptoms. I just have symptoms of these things. I don’t have diabetes. They command my blood sugar to be what it will be and it is. This is all a lie. I’m not even supposed to be here. This is a lie.” . . . and on and on she went. All in all, she won’t let me touch her and she won’t let me draw her blood so I can’t really do anything. She did, however, come from one of our better boarding homes so I went out to try to talk to someone about her. There was a man who had brought her and he apologized profusely to me and told me that they have a hard time with her and that she is “delusional.” I laughed and told him that I noticed. He walks back with me and says, “Come on Ms. B, let them draw your blood.” “Ok but as long as they don’t give a drop of it to my sister. If she gets even a drop of it, she will be beautiful.” I reassured her that I would give it to Howard who has a handlebar mustache, and only to Howard (He picks up our labs every day.) So, in the end, we got some blood from her but I was never allowed to touch her. She’s coming back to see me in a couple of weeks :)
And, finally, one of the more beautiful stories I have heard in a while. (I have permission to share this story and so I can use their real names.) My last patient, Ms. Bell, has Alzheimer’s and is brought by a caregiver – which usually means they are from a boarding home. Well, I see Ms. Bell and as I am finishing , I asked the woman sitting in the corner if she was related to Ms. Bell, and she said “No, Ms. Bell was given to me by DHR.” Well, now I am a little confused so I asked her if Ms. Bell lived with her, and this story just bellowed out of her. (It made my week!) She said, “I used to run an assisted living until 3 years ago when my husband suddenly died. He wasn’t sick or anything. He just died. I got so lost. I thought I was losing my mind. I gave my assisting living to my daughter and she runs it now. She came and stayed with me too because I was so depressed. I just lost everything. Then DHR called a few months ago needing help with Ms. Bell. She has Alzheimer’s and she wanders and her family had given her up and she was living in deplorable situations. (Because she is a wanderer, she can’t stay in an assisted living . . . because she can wander away.) So, I took her in to my home. Ms. Bell has saved me. I’m not depressed any more. I am alive again. (Ms. Bell is a biter but apparently has her moments of lucidity.) Sometimes, I will be sitting in my chair and I will start crying and Ms. Bell, she calls me Sally, will say ‘Sally, is that you I hear crying?’ and I will say ‘Yes, Ms. Bell’ and she will come put her arms around me and say ‘Well, Sally don’t you cry. Everything is going to be ok. Everyone woman needs her own home. I don’t know why God has me here either instead of my own home but everything will be ok.’ I was also sad when my daughter went back home to my husband and was crying one day and Ms. Bell looked at me and said ‘Sally, you remember what it was like to have your own husband don’t you?’ and I said ‘Yes, Ms. Bell.’ ‘Well, then you let her go home and have her home with her husband. Everything will be ok.’” So, Sally and Ms. Bell live together now and apparently each is blessing the other more than they ever would have imagined I’m sure. I had Dr. Record come in and asked ‘Sally’ if I could tell her story and Robert looked at her when she finished and said “Do you believe in God?” She said, yes. He said “Is this not what it means to love the Lord?” Sally just looked back through tears.
I love you all my dear friends.
I went to bed last night not feeling very well but, unlike most cases, I woke up this morning feeling much, much worse , with a 103 temperature and felt like death. I don’t think there was any part of my body that did not hurt. It was miserable and it has been a really, really long time since I have been this sick. I don’t feel good now but I feel much better compared to this morning. It’s all relative now today :).
Unfortunately with my job now, there was a whole schedule of patients for me to see. Robert was just going to try to see them. I hope it works out ok. We’ve never had one of us not be there yet. I guess it was inevitable but today is the first time.
So, between my sleeping and reading, I have had quite a bit of time to think today. I have a couple of fun stories from last week and a book recommendation, or two.
Someone gave me a book a couple of weeks ago to read, Four Souls. It is about several guys that have just graduated from college and want to do something different and special with their lives. They decide to travel around the world and work with missionaries for a year. While their struggles and lessons they learn are interesting, my favorite part of the book is listening to the advice and stories of all of these indigenous people from around the world. Their perspective on life is so completely different from ours. It will make you reconsider how we live a bit. It’s not the most well-written book ever, but I highly recommend it.
On the same note, I hade “international day” one day last week at the health center. First, I saw an African patient of mine again last week. Last time I saw her, she would not let me increase her blood pressure medicine because her “head was cold.” I don’t really have any good arguments or education about cold heads :) so I just told her to come back in 2 weeks and we would see if her blood pressure was still up then. She comes back and her blood pressure is still elevated. I asked her about taking her medicine and she is but this time her “head is hot” so I got to adjust her meds. I’ve never really dealt with cold heads so I guess I just got lucky that her head was hot the second time.
I also got to see a Guatemalan teacher who was a diabetic who was here visiting her family for the holidays. To me, diabetes is not such a complicated thing. Most of the time, if you will spend a little time with someone, they understand why foods affect them differently and the understanding helps them to know what to do if they have problems. This lady’s son was translating for me. I gave her a diabetes book in Spanish and I had time so I spent about an hour with them. She got so excited about her book and her new understand. She told me that she was “going to teach all of Guatemala.” She was so thankful. It was really fun for me that she gained understanding and that she wanted to teach others. Hispanics have such a high incidence of diabetes so it will be great for her to share her book and her knowledge with other people. Situations like this one are why I love my job.
Well, I hope your week is getting off to a better start than mine.
Joy to you.
This is a little heavier than my normal post but it seems to fit in a season of new beginnings. All that we long and hope for is Real.
“We were made for God. Only by being in some respect like him, only by being a manifestation of his beauty, lovingkindness, wisdom or goodness, has any earthly beloved excited our love. It is not that we have loved them too much, but that we did not quite understand what we were loving. It is not that we shall be asked to turn from them, so dearly familiar, to a Stranger. When we see the face of God, we shall know that we have always known it. He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love. All that was true in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His. In Heaven there will be no anguish and no duty of turning away from our earthly beloveds. First, because we shall have turned already; from the portraits to the Original, from the rivulets to the Fountain, from the creatures He made loveable to love Himself. But secondly because we shall find them all in Him. By loving Him more than them, we shall love them more than we now do.” – C.S. Lewis from The Four Loves
Also, this is from a friend of mine who is living and teaching in Mongolia. It speaks of hard times but also of Hope. I love this.
“These thoughts sting my heart, and then the passion just runs deeper for me to remain. This passion makes no sense to my mind but only to my heart. In my right mind, I am perplexed some days not understanding why I am here. Am I ruining my chances of marriage, being a mother and wife? How can I miss all the memories of being with my family whom I love so much? And how can they even believe how much they mean to me when I am here? Will I grow old alone? The people here don’t seem to want me here either? But deeper still, my heart tells another story. The questions seem to be brought to a place of complete peace and contentment under the Spirit of Him who lives in me. My future is for Him to hold. My dreams for Him to fulfill. I am not wise enough to handle my own future. It is He that has created me for wonderful things that He prepared in advance (Eph 2:10).
Somehow, my heart can’t believe one bit their thoughts about themselves or their thoughts about me. Oh, I believe that those thoughts are true to them, but I don’t believe that its their destiny or who they are. Not when I look in to my Father’s heart and into His Kingdom. He sweeps me off my feet and takes me in to the Kingdom of which is mine in Him, and I feel like a princess in a castle, with not one single need. And what makes sense to my mind just simply doesn’t matter anymore; only what makes sense to Him matters. And then in that moment, I feel an inexpressible joy and freedom, that I want to share with everyone. It’s a freedom that I could have never shared if it weren’t for him allowed my heart to reach those places of desperation where I felt dead and it was up to Him alone to rescue me.
He has taken me to the most awful and terrible places. Places I never knew could possibly exist. I felt like a little girl lost in a huge wild forest. I only hoped in the darkness that lions wouldn’t jump out and eat me; that somehow, someone familiar would come and hold me close and take me to the safety of my own home where I belong. But all I could hear were the lions roaring, the snakes hissing, and all of these scary creatures coming after me. My worst fears staring me in the face, me on the bottom, and all of them on top of me.
Hear’s the end of this story. It’s not a fairy tale; it’s the truth. Though my heart had heard of my Prince in shining armour, Jesus rescuing me, I guess my heart was still filled with unbelief. But not now. My heart has experienced him so personally. None of those snakes or lions could destroy me. The feeling of true freedom is riding within me. Now I feel more protected than I ever have in all my life. He brought me through it all, to show me how much more I have in Him. To show me its all small compared to him. To show me He defeated it all on the cross and IT IS FINISHED because of who He is, its done. I am forever free and no one can take away the rights I have in Him. No, nothing in this world, can stop His lover for me or the people around me. In Him, I can get healed faster than anyone can hurt me. In Him, I can keep taking the first move no matter how strong the rejection is out there. And since I know that He is stronger than all my hatred, and all my bitterness, and all my complaints, I know He is that also for those around me.
No, we are not victims with no belongings walking in the wilderness only to one day be eaten by some big lion out there. We are more than conquerors. We can’t lose. So I can say I am so thankful that He has taken me on this journey. I will dream on. I’m having fun. I say let’s go because You know their destiny and Your blood was already shed for them. We believe together.” – Jen Ridley
I long for new hope for each of you this new year.
Again, my sincerest love.
The past few weeks have been so good. I have stories galore and have enjoyed this season more than I have in the last few years for some reason. I have gotten to catch up with old friends, spend time with the newest addition to my family, see my dear boys, a relish my family that is doing so well right now.
Last week, my roommate and I packed up and went to the Smokies to go see an old friend of mine from college that lives there now. It was a spectacular getaway. I enjoyed it so much that, having been given the option, I just wouldn’t have come back :)
We went on a hike on the Appalachian trail (the first time for me.) The views from it were amazing. I had someone tell me once that he got claustrophobic in the mountains “because you can’t get out.” While I don’t feel the same way as him, it is a good description of what you see. Mountains for as far as you can see. Peak after peak. It was beautiful. The other impressive part of the trail was how quiet it was. There was no wind, birds, talk, planes, traffic . . . anything. The silence made me ears ring. I don’t know if I have ever been anywhere that was that quiet.
The second day we were there, it snowed. Ben, my little cousin, was looking at the pictures from the trip and saw the snow and said, “It’s the size of ‘hell’.” I had no idea what he was talking about until I realized that he was saying “hail.” The snowflakes were huge and it literally turned the mountains into a beautiful white forest within hours. I haven’t seen that much snow since I lived in Nashville. I turned in to a little kid and just wanted to walk and play in the snow.
The next day, we went snow skiing. It was Stacey’s first time to ski and I hadn’t skied in 15 years. It was so much fun too. It was snowing at the ski slopes too. I enjoyed riding in the lifts and looking at the mountains, trees, and houses covered with snow as much as I enjoyed skiing. It did make me want to go somewhere and ski on some bigger mountains. Any takers?
Its been interesting too, since college, as I meet up with old friends on trips and at weddings and showers, to see them grow and change. Some of my friends seem exactly the same as they were in college; like no time has been lost. You can seem to just step back in time and regale memories. Other people seem to be the same but also completely different; as if they have been refined by Life. (Just like watching my brother become a loving father, all in one moment it seemed.) I enjoyed spending time with my old friend. He has definitely changed and has become a very gracious, kind man.
I got to have Christmas here in town with roommates of Christmas past and Christmas present. We had such a good time! We also continued on our gingerbread house making tradition with the Tippetts. It’s so funny how traditions begin, especially with children. You something for fun one year and they expect that you will do it the next year. This year we did break tradition, however, and went to the Tippetts’ instead of doing it here. It is so fun to see each of them in action. Hope is so creative and precise. She has amazing ideas and goes off in to her own world in her head when she is creating. Emmy wants to be like Hope and also still wants to be the baby so she requests assistance and copies Hope. She did break out a few of her own creative ideas this year though. I ended up being the one to help Chas this year. The past two years have consisted of him eating almost entire bags of icing. This year he wanted to eat the gum drops but got his own ideas rolling on his little house. It ended with a tree and wreaths on the roof and a set of runny windows and doors but I was proud of him for decorating this year.
I also have been home with my family. Life seems to have such different seasons, and this has been such a good one for my family. My parents seem so happy to be with each other. They have become grandparents for the first time. My brother and his wife have become doting parents. My sister and her husband have bought their first home. I listen and see some of my other friends’ families and the stark contrast between my family and theirs increases my thankfulness. It has not always been so sweet but that seems to make the sweetness even sweeter.
(This is such a sweet picture of my mom and dad. Don’t you just love the opossum head in the corner? :)
We play this game every year called “Christmas Eve Gift.” The object of the game is to say it first to every family member you see on Christmas Eve. This is a longstanding tradition in my family. I know for sure that it goes as far back as my great-grandmother. I don’t know past that. This game, however, is very, very competitive :) I remember when I was little, waking up as early as possible to hide in the house so that I could get my parents. This year, for some reason, was an especially competitive year. Everyone was trying to get everybody.
I drove home without telling anyone I was coming. My dad called when I was almost to his house and I told him that I hadn’t left Birmingham. I got in the driveway, past his dog, but then couldn’t find the right key to get in the house and got found. Then I had dad call mom to have her come home “to get something.” She came home and I hid in the backyard. Apparently, my dog came around the side of the house that I was on and so my mom decided to sneak back the way my dog came. I was listening for her and my Aunt and decided to text my sister and tell her I was home. At the very moment that I looked down to text, my mom turned the corner and screams “Christmas Eve Gift!” In one moment of fear and disgust, I screamed and jump and stomped my feet. My mom laughed so hard that she peed on herself. I have never seen her laugh so hard. Then I went up to my grandmother’s and tried to run in before I was spied by the boys but they got me too. Then everyone came back to my parents’ house and Jon finally got off work and showed up at their house and everyone ran to hide. Apparently, he saw everyone running to hide so he came to the front door and opened and shut the front door and didn’t come in. Then he snuck around to the back and came in the back door. Ben and I were sitting behind my parents’ bed listening for the onslaught to begin when Jon comes in their room and screams “Christmas Eve Gift.” I was so shocked that I screamed again :) I got made fun of for that one :) So, all in all, I did not do well in Christmas Eve Gift this year.
Ben and Wilson also got these airsoft BB guns for Christmas that are made to shoot each other with. They are so much fun. We played with those all Christmas afternoon. I might go buy me some so we can play with them here. There are battle pictures here, the rest of the family Christmas pictures here, and my Birmingham Christmas pictures here.
I hope you all also got to have a very happy and joyful Christmas!
My sincerest love to you all.
It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! I love the entire Christmas season. I love giving gifts. I love all of the lights but make all of the darkness cheery. I love spending real, quality time with my friends and my family. So, I’ve again been a poor blogger but its been because life has been so enjoyable.
This would be hugely due to this sweet baby girl who has shown up in my life.
One of the greatest parts, as much a I love her, was watching my brother become a father all in one moment.
I didn’t realize until I was at the hospital that he has never even changed a diaper before. But he is going on as a father with all of the zeal in the world.
Also, there have been parties galore. I got to go to the work party for my old job this week. It was so much fun. I got to see all of the guys that I used to work with and was greeted by each of them with a hug. I am missed them and my job so. It was nice to see they felt the same way. We ate and laughed and talked and had a great time.
We also got to a Christmas party at CHC yesterday too. They actually closed the office and we got to all eat together . . . which is one of my very favorite things. I got to see Robert’s newly adopted daughter for the first time too.
Coming up, I have Christmas with all of my roommates here, both past and present, :) a trip to hike and possibly ski in TN, Christmas and gingerbread house making with some of my favorite kiddos in the world, and the home to be with my family and my favorite niece!
I have a feeling that I am going to continue to be an unfaithful blogger but I will have plenty of pictures up soon.
I love you all and thanks for being interested in my life. I hope you all have a very happy Christmas if I don’t write again before.
Much love and joy.
I had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. I am officially going to be an aunt in 3 days, so my sister-in-law wasn’t allowed to leave home, so me and the rest of my family went to them. I can only think of one or two times in my entire life when we have not had Thanksgiving at my parents has with 5,000 people and children present. And those times, we just moved Thanksgiving and the 5,000 to my grandfather’s house who just lives a couple miles up the road. So, for all of us to people a couple hours away from home and totalling only 8 people (and 6 dogs :) was very different, but it was nice. It was very odd to see mom cook such small quantities of food though. I very much enjoyed the smallness of it though. It was very relaxing and we all just enjoyed each other’s company. I’m pretty sure we are all ready to meet little Brooklyn too!
Also, as an update, the baby shower for our young pregnant girl at TDC was absolutely amazing. It made both the girl and her mom cry. I wanted to cry when I saw all of the gifts that were there for her. They had to get a 12 passenger van and a police escort to be able to get everything home. The other wonderful thing was seeing the amazing changes in the girl in her mom since that horrible day when I confirmed what they both already knew – that she was pregnant. The girl was so flat that day; didn’t cry or say anything. Her mom was obviously disappoint, angry, afraid, and upset. At the shower, the girl was glowing. Her friends and family came to support her and her mother was there with her as well. It was so wonderful to see. She was told that she would be taken care of and she was . . . much more beyond just what she needed.
Needless to say, December will be baby month. Robert will bring his new little girl home. The girl from the shower will have her baby, and I will become an aunt – all before Christmas. It should be exciting times.
Love.
Again, I have been such a poor blogger. I’ve had to limit my stories about my patients a bit and so it has made it harder for me to write. I love telling stories.
I do have a couple really fun stories that I can share.
Do you remember a while back, I had a young 16-year-old girl who came in for a school physical and we found out that she was several months pregnant? Well, her baby is due in mid-December. She and her mom and the father of the baby are all doing very well. They have been plugged in to the Dream Center and they have taken exceptional care of them. They are having a baby shower for her and her baby tomorrow which I am so excited about. I feel like someone in my family is having a baby. I had the best time picking out gifts for her!
Also, Robert and Leland finally got their travel papers to go get their little girl, Mimi, from China. They are flying out to go get her as I write this. I am so excited for that little girl. She has no idea how much work and effort has been put in to her little life and what magnificent changes are about to come her way. It is such a beautiful picture. I can’t wait to meet her.
Finally, last week was a particularly hard week for me at work. During that time, I was thinking about what things I like most about my job and I thought I would share them here. They are in no particular order but are things that I really enjoy most about being at CHC.
1. Our boarding home patients
2. Getting to know and become friends with our wonderful volunteers
3. Our great staff
4. Seeing peoples’ lives changed through the work of the health and dream centers
5. All of our counseling office staff
6. Our dentist
7. Seeing desparate people find hope
8. My great students
9. Having my family pop in for visits
10. The hope and possibility of all that is to come.
I love you all and thank you so much for all of your support. If I don’t write again before next week, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
My sincerest love.
