Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Eggy-nog

There are only 3 days until Christmas but I am having a hard time believing it considering today was a sunny 50 degrees and there are only a few struggling patches of dirty snow hiding in the shade. Steve and I will be celebrating our first Christmas as a married couple away from our families and have high hopes of going sledding... SO... I never thought I would say this, but, "COME ON SNOW!!!!" Our other Christmas plans involve making homemade eggnog (scary... I'll let you know how that turns out) and enjoying the Christmas tree that we had to put in our bedroom because it was too girthy for the living room:). It's my first real tree ever and I love it so much. The pine smell is sensational!

Last week I got to spend a few days in North Dakota for a little bit of family/friend time. There is so much going on! My little sister is half-way through her junior year of high school and I am SO proud of her. My dear friend Tiffany is engaged and it was so much fun to see her and talk about wedding plans and see how happy she is. My beloved Sarah-ki is expecting a baby!! She is due in June. After all of our talk in Africa about our fear of old maid-hood and here we are, blessed beyond belief. Thanks God for hearing our prayers and knowing our hearts!!!

I started a new job in November and couldn't be happier about it. The long home healthcare hours and never-ending paper work was taking its toll. I am now back in the hospital and working nights on the pediatrics floor. As much as I loved the NICU I am enjoying Peds even more because of the diversity in age and diagnosis. Since October I have been taking an online class in Forensic Nursing and at my new hospital have an opportunity to take Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner classes in March/April and join their SANE team. Who would have thought that I would love this area of nursing so much? I suppose it makes some sense, since my heart has always been broken for prostitutes and the injustice which angers me more than any other is human trafficking. I see God at work in this whole process, and hope that some day I will be able to be a part of rescuing women and children from sex trafficking rings as well as making sure their captors and the people paying for sex are convicted of their crimes. Steve and I have been praying a lot about where God is leading us and what He is calling us to do with our lives. We have prayed about Africa and seriously considered moving there. But, at least for now, we don't feel like that is the direction we should go. I feel broken about many things (Africa being a huge one) and want to be involved... but my wise husband often reminds me that in order to maximize effectiveness I need to focus. So, with much prayer and God's evident leading, I am diving head-first into sexual assault nursing and we will see what He does!

Steve continues to amaze me with all of his hard work as Children's Ministry Director at our church. It's all very new to him, but he's doing a fantastic job. When he is not at church he invests a huge chunk of time into making me laugh... over and over and over again. Every evening we spend together I think to myself, "this was the best evening ever." What an amazing gift... marriage to my best friend.

Our prayer for 2010 is that the Lord would bring us to a greater degree of maturity in Him. With all of the great teaching available to us at the click of a button, it is easy to sacrifice the irreplaceable reward of digging in to God's Word and letting Him speak to our own hearts. Sometimes we can listen to a 45 minute sermon online and feel that we have done our duty, but we accomplish nothing if we are not seeking Him ourselves. This Christmas I am so grateful to God for His patience with me, His grace which covers me, and His love which I understand ever-so-slightly more this year than ever before.

Here are a bunch of wedding photos for those of you not on facebook... much love and Merry Christmas!!!!!!