Learning From Children

Ok, so my child is going to be 20 years old in three days.

I learn something from him every time he visits.

There are lessons he probably doesn't even know he's teaching in most conversations!

Is it wrong to just beam with pride just looking at a picture like this one?

Well if it is, then I'm in trouble!

What is he doing here? Reading a "self help" book of some type.

Not an assignment for school. Not a required read.

A hobby.

A constant striving for improvement.

A continued willingness to stand up in front of congregations of people and preach Christ.

Yes, he taught Bible class and preached for us on Sunday morning.

Later, he asked me to recite one memorable thing from either class or the sermon.

My answer?  

When he discussed Jericho and how the Lord (The Commander of the army of the Lord) instructed Joshua to defeat the city. The instructions probably sounded pretty silly, don't you think? Yeah, march around the city for six days. Oh! Then on the seventh day? March around the city seven times and have the priests blow the trumpets

and have all the people shout!

Really?

Then what?

That's all! God's in control so just do what He says and you will win.

PERIOD.

If God's in control and we do what He says, then we can not go wrong.

If we do not do what He says?

We LOSE.

Bottom line. No ifs ands or buts....the end.

He loves the ocean, so when he visits, we frequent the Pacific beaches.

You find solitary in watching, hearing...feeling the rhythm of the waves.

Ever curious as to what he is thinking...I pick his brain as we comb the beach.

As he looks out over the beauty of the Pacific he says,

"Can you imagine how incredible heaven will be? The beauty God has laid before us is impossible to describe with words, and yet He had to use words and images of things we are capable of relating to in an attempt to show it to us...."

To what does he attribute his intense passion for God and self improvement?

He wants to make a difference.

He does not want to be a mediocre human being.

I don't think there's much chance of that!!

I don't know how many 19 year old young men have this type of thing on their mind when they are at the beach, but I would venture to say that it is quite rare. Maybe I'm biased?

A deep discussion continued as we strolled along.

The sheer power of water.

He bent down to dip his fingers in the fluid & splashed me with it and said,

"This wetness should not be powerful enough to toss these massive logs around like twigs, but it is...and God just spoke it into existence."

It reminds me of how insignificant we truly are and yet...

 God send Christ here to be perfect and to die for me.

God gave me a wonderful child who has taught me valuable lessons through the years and continues to do so today. He is devoted to being a man after God's own heart.

I thank the Lord for blessing me so greatly. Especially because I know I am so undeserving.

What an awesome God we serve.



Visiting Baxter & Pals

I am a die hard animal lover. I can't say that Kory shares my (bordering on obsessive) love for almost any critter...but he did seem to be having a great time when we visited the

Olympic Game Farm.

It's a drive through animal sanctuary where you may feed them wheat bread only!! Along the drive there is a variety including:

Yaks, "Ricki" the rhino, zebras, bunnies, reindeer, wolves, tigers, cougars, llamas, ground hogs, emu, ostrach and....

Elk lazing around.

How majestic he is!

An adorable baby! He's the only one of the herd

who would get up to come get snacks from us!

The mascot! Bison!!

Yes, I'm fascinated with babies of every shape & size haha.

The highlight of this adventure was meeting "Baxter".

No, this is not the name they gave him, but this is the name Kory gave him. In fact, Kory calls most every animal (stuffed or real) Baxter. It is quite comical actually. In Maine (where he just spent his second summer in a row working as a youth minister) the family he stayed with even got slightly irritated with him because before the summer was over, he had their dog coming to his NOT new name.

We decided that Baxter was a perfect name for this Kodiac though.

He catches his bread mid air.

Then poses with a smile for you.

When he's ready for another piece, he waves at you.

BAXTER!

Taking a little break to cool off.

Doing his best to chill, one of several other Kodiac bears in the park.

It was an enjoyable and relaxing way to spend a couple hours with Mom & Kory.

A Walk On The Ridge

Mount Angeles is the set of peaks on the left.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day with the sun beaming down

 creating temperatures in the 60s on the ridge. 

Me & Kory enjoying a nice hike.

The last time I ventured out toward Mount Angeles, I made it to the top.

Unfortunately I have not been out much this year. I did not realize how out of shape I was for hiking in high altitudes until we were fairly close to the top.

Yes, I wimped out.

I now have a goal to work toward :)

A view from the trail.

Kory enjoying the splendor.

A couple more shots along the trail.

We got of to a bit of a late start, so it was late afternoon/early evening

when we reached the highest point of the hike for the day.

Since we are in cougar country we made a point to remain watchful for any signs of wildlife. We saw several species, but (thankfully) no cougar!

We spied a large black bear about 75-100 yards away. I tried to get the camera out before he ducked into the pines, but wasn't quite fast enough.

Kory noticed a mountain goat wandering around in the woods nearby, but he did not show himself. Considering the fact that one of these goats actually killed a man last year, we were quite relieved that he chose to let us pass without a standoff.

We stopped & had a snack along the trail when this gal came along.

She was brave enough to get pretty darn close, but decided to walk behind us rather than continue on her trail route. She stopped and studied us for a few seconds, then sauntered off.

We had the pleasure of several different types of wildflowers in full bloom!

At first glance this looked like a family, however, the little brownish guy on the left didn't belong. The poor baby couldn't get any of the others to accept him. I watched him trot around, bleating the entire time as if he was looking for his Momma but none of the deer in the area wanted anything to do with him. They kept charging him & running him off. It was actually pretty sad :(

I am (obviously) still quite a novice when it comes to photography.

As the sun dropped and the moon rose, I set up and attempted to capture the glow of the sunset.

One day, I'll get the light balance right!!

A beautiful close to a marvelous day.

Excitement

Jumping for joy!!

In less than 24 hours, my baby boy will be here!!

I get to spend an entire week with him!

Since he first left home for college...3 years ago...I have had to make major adjustments in my attitude just to cope with the fact that he is "gone" and doesn't need me anymore :(

Of course when I get a text (the new world form of communication) saying,

"Mom! Help!"

I get a little excited. Not because he's in a pinch, mind you, but because he DOES still need me!

If it's all just a ruse to make me think he needs his Momma, please don't burst my bubble though.

I like it in here!

It is amazing to me how quickly they grow up. Since he is across the country in school, I only have the opportunity to see him about 3 times a year...Summer, Christmas and usually Spring when I can't take it anymore and I just have to book a flight to wherever he is running in a track meet.

Just to get a fix for a day or two.

We have several hiking adventures planned, and I took the week off so I can

soak up every last second of time with him. I'm beyond excited!

I get the greatest birthday present ever--to spend the week with my baby boy.

My BABY boy who will turn 20 this month.

Wow...I can't wait!!

A Blessing :)

In case you are unaware, I am a Registered Nurse working in labor and delivery.

This specialty seems to be "feast or famine" in nature.

It's either so busy that we just barely have enough staff to handle the workload, or we have already called everyone on the list of employees (twice) who can possibly help us and

we simply have no choice but to work with what we have.

Even when it's busy busy busy...the majority of the time,

we assist women to give birth healthy babies and the outcomes are happy!

OR

We have zero patients on the unit, or maybe just one or two Mom/Baby couplets which equals a very slow and boring night most of the time.

Even in a case where there is not a patient on the floor, we still must remain staffed with at least 2 RNs because in labor and delivery, things can happen suddenly and, being a rather rural hospital, we

have to be constantly prepared for an emergency.

Then there is the scenario where the other units in the hospital are desperate for assistance AND our unit is low on patients. This is when they allow all the scheduled nursing staff to come in to work, expecting to work on their familiar unit but they ask one of you to "GWYN". Go Where You're Needed.

I've worked in several different places during my 18 year nursing career and I have yet to meet a nurse who likes to hear the words, "You need to go to __________ for your 8 (or 12) hour shift today."

Well, it was my turn last night to heed the call.

As an L&D nurse, I was not given a specific patient assignment because I'd have to be ready to immediately be called back to my unit if a labor patient arrived.

In my attempt to fully rely on God, I chose to have a positive attitude regarding my alternate duties.

He blessed me for it!

It is amazing how quickly the Lord hears us and rewards us sometimes, isn't it?

I was needed on the "Medical/Surgical" unit.

My main responsibility was to help the other nurses answer call lights and tend to patient needs accordingly.

It has been quite a long time since I have done patient care with other than laboring women and newborns, but with several years of previous experience, it all came back quickly!

Pampering patients who have recently had hip or knee replacements, bowel resections, & many other general surgeries was actually a bit refreshing for me. It brought me joy to bring pain medicine, help with repositioning, even just bringing a new jug of ice water!

Normally for me, since I work in a generally "upbeat" specialty, it's somewhat expected for your patients & their families to be in a fairly good to great mood. Yes, a woman in labor may say a few choice words and lose her smile for a bit, but she quickly finds it again once she's holding the crying infant in her arms she just worked so very hard to bring into this world.

On the other hand, you wouldn't necessarily expect medically ill patients to be all that chipper.

It was a great blessing to me to notice how just a little small talk and the fluffing of a pillow could brighten someone's evening. In my opinion, this part of nursing is one of the most important to the patient's well being and one that I don't have to work very hard at in L&D because it seems to just come naturally.

Even if my own spirits aren't up where they ought to be, just witnessing birth after birth tends to bring a smile.

The greatest blessing to me this night?

I went in to assess a confused elderly man who recently

had surgery and was unable to move and position himself.

He was continuously yelling out,  "Help me, somebody please!"

When I initially entered the room, he said, "I barely recognized you." Of course, he wouldn't recognize me since we had never met before, but like I said, he was confused. He asked me if he was tied down. He was not, however he did have several things 'attached' to him. I explained his attachments to him, fluffed his pillows, repositioned him in the bed, helped him get a sip of fresh ice water & put some balm on his lips for him. 

When he seemed situated, I asked him if I could do anything else for him. 

He said, "Do you think you could sit down and talk to me for awhile? I think that will help."

~Melt my heart, why don't ya?~

Of course I sat down in the chair next to him and we talked. He told me where he was from. He tried to remember how many children he had, but never reached a real conclusion. He asked me about my family & intently listened as I told him. We chatted for about 5 minutes and then, with a tear in his eye,

he reached out, held my hand and said, "Thank You. I think I can sleep now, you're an angel."

For the remainder of my time on the Med/Surg unit, he did not yell out again.

5 minutes. That's all it took.

This exchange happened at the very beginning of my shift & paved the way for a

wonderful remainder of the night!

It helped me remember that it really is the little things that make the biggest impact. That if we obey scripture by looking closely at our "neighbor" to see how we can show God's love to them,

it will not only be a blessing to them, but to us as well. 

I was dreading the GWYN shift, but God gave me a situation that brought His plan into focus.

I am so thankful for the way He transforms adversity into blessings. Sometimes I have to look closely to realize it, but He is always watching, and always sending blessings my way.

Our God is an Awesome God!