Victoria

Here we come!!!

Thankful

I realize it isn't Thanksgiving yet, but I've got a heck of a lot to be thankful for this year. I know I usually don't get into religion on my blog very much, but that should in no way be mistaken for lack of it. I'm just not big on stepping on other peoples' toes, and I have respect for many different religions. So here goes.

I know that God is with me for every second of every day. It is just that lately I've felt His presence more in my life. I don't know why I feel it so much more now...maybe it is because I desperately need divine intervention to make it through school, living apart from Lee, and being alone. In any case, a few things I should chronicle {a little bit} have happened lately.

1. I was told that I needed to become a nurse {it was a divine intervention}.

This was a really big deal. I grew up wanting to be a physician. An M.D. More specifically, I wanted to be in pediatric trauma. You know, the Emergency Room. We're talking George Clooney on E.R. except, of course, a woman! I did the work, but have no doubt that God's hand was in all of it from before it started. How in the world do you explain being able to quit a job, move 4.5 hours away from your spouse, find an apartment where you feel safe less than 2 miles from the medical center, and somehow {I have no idea how} being able to afford to take a whole year off from life? Oh, and not to become a doctor, but a nurse! Now I know EXACTLY where I want to be in nursing. I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is RIGHT for me. I have my eye on a graduate program. I KNOW that I am MEANT to go into anesthesia. I absolutely LOVE it. I can't get ENOUGH of it! How cool is it that by the time I'm ready to start that program they will have a DNP-A (Doctor of Nursing Practice - Anesthesia) available? It is all so much bigger than me.

2. I go to a public school and God isn't really discussed openly in any of my courses.

This seems like a small miracle to me. Other than the private parochial elementary school I attended, I've gone to public school where talk about God is quieted and minimized. Now I'm at UTHSC which seems pretty dark sometimes, yet I find God when I need Him most. A group of us {students, professors, whomever} meet every Tuesday morning on campus to pray. We pray for our studies, our friends, our families, each other, and whatever else we want to. I LOVE it! I have met some really amazing friends that attend, and am so happy that MY CLASS started this prayer group. On top of this, I was under some unnecessary stress last week, and needed a professor to help me out. I prayed all night that she would be willing and able to help. The big thing to me was that she not only helped, but when I told her I had prayed all night she would be able to help, she responded saying that she had so many things to do that morning, but that she felt God had plans for her to be with me that morning. She then asked me if I was a Christian and invited me to her office to pray before we dealt with the source of my stress. A professor. In a public institution. God placed her in my life and made her available at a moments notice.

3. This morning my grandma {Neese} fell off the stairs outside of our house.

This is the MIRACLE of MIRACLES. She didn't break any bones. She didn't need any stitches.  She got sent home from the ER with a scratch and orders to rest and ice her shoulder. If I had fallen onto a concrete slab, I can guarantee I'd break something. In fact, people have fallen from couches to carpet and broken things. Somehow {I believe through the grace of God} she fell off a BIG step {so steep--the size of 2 steps really} onto concrete and only had a scratch on her hand.

These are only examples of a few things that have happened in the last little while for which I have to be thankful. It isn't through luck or chance that I can write this post, but through God's grace.  I am thankful for many other things {family, health, happiness, freedom, truth, prosperity, friends, hope for the future}. Those may get a separate post, but this year, more than other years, I am realizing His presence in all that I have to be THANKFUL for.

I'll leave you with an email I received from a prayer group friend and classmate. She knew I wasn't acting the same, and obviously something was wrong. I didn't tell her what was going on {as you noticed I haven't here either--later--maybe} but that I was stressed out about things I had to deal with later during the week. Knowing only that, she sent me the email below; it seemed like she knew exactly what was going on and what I needed, even when I hadn't told her what I was dealing with and even when I couldn't see it clearly myself.

Remember you are not alone, especially not in spirit. God doesn't promise to meet us on the other side, he walks through the fire, the water, with us. With both of us praying, our cord of two is not easily broken.

Lord, calm Haley's spirit. Put to rest her fears, her qualms, her trepidation. Cast out what is not of you and replace it with your Word, your Truth. You are trustworthy and true. You are unchanging. We praise you for these qualities, for the salvation you have given us, for the access we have to your Throne, Lord God. I ask that you go before Haley, prepare her feet in the Gospel of Peace, outfit her in your armor. Love on her Lord in the most tender way. Reveal to her your presence, let her experience you in such a unique, humbling way. Protect her from enemy's arrows and lies. Place a hedge of protection around her and her family. I pray tomorrow would be a testimony to your greatness. That'd you would use whatever is to come for your glory. Set her feet upon your rock, upon your Word. Do not let her be shaken God. Prepare in her the strength to make it through whatever tomorrow brings, and to be victorious in your name. Guard and watch over your daughter Lord. Help her, encourage her trust in you. Grant her peace tonight, grant her a good night's sleep, and in the morning your mercy will be renewed. Increase her faith in you God, and reward her heart that loves you. Grant her favor over tomorrow. I pray your truth will prevail. In Jesus name we pray. IN your holy name we boldly ask these things. Amen

Lately

So lately I've been super stressed. I get this pain in my chest when I think about everything that I have to do in the next few weeks. I've solved it (I think) by using sticky notes. I love stickie notes! The rest of my week consists of writing a research paper on the controversy of air travel and pregnancy, going to an AA meeting (funny story, I got kicked out of one I tried to go to--awkward), completing an education project for psychiatric patients, and studying for a major exam on Tuesday. The paper is partially done but I need a completed rough draft by tomorrow at midnight, and I have to be at the psychiatric center for the majority of the day. It is a little after midnight now, so tomorrow should be interesting.

I cannot wait to SLEEP after next Friday. Thanksgiving week is going to be fabulous. I cannot wait. Don't get me wrong, I have to study then too, but I will have an entire week with LOW STRESS.

In other news, Lee surprised me and drive to Houston late last Friday night! He was supposed to work FIVE WEEKENDS IN A ROW but has a wonderful boss that evidently loves me a little and told him to get himself to Houston! We went to Victoria Saturday morning, saw a movie Saturday night, and got to spend a lot of time together and with our families. I got in a lot of studying, and Lee got to catch up on some much needed sleep. He works SO hard every single day.

OK well that is all for now. Sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors--I typed fast since it is so late.