A very.. long.. story

Some of you saw on Facebook that I posted I was accepted into the RN program. Some of you are probably like, what's the big deal ?!?! It's just a true testimony of God's timing and how things fall into place even when its seems impossible...
December of '04 I graduated college to work as an LPN. I went to college a little late in life and already had little Maddie at the time ;) LPN wasn't my original goal, but we were building our house and getting married in March so I felt that I had to stop nursing school at this point to get a job and contribute! So, everything ended up working out just fine. We were married, I worked as a nurse in an OB/GYN office and enjoyed the work, things were going well but I still had it in the back of my mind that someday I would still like to finish my RN. Someday maybe when our kids are grown, or at least in school I wanted to work in the ER or trauma somewhere. I just figured it would be put off until then. This was definately a dream, a passion of mine since '96 when I was in a nearly fatal accident with my bff (ha, like that?) and loved the nurses I had. (When you're in the hospital for a month you get to know them pretty well!) Well it was the ER- then I was inpatient for almost a month. So anyway. Our family grew with Mayci in '06 and things continued on as they were. Life was just fine!

One night Ryan and I were talking about it and he actually said to me 'I know you're dying to go back, let's just do it now' I am not kidding people, my eyes filled up with tears and I was like 'are you SURE? Are you serious?' Of course I would LOVE to go back. I mean, don't get me wrong, nobody likes homework and tests, whatever, but this is what I want to DO. Forever. I want to go to work and save lives band-aid by band-aid! jk. So he was serious. He wanted to support and give me the chance to finish this now! So long, sappy story short I started looking into it. Looking into what classes I had to take, etc. to get back on the waiting list. First I had to get Chemistry out of the way since I had been out of HS for a while it needed to be validated. So I had the option to test out, which I did and did not pass. I missed the bar by like 2 points. This meant alot b/c if I couldn't test out of Chemistry, I had to take a whole bunch of math classes in order to prepare me for Chem. This actually was devastating for me b/c I hate, HATE math. So I emailed the nursing director and told her how close I was and that I just didn't prepare myself properly to take the exam. After some coaxing, she finally agreed to let me re-take it in 6 weeks. Meanwhile, I'm thinking 'Ok God, is this where you're leading me or am I just getting my hopes up?' I was torn b/c I didn't want to fore-go the opportunity but I wanted to do exactly what He called me to do! Be home with my kids? Not think twice about going back to school? But I felt so called to do this and my husband supported me 110% so I went for it, and of course after studying for 6 weeks I passed the stupid Chem test.

This allowed me entry into a few other classes that I took last January thru May and put me back on the LPN to RN waiting list. In the meantime, I took a position in the ER at Zeeland. The college told me to expect to get a call this Fall 2008 and be ready to finish the last 2 semesters. Yay! I would be done by this April! There is always a waiting list in nursing schools and to only have to wait 4 months or so was great! Well, I didn't get the call this Fall. Then they told me maybe Winter but there are quite a few LPN's ahead of me. So once again, I questioned myself and what it was that God was leading me to. I kept thinking if it's not meant to be, then it's ok. I will just move on. But knowing the Almighty and how He gives us those strong desires or 'gut feelings'- I knew something was going to happen. I just had to let it happen in His time, and not my own. That, my friends, was tough for me!

So I could bore you with all the junk about Ryan's job in the Winter months and all that, but let's just say that it is His perfect timing for me to start this Winter. Not last Fall. Not the Fall before. But now. I hope when my time comes to leave this Earth, I will have done and waited to do exactly what He wanted me to do as a nurse, plus some. Even if it just means comforting the mom of the crying baby, or hugging the wife of an dying man- it's not just a paycheck, I'm in it to serve!