Over half of my week off has already come and gone. It has been an amazing few days. Saturday we got to have a family "get together" to see family we don't see very often but also to celebrate my grandmother's 77th birthday. My Memaw is by far one of the best people I've ever known and has taught me so much about life. Sunday we went to our old church, saw some old friends, ate lunch with the Burgins (who we LOVE) and spent some time with the Andrew's as well. It was so nice to see old friends and get to "catch up". We love living in Temple but sometimes you miss your old friends. Monday Jonathan, myself, his mom and his niece went to the Gaylord ICE exhibit which was stunning. It's incredible what they can make out of ice. This year the theme was Charlie Brown Christmas. The ice sculptures were beautiful and we had fun. Tuesday we drove to Marshall, TX to see the Christmas lights. I enjoyed being able to show Jonathan around my college town and talk about the fun times I had there. I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! It is seriously my favorite time of year and seeing Christmas lights makes me so happy. On our way home on Wednesday we stopped in Tyler to eat lunch with a friend of mine from medical school. Our lunch took over 4 hours because we were talking so much. I think the waiters were getting annoyed, oh well, we left a good tip. I miss my friends from medical school so much. Medical school is so hard and your friends from school really understood what it was like and I think that makes the bond so much stronger. We really hoped to be able to get together this year like we did last year but it's not going to happen. Good thing our friend Emily is getting married in December of 2011, we'll all be there for that! Wednesday night we ate dinner with some old friends in Arlington and today we hung out with my nieces, went to lunch with my mom and my mother-in-law, went to dinner with family and are now hanging out. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and it will be busy but full of family and fun.
We should be licensed for foster care now. We submitted our foster care agreement paperwork today which was the last piece they needed. We can't wait to have a child/children!
I'm not ready to go back to work on Sunday and return to working nights but at least I have a few more days off to spend with family. I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas!
~until~
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!
I love Christmas! It makes me so happy to come home every night from work and see our Christmas three shining in the window. Christmas lights make me smile like a little kid and Christmas music warms my soul. Belton has a fantastic drive through lights display out by the lake. It's 5 miles of Christmas lights, each display from a business or organization in the local community. We haven't been yet this year but have gone the last 2 years and it was amazing. This year we are planning on driving to Marshall, TX (home of my college) to see the Christmas lights there. They have a ton of Christmas lights and it is beautiful. I just learned that the courthouse alone has 125,000 lights on it. Jonathan has never been to see the lights and I can't wait to show him. I'm hoping to see some friends while we are in town. It will be good to go back. This next week we are going to be mostly in the Dallas area hanging with our families. It will be nice to be off for a week and hanging out with our families. Plus eating lots of yummy Christmas goodies.
Work recently has been good. I did about a week of nights in the hospital but now I'm doing night time urgent care clinic where I only have to work for like 4 hours a night, which is FABULOUS! Although, working nights for a whole month gets old, no dinner dates with friends, no seeing my colleagues/friends at work. I love the people I work with and I enjoy being with them everyday. Some of the people I work with have become my closest friends.
Our foster care excursion continues. Last weekend we went to Austin to the Christmas retreat. We hung out with 2 great foster kids for a few hours which earned us a few more hours of observation. These kids were so much fun to spend time with and get to know. We also got to talk with some other experienced foster parents, which is a nice resource to have. Now that we are so close to having kids sometimes it can seem overwhelming. We still aren't officially licensed although there have been a few possible children for us in the last week that we had to say no too. They all had higher needs (medical and otherwise) than we are certified for at this point. We don't want to take kids that in a few weeks when they are made a higher level of care and we've formed a relationship with them they have to move because we aren't licensed for that level of child. We've begun looking at bigger vehicles. Our current ones can only hold 3 car seats and because Jonathan is taking care of our friends little girl we already have 1 car seat in the car, which limits the number of kids we can take to 2. We'll be buying a bigger car in the next few months I'm sure. Here are some of the pictures my sister took recently.
Work recently has been good. I did about a week of nights in the hospital but now I'm doing night time urgent care clinic where I only have to work for like 4 hours a night, which is FABULOUS! Although, working nights for a whole month gets old, no dinner dates with friends, no seeing my colleagues/friends at work. I love the people I work with and I enjoy being with them everyday. Some of the people I work with have become my closest friends.
Our foster care excursion continues. Last weekend we went to Austin to the Christmas retreat. We hung out with 2 great foster kids for a few hours which earned us a few more hours of observation. These kids were so much fun to spend time with and get to know. We also got to talk with some other experienced foster parents, which is a nice resource to have. Now that we are so close to having kids sometimes it can seem overwhelming. We still aren't officially licensed although there have been a few possible children for us in the last week that we had to say no too. They all had higher needs (medical and otherwise) than we are certified for at this point. We don't want to take kids that in a few weeks when they are made a higher level of care and we've formed a relationship with them they have to move because we aren't licensed for that level of child. We've begun looking at bigger vehicles. Our current ones can only hold 3 car seats and because Jonathan is taking care of our friends little girl we already have 1 car seat in the car, which limits the number of kids we can take to 2. We'll be buying a bigger car in the next few months I'm sure. Here are some of the pictures my sister took recently.
Hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas!
~until~
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
A Little of This, A Little of That!
The month of November is over, which for means I never have to work in the NICU again. It also means that tonight I go back to working on the general pediatric floor at my hospital. Speaking of my hospital, we are in the running for a $250,000 grant from Pepsi to help fund our new Children's hospital surgical suite. Here are the details on how you can vote for my hospital. I'm going to give you a little information on my hospital first since many don't know we even exist.
The Children's Hospital at Scott and White is the only childrens hospital between DFW and Austin. We provide care to patients from Hillboro to Austin, West of Killeen to College Station and everywhere in between. We are currently located at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, TX. We are in the process of renovating another hospital in town so that we will have our own hospital, just for kids. Once our new hospital is complete we will be the smallest town in the United States to have a stand alone childrens hospital. Having this new facility will allow us to open our doors to more patients, keeping more kids closer to home. The hospital we are renovating is an old adult hospital and it needs some serious updating. The grant from Pepsi will fund part of the renovation for the surgical suites. It will buy equipment and even build a new operating room. Below is information on how you can vote for our hospital. The poll only goes through December 31st and you can vote everyday. If you could please vote for us myself and the children affected would greatly appreciate it.
First, click on this link, register and vote for our idea. You will only have to register once, so remember your password! Click Here: refresheverything.com/childrenshospital
Second, text 104716 to Pepsi at 73774.
Next, vote EVERY DAY until December 31st at 11:00 PM.
Ok, On to something else. We enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast with Jonathan's family on Thanksgiving day. We have completed decorating our house for Christmas and I love it! We spent the last few days getting ready for our home study. Last night we had our home study and it went fabulously well. I am so excited to have this step complete. Hopefully we can have our license in the next week or so. We do still need to buy a dresser for each kids room but otherwise we are as ready as we can be I think. We are so excited to be done with this part of the process. Still have about 36 hours of observation to get done before we can have higher than basic level children. Yay for being a HUGE step closer!
~until~
The Children's Hospital at Scott and White is the only childrens hospital between DFW and Austin. We provide care to patients from Hillboro to Austin, West of Killeen to College Station and everywhere in between. We are currently located at Scott and White Hospital in Temple, TX. We are in the process of renovating another hospital in town so that we will have our own hospital, just for kids. Once our new hospital is complete we will be the smallest town in the United States to have a stand alone childrens hospital. Having this new facility will allow us to open our doors to more patients, keeping more kids closer to home. The hospital we are renovating is an old adult hospital and it needs some serious updating. The grant from Pepsi will fund part of the renovation for the surgical suites. It will buy equipment and even build a new operating room. Below is information on how you can vote for our hospital. The poll only goes through December 31st and you can vote everyday. If you could please vote for us myself and the children affected would greatly appreciate it.
First, click on this link, register and vote for our idea. You will only have to register once, so remember your password! Click Here: refresheverything.com/childrenshospital
Second, text 104716 to Pepsi at 73774.
Next, vote EVERY DAY until December 31st at 11:00 PM.
Ok, On to something else. We enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast with Jonathan's family on Thanksgiving day. We have completed decorating our house for Christmas and I love it! We spent the last few days getting ready for our home study. Last night we had our home study and it went fabulously well. I am so excited to have this step complete. Hopefully we can have our license in the next week or so. We do still need to buy a dresser for each kids room but otherwise we are as ready as we can be I think. We are so excited to be done with this part of the process. Still have about 36 hours of observation to get done before we can have higher than basic level children. Yay for being a HUGE step closer!
~until~
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thankful!
Yay for the month of November and the celebration of Thanksgiving. I have been writing on my facebook page every day something I am thankful for. I know that we should be thankful besides the month of November, and believe me, I am, but it's been fun to think of something every day that I am thankful for. Sometimes it's the beautiful weather, sometimes a friend or sibling, sometimes for the country which we live in, and often times for my fabulous husband. Something else I am thankful for is the word of God and the ability to attend a church and worship freely.
Thanksgiving is a few days away. We celebrated this past weekend with my family because originally I thought I had to work on Thursday. One of my attendings was nice enough to give us Thursday off, so we will be making the trek back to Dallas Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family. I love Thanksgiving food. You know the kind of food I'm talking about: Ham, Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, jalepeno cream corn, and of course pies. YUM! One good thing about having 2 different Thanksgivings is that they are a few days apart and I will be able to fully enjoy the food both times. This past weekend we had a blast at my sister's house with my family. They recently bought a pool table and ping-pong table and we spent a lot of time playing Ping-pong. Brought back memories from college when we would play in the student center between classes. We also went to see Harry Potter and we LOVED it. It was wonderful to get to spend so much time with my mom, dad, siblings, grandma, nieces and nephew. It will be nice to get to spend the day on Thursday with Jonathan's family.
I am also thankful to have our home study set up. It is so exciting to be so close to having kids in our home. Our home study was originally set up for 2 1/2 weeks from now but because of some schedule changes we changed to one week from today! This weekend while I'm working nights Jonathan will have to clean house and get a few things organized. On Friday we are going to set up our Christmas tree and decorate for Christmas. Hopefully I can sleep some at the hospital on call so I can help on Saturday and Sunday. We are so close to the end, it's unbelievable. We do still need about 35 hours of observation time still but we can get everything else done before that.
I'll post the pictures my sister took of us this past weekend as soon as I get them from her. They turned out great!
I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
~until~
Thanksgiving is a few days away. We celebrated this past weekend with my family because originally I thought I had to work on Thursday. One of my attendings was nice enough to give us Thursday off, so we will be making the trek back to Dallas Thursday to spend Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family. I love Thanksgiving food. You know the kind of food I'm talking about: Ham, Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, jalepeno cream corn, and of course pies. YUM! One good thing about having 2 different Thanksgivings is that they are a few days apart and I will be able to fully enjoy the food both times. This past weekend we had a blast at my sister's house with my family. They recently bought a pool table and ping-pong table and we spent a lot of time playing Ping-pong. Brought back memories from college when we would play in the student center between classes. We also went to see Harry Potter and we LOVED it. It was wonderful to get to spend so much time with my mom, dad, siblings, grandma, nieces and nephew. It will be nice to get to spend the day on Thursday with Jonathan's family.
I am also thankful to have our home study set up. It is so exciting to be so close to having kids in our home. Our home study was originally set up for 2 1/2 weeks from now but because of some schedule changes we changed to one week from today! This weekend while I'm working nights Jonathan will have to clean house and get a few things organized. On Friday we are going to set up our Christmas tree and decorate for Christmas. Hopefully I can sleep some at the hospital on call so I can help on Saturday and Sunday. We are so close to the end, it's unbelievable. We do still need about 35 hours of observation time still but we can get everything else done before that.
I'll post the pictures my sister took of us this past weekend as soon as I get them from her. They turned out great!
I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!
~until~
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Home Study!
Today we set up our Home Study! We are getting so close to being licensed. We are very excited about getting this next process done.
~until~
~until~
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Fall is HERE!
Fall has officially arrived in Central Texas. In October we had a few cool nights and cool days but it warmed back up pretty quickly. However for the last week or so it's been beautiful outside. I've noticed the leaves have really started changing colors the last week or so and I love it! We have been leaving our windows open all day and at night, meaning it gets quite cold in here in the mornings, but that's ok by me.
Fall means different things to different people and brings new happenings depending on what you are involved in. Let me explain what I mean: For some it brings the start of Basketball or football. For some it brings the first snow. For me it brings a few things this year. Fall is when we interview for our next years residency class. These are the people that will start on July 1st and be here for 3 years. The current residents are very involved in the interviewing process. This is important to us. It is who the current 1st and 2nd years will work with. For the 3rd years it doesn't impact us quite as much but for me I still feel a sense of responsibility in helping to choose the people that are best for our program. I love it here! I love our program, my fellow residents, my staff, and my hospital. I want what is best for them, which means I want the best of the best for our future residents. During interview "season" we have a pre-interview social at one of the resident's houses once a week. We have had this social at my house 2 times this year. We usually serve dinner to those interviewing as well as the current residents who are here to interact with those interviewing. This allows us to get to know them in an informal way and lets them be more comfortable asking us questions. I really enjoy going to these socials because I get to hang out with good friends and meet lots of neat people.
Something else this fall brought is a job interview for myself. I interviewed today for a Pediatric Hospitalist position here. A pediatric hospitalist is basically a general pediatrician that only takes care of children in the hospital. I don't like working in the clinic so this is perfect for me. Interviewing here was a little odd since I'm already a resident and everyone already knows me. It was basically a way for me to get to ask questions about the future of the Children's Hospital (the new one is currently being built), salary, benefits, and transitioning to a new "role". Like I said, I love it here and would love to stay here for a long time. Jonathan also really likes living here and we have made some wonderful friends. I should find out soon if I got the job.
One other thing this fall brings for us is observation hours. We attended our first Family Link Retreat this past Sunday in Austin. Our foster care agency (Family Link Kids) has a retreat once a month for families in the agency to get together for support, fellowship and training. It allows all of the foster/adopted kids and biological kids to interact with each other. This is also an opportunity for future parents, ie: us, to get some of our observation hours. We got 4 of our 40 hours this weekend. Basically, what happens is that when families with foster children arrive those children are left in the care of future parents and volunteers so that the foster parents can attend training and interact with the other foster parents. We were given a baby who was about a year old and a little girl who was 3. We had a lot of fun playing with the children and getting to know some of the future parents.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I can't wait. We have lots of fun plans with our families coming up. This weekend we are off to Rockwall to my sister and brother-in-laws house. Thanksgiving with my family is on Sunday. It will be fun to hang out with my siblings for the weekend and just have fun. My sister has taken up photography and is going to take some new pictures of me and Jonathan so maybe I can update our photos on here. Then on Wednesday night we are going back to Dallas to have Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family on Thursday afternoon. Should be a week full of fun and food. I hope to put up our Christmas tree sometime in the next week or so!
~until~
PS: to my friend in Dubai, I miss you :)
Fall means different things to different people and brings new happenings depending on what you are involved in. Let me explain what I mean: For some it brings the start of Basketball or football. For some it brings the first snow. For me it brings a few things this year. Fall is when we interview for our next years residency class. These are the people that will start on July 1st and be here for 3 years. The current residents are very involved in the interviewing process. This is important to us. It is who the current 1st and 2nd years will work with. For the 3rd years it doesn't impact us quite as much but for me I still feel a sense of responsibility in helping to choose the people that are best for our program. I love it here! I love our program, my fellow residents, my staff, and my hospital. I want what is best for them, which means I want the best of the best for our future residents. During interview "season" we have a pre-interview social at one of the resident's houses once a week. We have had this social at my house 2 times this year. We usually serve dinner to those interviewing as well as the current residents who are here to interact with those interviewing. This allows us to get to know them in an informal way and lets them be more comfortable asking us questions. I really enjoy going to these socials because I get to hang out with good friends and meet lots of neat people.
Something else this fall brought is a job interview for myself. I interviewed today for a Pediatric Hospitalist position here. A pediatric hospitalist is basically a general pediatrician that only takes care of children in the hospital. I don't like working in the clinic so this is perfect for me. Interviewing here was a little odd since I'm already a resident and everyone already knows me. It was basically a way for me to get to ask questions about the future of the Children's Hospital (the new one is currently being built), salary, benefits, and transitioning to a new "role". Like I said, I love it here and would love to stay here for a long time. Jonathan also really likes living here and we have made some wonderful friends. I should find out soon if I got the job.
One other thing this fall brings for us is observation hours. We attended our first Family Link Retreat this past Sunday in Austin. Our foster care agency (Family Link Kids) has a retreat once a month for families in the agency to get together for support, fellowship and training. It allows all of the foster/adopted kids and biological kids to interact with each other. This is also an opportunity for future parents, ie: us, to get some of our observation hours. We got 4 of our 40 hours this weekend. Basically, what happens is that when families with foster children arrive those children are left in the care of future parents and volunteers so that the foster parents can attend training and interact with the other foster parents. We were given a baby who was about a year old and a little girl who was 3. We had a lot of fun playing with the children and getting to know some of the future parents.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I can't wait. We have lots of fun plans with our families coming up. This weekend we are off to Rockwall to my sister and brother-in-laws house. Thanksgiving with my family is on Sunday. It will be fun to hang out with my siblings for the weekend and just have fun. My sister has taken up photography and is going to take some new pictures of me and Jonathan so maybe I can update our photos on here. Then on Wednesday night we are going back to Dallas to have Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family on Thursday afternoon. Should be a week full of fun and food. I hope to put up our Christmas tree sometime in the next week or so!
~until~
PS: to my friend in Dubai, I miss you :)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Patience...it is a virtue....
The foster care process is taking us longer than we would have hoped. 40 hours of observation is a lot and with my schedule for the next 2 months it's going to be hard to do. I'm sure we can get some of it done but probably not all of it before Christmas. It makes me sad to think that the kids that God has for us won't be here for Christmas but maybe it's because they aren't ready for our home yet.
New month = new rotation in residency land, which is where I live for the next 240 days :) I am on NICU this month and I hate that place. The NICU makes me incredibly sad. These babies are born so early or so sick and sometimes both and often don't have very good outcomes. It also makes me sad because there are lots of babies in the NICU because of their mom's decisions while she was pregnant. Smoking Crack is not good for a baby and often times ends in premature birth and very sick children. That is just one example. All I can do is pray that these little ones will stay as healthy as possible and that the amazing doctors that take care of them will do what is best. The doctors and nurses in the NICU are there of their own kind. They are obviously called and designed for the work they do and for that I am grateful.
I've lately had some sad days. I don't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me or feel bad. I tell you this because I want you to understand. I don't think anyone truly understands unless they have been there but sometimes it's nice to hear it from the horse's mouth per say. I've been sad because lots of people I know and am fairly close to are pregnant. It's not just that they are pregnant. It's that it seems to have happened overnight and everyone got pregnant within like 3 months of each other without really trying. Sometimes it's hard to stomach that we have tried for over 2 years and still haven't been pregnant and they try 1 month and poof-a baby. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for them. All of them will make great parents, and one already is a wonderful mom, it's just I don't always understand the reasoning behind it and it makes me sad. I tell Jonathan all the time that being a Mom is what I want most in this world. I would give up everything to be a mom. I know that all things are in God's timing. I know this, yet sometimes I still long for what I've been dreaming of my whole life. I also know that maybe it's because there are little ones out there that need us as their foster parents first. Who knows what God's plan is but I have to trust that it is perfect. I also know that God doesn't get mad when I get upset because it seems as if everyone around me is getting to be a mom and I'm still in the shadows, waiting my turn. Like the title says: patience is a virtue....I am still learning this very lesson.
That was random, but it's all for now.
~until~
ps: the dog in the previous post is still up for adoption, he needs a good home :)
New month = new rotation in residency land, which is where I live for the next 240 days :) I am on NICU this month and I hate that place. The NICU makes me incredibly sad. These babies are born so early or so sick and sometimes both and often don't have very good outcomes. It also makes me sad because there are lots of babies in the NICU because of their mom's decisions while she was pregnant. Smoking Crack is not good for a baby and often times ends in premature birth and very sick children. That is just one example. All I can do is pray that these little ones will stay as healthy as possible and that the amazing doctors that take care of them will do what is best. The doctors and nurses in the NICU are there of their own kind. They are obviously called and designed for the work they do and for that I am grateful.
I've lately had some sad days. I don't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me or feel bad. I tell you this because I want you to understand. I don't think anyone truly understands unless they have been there but sometimes it's nice to hear it from the horse's mouth per say. I've been sad because lots of people I know and am fairly close to are pregnant. It's not just that they are pregnant. It's that it seems to have happened overnight and everyone got pregnant within like 3 months of each other without really trying. Sometimes it's hard to stomach that we have tried for over 2 years and still haven't been pregnant and they try 1 month and poof-a baby. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for them. All of them will make great parents, and one already is a wonderful mom, it's just I don't always understand the reasoning behind it and it makes me sad. I tell Jonathan all the time that being a Mom is what I want most in this world. I would give up everything to be a mom. I know that all things are in God's timing. I know this, yet sometimes I still long for what I've been dreaming of my whole life. I also know that maybe it's because there are little ones out there that need us as their foster parents first. Who knows what God's plan is but I have to trust that it is perfect. I also know that God doesn't get mad when I get upset because it seems as if everyone around me is getting to be a mom and I'm still in the shadows, waiting my turn. Like the title says: patience is a virtue....I am still learning this very lesson.
That was random, but it's all for now.
~until~
ps: the dog in the previous post is still up for adoption, he needs a good home :)
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