Acclaim Productions

In previous postings about Uganda, I mentioned Syd and Chad Hair on several occasions. Our excursions to Uganda were planned separately but unbeknowst to either of us, the timing of our trips overlapped. I had the tremendous blessing to travel half way across the world to meet a family that lives not 30 minutes from my front door! Such a small world we live in! Syd has a tremendous mobilization gift - her vision and motivation astounds me. Chad's revelations go deep and he expresses things through vivid cinematography and written language. During their time in Africa, they composed a beautiful music video featuring Lilly Bulamu singing "O Mama Africa" - a song she wrote inviting people to Africa. This video has clips of many of the places I have been and also several of the photos I took. Please take a look at their website at Acclaim Productions and be sure to view the video at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!!!

Priorities

"Calling multiple times won't expedite the process of asking the doctor, I will ask as soon as I have chance..." I hung up the phone after I finished explaining to the lady why I didn't have an answer for her yet, cause ya know, calling three times in one morning to find out if the doctor (who, by the way, she has never seen), would write her a letter saying it was "medically necessary to have a pet in her apartment" is at the very top of my priority list. Right behind the guy who wants his Viagra refilled. Right behind the lady who wants a different free sample because Medicaid won't approve what the doctor prescribed. Right behind the guy who wants his Lortab 10 filled from a different doctor who is out of the office. But right now I have to check in someone who is threatening to barf all over the waiting room. Right behind the child who is having an asthma attack. I guess the elderly gentleman standing at my counter who has a med list a mile long will just have to wait a sec before I change them all to generic so Medicare will cover it....., Oi, was that the doctor that just whizzed past me? Maybe I can ask him all these questions right now, while at the same time not mentioning any names so that I won't break any HIPPA regulations? Ooops, too late, Urgent Care is telling me they have a "chest pain" checking in.....well you get the idea - that goes to the very top. A lot of what I deal with is urgent - and I treat it as such. Its a good thing I have a day off so I can deal with my attitude.....Sorry, I'm venting, but I feel better now :-)

Matt and Cache

My brother recently bought a professionally trained chocolate lab for his fowl huntng habit :-) Looks like they have been out playing.

Because I Miss Them

Happy May 1st!

The grass is green, the tulips are blossoming, the birds are singing, the air is warm and sweet with the fresh smell of wait...., SNOW!!!!!!!!! NOT what I was expecting to wake up to on the first day of May. Not only is it currently snowing, but it is also sticking and people are scrapping their car windows. I think I might celebrate the day by playing Christmas music and making fudge :-) Or I can celebrate as the Hawaiians do on May 1st and wear a lai - "Lai Day" -maybe that will usher in spring? Er, well since I can't seem to find any flowers to make a lai, I will have to don my gloves and go shovel the porch and imagine I am back in Hawaii :-/

Life at BMC

Welcome to another aspect of my life - BMC. I spend the majority of my daylight hours there, (and many of my sleeping hours are spent awake wondering if I remembered to do all that I needed to that day). I have been working there for almost 5 years now! I remember when I first moved to this small town 10 years ago just out of high school and within just a few weeks I had to bring a child that I was babysitting into the clinic to get stitches. Little did I know that I would become a nurse and eventually be working there! Only by that time they had moved from a small building into a huge multifaceted facility at the entrance of town.

I am so thankful for my job. As I was looking through one of my old journals from years ago, I ran across a page were I had written down several things that I wanted in a job. One of them was that I would enjoy going to work everyday. I can honestly say that at this point in my nursing career that I enjoy my job. It may not be what I want to be doing the rest of my life, but I enjoy the people that I work with and appreciate the friendships I have there. I work for and with some of the best doctors in the world. I have been so blessed by their willingness to let me globe trot over the years and they still welcome me back with open arms. Pretty amazing. Of course there are challenges, but my "people skills" are gradually improving and I attribute a good portion of that to day in and day out experience.

BMC has started a blog and I may contribute things to it here and there.

"Captivating"

Almost every night over the past few weeks, I have been reading a book entitled, "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge. Generally I devour the books I read in long sittings, but I have had to chew on this one and just ingest a chapter or even a half a chapter at a time. Maybe because the issues that are addressed within this book lead me to a vulnerability level that requires a "processing time". I am only a little over half way through, but I hear the Lord speaking directly to specific issues and bringing understanding and encouragement.

This book reveals three core desires that God intentionally placed within women - the desire to be romanced and pursued, the desire to play an irreplaceable role in a shared adventure, and the desire to unveil beauty. Read an excerpt from the introduction:
"The message of Captivating is this: The longings God has written deep in your heart are telling you something essential about what is means to be a woman, and the life He meant for you to live...You can find that life-if you are willing to embark on a great adventure....Not to learn one more set of standards you fail to meet. Not toward a new set of rules to live by and things you ought to do. Something far, far better - a journey of the heart. A journey toward the restoration and release of the woman you always longed to be....(this book) is not about what you ought to do or who you ought to be. It's about discovering who you already are, as a woman. A woman who at her core was made for romance, made to play an irreplaceable role in a shared adventure, and who really does possess a beauty all her own to unveil."

Part of the chapter I read tonight was particularly articulating of the current and seemingly (unending?) season of my life - waiting. This was so encouraging: "As we increasingly become women of substance, women who offer true beauty, we find that our hearts grow in their capacity to love and be loved, to desire, to live. Our hearts are enlarged by Jesus. By that, we mean that we must be willing to be honest with Him and with ourselves about the true nature of our souls - our sorrows, our desires, our dreams, our fears, our deepest and scariest hopes. To invite Jesus to come and walk with us there....We do not always get what we want, but that doesn't mean that we no longer want...Living in true beauty can require much waiting, much time, much tenacity in spirit. We must constantly direct our gazes toward the face of God, even in the presence of longing and sorrow. It is in the waiting (with Him) that our hearts are enlarged. The waiting doesn't diminish us. As a pregnant woman is enlarged in her waiting, so are our hearts. God does not always rescue us out of a painful season. He does not always give to us what we so desperately want when we want it. He is after something much more valuable than our happiness. Much more substantive than our health. He is restoring and growing in us an eternal weight of glory."