The Glory of Life.

Good morning friends!
At long last, I am free! Haha hallelujah! It is done. All over. I had my last day of preceptorship week yesterday, and that wrapped up my 18 months of practical nursing school. Now all that's left to do is walk across the stage on April 19th and receive my diploma! Ahhhhhh!!

Alot of people have been asking me if I'm like super excited to be done. Quite frankly, it still doesn't feel real. Like wait, you mean I'm not gonna be in nursing school the rest of my life? You mean I don't ever have to back to that school? Seriously? Ahah it's truly one of those things that seem too good to be true. But it is. I think it's gonna take me a few days for it to sink in that I am finally done with this long and very challenging chapter of life. At last, I really will be moving on.

I had an incredible experience this past week with one of my patients, and I was just so encouraged. I think the Lord let it happen so I wouldn't lose hope or vision during those grueling 12 hour days. This 90 year old lady was sent over to the hospital from a nursing home across the street where I had also done clinical rotations. So when I saw she was my patient, I immediately remembered her. This poor lady was completely non-verbal and could not communicate with me at all. I know she heard and understood everything I was saying, but she just was out of it and couldn't communicate. And she had come to the hospital and had to get her second leg amputated. She had already had the other one amputated a few years before. So I am in the room, having to change the dressing on her stump, and she just starts moaning and crying, showing just how much pain she was really experiencing. I felt terrible. It's so hard when patients cannot tell you they are hurting, and you are afraid to just keep giving them meds for fear of over-medicating them. Anyways, I saw her just really showing pain, so I asked another nurse to go get her some pain meds. I felt the need to just stay with her...

So I did.

I took her trembling hand in one of mine, and with my other hand, I gently stroked her hair. Still she wouldn't calm down. So I did what I knew the Lord was telling me to do-- I started to sing. Softly humming at first, but then I opened my mouth and just sang with my heart. As the words to "It Is Well With My Soul": left my lips, I literally felt the Holy Spirit filling that tiny hospital room. I even hesitated for a second when the first notes left my mouth because frankly I was thinking, "Wait a minute. I know for a fact that I can't sing very well...so why does what I am singing right now sound like...amazing?" I think the Lord was singing through me to comfort this precious old lady. Friends I kid you not, the instant I began singing, her trembling stopped. Her moaning ceased. And her eyes closed...in utter peace.

Holy cow God. This is why I am a nurse. This is what you made me to be--your hands, your feet, your voice, your compassion, your tenderhearted spirit, your comfort, your peace. I felt the Lord comforting her through me. I know with all my heart He was right there with me in that room, easing this lady's pain, and bringing her His peace despite all she was going through. When my youngest sister was born, my mom had a beautifully compassionate and just wonderful nurse who was from a different country, and had an exotic name that my mom still cannot remember to this day, but she does remember asking the nurse what her name meant, and she told her it meant, "Singing Healer". That has been my motivation. I want to be a singing healer. I want the Lord to give me divine inspiration to sing over my patients, to invite the Spirit in to heal them and comfort them when drugs and comfort measures will do nothing. I have to keep all of this close to my heart and I cannot always verbalize my intentions, but I am always praying for my patients. Always asking the Lord to flood their body's with peace, with comfort. And friends, I know with all my heart that He is.

One of my favorite movies is "We Were Soldiers" and there is a song from it by Rascal Flatts called, "The Glory of Life". This song reminds me daily of the glory of life, and how as a nurse, that is what I am praying for and working for. That my patients will not only recover and discover how wonderful life is here, but also the unfathomable richness and glory of a life with Christ. Listen to it here!

Well, I am off to enjoy this first day of Spring Break!! Bathrooms to be cleaned, laundry to do, workouts to complete...ahhh so much to do :-) Have a WONDERFUL Saturday friends!!