Busy Season/Mattters of the Heart

The last 6 months have been busy with good and bad stressors…welcome to the reality of life, right?!? 

Throughout the spring and summer I continued to become more acclimated to my job…the more I have learned the more I have contributed.  Not a week goes by that I don't receive a hug and sometime tears from a grateful client.  It is stressful, demanding work but is rewarding and fulfilling.  I have had to work very hard not to take the work home with me emotionally…so far I have done well.  

This spring and summer was a whirlwind with Heather’s high school graduation, Amy’s college graduation, our vacation to Cedar Campus, and then Amy and Jonathan’s engagement there.  

This summer Stephen and Jenna also moved to Salt Lake City, Utah for their work as a school psychologist and 5^th grade teacher, respectively.  They have adjusted well and are enjoying many great outdoor excursions!  You can read more about their adventures in Jenna's blog, aptly named Hoosier Hospitalitea.   

It was hard to adjust to Heather being at Purdue, but I am getting better at it.  Cooking for one is not easy!  Heather's cat is very needy and misses Heather....so the cat drives me nuts on a daily basis!  She thinks she needs to be petted 24-7!

Happily, I am busy with wedding plans, and I was honored to take Amy and Jonathan's engagement pictures in July.  Amy is currently working as an intern at Audubon's Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida until April.  Jonathan finishes his last Purdue classes in May, and we have a June 30 wedding!

I moved at the end of September to a smaller apartment, which I love, in a complex named Willow Creek Crossing.  I finally unpacked the last box this past month, and I made numerous trips to Goodwill throughout the whole process.  I was blessed with the opportunity to give away so many things to another single mom.  It was such a gift to be the one giving.  My new salary allowed me to even buy a new couch, recliner, and desk, which better fit my smaller space. 

I admit I wore myself out a bit packing prior to the move, but I had a lot of help.  Heather asked me how I was going to move when all my friends were old….LOL!  My “old” friends from all parts of my life (band-mom friends, former swim lesson parents, Bible study friends) came and helped me pack.  One of them was retired, and I could hardly keep up with her!  The best part was that I had almost all of the small stuff packed and moved or ready to move by the time the movers arrived.

God continued to provide throughout the whole process.  A friend of mine had just moved, so she saved me all of her boxes.  Another friend works at the Kroger produce department and she saved me produce boxes.  Another friend works in the shipping/receiving department at her company, so she saved me used bubble wrap.  So I spent no money on packing supplies except for packing tape!

I prayed and prayed about how to figure out how to hire or find someone to move the furniture and larger items.  Finally during a time of prayer, God put the idea of looking on Craigslist for a mover and calling that person!  I thought that was the craziest thing I had ever heard, but I did it.  I called the first person I found, chickened out, and hung up without leaving a message.  The man called my number back and through further conversations, I found out he is a Christian AND a pastor.  The entire time the mover and his team was moving me, we all had the most amazing conversations.  He was preaching to my new neighbors and Heather before it was all over.  Anyone who crossed his path ended up learning more about Jesus. He ended up only charging me $500 for the move, and I am sure God laughed at my doubt!

My health has continued to be very good.  The only problem I have had is that I took a nasty fall while in downtown Fort Wayne in October and almost broke my ribs.  I literally tripped over my own feet!  I was just recovering from an asthma flare (which is normal in the fall for me) so post-injury coughing was brutal.  When I fell I didn’t realize how badly I was hurt until I got to work and felt dizzy.  The clinic staff was lining up for our annual flu shots, and a patient service rep took one look at me and made me sit down.  The next thing I knew a nurse came to check my pupils, another checked my blood pressure, and another bandaged my ankle that I somehow cut during the fall.  Someone else even picked leaves out of my hair!  I was able to see a doctor at the clinic that same day, and no bones were broken.

The pain ebbed and flowed, and I doing quite well for a while.  I was even able to visit my dear friends Dave and Jan Esch, friends from Cedar Campus, for a weekend.  However, in the following days I was in so much pain I went for x-rays and pain medicine.  I was physically limited and in pain when I tried to carry something or go up and down stairs and even driving using my right arm.  I had continued to see my chiropractor and at my first exam we noticed how swollen my back, arm, and chest was.  My right shoulder looked as though someone hit it with a baseball bat.  Even though I have health insurance at my new job, it is not as good as I have had in the past.  So I have more medical bills…sigh…but I have always with God’s help worked that out in the past.  The good news is that I am much improved even though my family doctor said that it could take 6 months for the ribs to completely heal.

During the move and the injury, feelings of discontent crept in.  Being hurt, I struggled with the last of the unpacking, with soaking in the bathtub and getting stuck (I couldn’t move due to the pain), with trying to hang pictures and shelves.  I remember crying out to God for a helpmate…not a husband or a serious relationship…just a helpmate.  After all I have been through and at this season of self-confidence in my life, with Jesus' help I am a force to be reckoned with….so I wondered if the ongoing pain and the discontent were spiritual attack.  Through this discontentment, I foolishly re-connected with a man I had previously dated, and it just didn't work out (more about that later).

So I continue on enjoying my job, participating in church activities and a Bible study, and adjusting to an empty nest.  This article does a great job explaining what it is like to go through the empty nest season as a single parent. 

 "And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus," Phillipians 4:9.