Hey all, it's been like a million years since I last posted and I have just felt the need to write down some things before I become consumed into nursing school life. First off, I start school on Monday! I won't lie, I am so nervous. Practically everyone who has been through the program and hears I am starting tells me either "I'm sorry" or "Good Luck." And not the kind of good luck as in you're going to do awesome haha. I haven't been in the school mode for a year, so hopefully I will do well. Just thinking about it now I've got that knot feeling in my stomach. I worry about everything, so Kyle won't be sleeping Sunday night either!;) I think my biggest fear is I won't even like being a nurse and then I went through all this trouble for nothing. I wish you could just do like a mock trial and then decide, and I realize that is kind of what being a cna is, but to me they seem like completely different jobs! I love being a cna, so hopefully I will love being a nurse as well. I guess that is where my title comes into play. When you have faith, there is nothing to fear. Fear is the opposite of faith. Which moves me to my other subject. I had an unexpected blessing come my way, one I feel like I didn't deserve. Before Kyle and I went to Taiwan (I will get to that later:), I applied for a Pediatrics position that came open. I'm always looking at job openings, not necessarily because I didn't like my job or anything I just am curious as to what becomes open! Well anyway, like a month before we left for Taiwan this job got posted and I thought "Oh, what the heck I will apply!" I didn't really think anything of it after that, because I loved my job on the Medical floor and I just did it for fun I guess you could say. Well the day before we left I got a phone call saying they would like to interview me, so I ran over to the other side after I got off, had an interview and left for 2 weeks! While we were in Taiwan I checked my email a couple times when I could and turns out they had been trying to get a hold of me to offer me the job. I was literally in shock. I left out a lot of details, but everything happened so perfect I knew it had all been in God's hand and he was blessing me with this wonderful opportunity. It's been my dream to work with children, and this is a great chance for me to see if it's really for me. I am so excited to also start this new adventure! Faith comes into play with this story because I will be cutting back on how many hours I work so we won't be making as much money... ps I hate money. I am so glad Kyle is so good with our finances or I think I would be a mess all the time! I am constantly reminding myself to have faith in this aspect of our life, and Kyle is so great at reminding me Heavenly Father will always take care of us when I get discouraged.
At the end of November we had the wonderful opportunity of going to Taiwan! We were so incredibly excited to go. We arrived there after a 20 hour flight, which wasn't as bad as everyone made it seem, and boy did we have a continuous adventure for 2 weeks straight. Haha. Seriously, it is an experience I will treasure forever. I would advise every single person to go out of the country and experience life in a different culture. I feel like it is so enriching! There are so many things I take for granted here in America. If I wrote about everything we did this thing would be like a bazillion pages long so I will just tell a couple of my experiences there:) I loved the people. I don't know if you can call that an "experience" but I feel like it was one. Every single person I met, whether we knew or someone on the street was nice! It was kind of crazy haha. And we got called movie stars a couple of times by those who don't see white people much. Which I thought was funny. Going to church our first Sunday was one of my favorite experiences. Kyle and I got up and bore our testimonies and Kyle translated for me. I loved seeing that church is the same no matter where you are, even if you can't understand the language, the spirit is the same. We also went to the temple in Taipei near the end of our trip and that was a very special experience as well. The food was interesting, and I craved pizza for 2 weeks straight! haha I have no idea why. We stayed in some pretty cool hotels, we saw so many Buddhist temples and went on a lot of hikes! Kyle learned how to drive like a Taiwanese, our car got towed, we got lost a lot, and I asked "what did they say?" probably close to a million times. Some of the experiences we had with a couple of the families I feel are so special I don't even know where to start, but it was hard leaving them and I felt like I gained a couple chinese families. I think about them all of the time, and I miss them a lot. I learned how to use chopsticks, say a couple phrases, and use the public bathrooms! (haha) Kyle was really good at translating and kept me in the loop. Kyle and I like to joke that we got sick of each other, but I would not have wanted to be with anybody else. We had a lot of time to talk, laugh, and sing in the car. I really looked up to Kyle on that trip even more than I already had, knowing he picked up and left all he had here at home and went so willingly to Taiwan because Heavenly Father asked him too. Not only to preach the gospel but to also love the people. I know that is where he was supposed to be, and I am grateful he had so much Faith to do it. It was such an amazing experience, one I will never forget! I know someday I will see my chinese families again, whether it's here on earth or in heaven.
So Lesson Learned #5 is sometimes life seems so confusing. So many choices, and so much unknown. But I know that when one truly has faith they have nothing to fear! Believe me, I know it's much easier said then done sometimes. But god knows what he's doing, and he has a plan for all of us if we have faith enough to let him guide us! So when he guides you a certain way and you're thinking "hold up there, this isn't what I had in mind. I don't see how this is going to work out" Just remember, faith is like a little seed, if planted it will grow!
-Sidne
