Graduation!

On May 3, I graduated with my Masters Degree of Science in Nursing. I took my certification exam through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners on June 20th, and PASSED! I can now add NP-C to the end of my signature which means Nurse Practitioner-Certified. I started a job at a local clinic May 6th, but was let go due to issues not related to my performance on June 22. I am currently waiting to start a job in the local emergency department. Currently, I am working part-time at my Registered Nursing job at a Hyperbaric and Wound Treatment Center. I have been there for almost 3 years and love it. I am very glad to still have that job and not just be sitting at home just waiting to start practicing as a NP. Thankfully, I have a great boss. It has been a busy summer, and I am SO glad to be done with school.

Charleston, SC

In May 2009, after graduating and before job hunting, Ben and I traveled to Charleston, SC with Chris and Cara. We had a great time. These are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip.

More pictures can be viewed at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2088145&id=56705803&l=3aac4dbc16.

Graduation Banquet

Tonight Ben and I attended a celebration banquet for my Nurse Practitioner program. This is a picture of my graduating class and 2 teachers. We are all so excited about graduating on Sunday!

2009 Dove Awards

Ben & I attended the 2009 Dove Awards in Nashville, TN with our friend, Todd Starnes. He just wrote a really great book called, "They Popped My Hood and Found Gravy on the Dipstick." As part of his "Dipstick" tour, he was presenting an award for the Gospel Music Association. Our seats were really great and we enjoyed an awesome show. Todd gave us his seats and stayed backstage to interview Miss California for Fox News (which is his day job).

When it was over he took us backstage and we got to meet some of the best Christian and Gospel artists of the year, like Brandon Heath and Kirk Franklin.

We had an amazing time! Thanks Todd!

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Today is Ben's 27th birthday!

Here are a few pics of him throughout the years.

Happy Birthday, sweetie! I love you!

Change of Plans

(Ben writing....again)

Anyone reading this should first reread the last two sentences of the previous blog entry. I should not have been so presumptuous.

We started the day by arriving at Erlanger at 7:00. After checking in, getting blood tests, etc. Kristen was wheeled back to the preop holding area around 9:00 and Kristen's parents, my mom, and I went to the waiting room. At 9:45 the nurse called to tell us that the surgery just started. At 10:45, the nurse called and said that she was fine, but they were still working. This was only supposed to be a 40 minute surgery, so after more than an hour, what were they still working on? I had a dozen questions that I wanted to ask the nurse but since I didn't really want to know the answers, I said "Thank you" and hung up. 11:15....11:30.....11:45....still no word. At 12:00, the nurse called and said in a slighly less enthusiastic tone "Your wife is stable, but they are having trouble removing the filter." The all too familiar feeling of nausea hit me like a Mack truck. Had we made the wrong decision? The next hour seemed to drag on forever. Finally, at 1:00, the doctor came around the corner to speak to us.

Basically, the filter is going to stay in and Kristen is going to be fine. The doctor said he tried everything he could think of to get the filter out, but nothing would work. Something was preventing him from being able to hook the top, yet all of the scans were normal. He actually said, "There is no good reason why I should not be able to get it. I don't know what to tell you except that God wants it to stay." As soon as he said this, I knew that it was true. I am not sure why God wanted us to go through the whole surgery process only to find out that the filter needs to stay in. Maybe he knew that we would always second guess whichever decision we made. Maybe he just wanted to take the burden of making a "no-win" decision off of our shoulders. Whatever the reason, there is no doubt in my mind that "God wants it to stay" and I feel relieved (I will not know how Kristen feels about it until tomorrow. She is still getting over the anesthesia.)

Thank you to everyone who is praying for us, and I know that a lot of you are. The last 3 months have not exactly been "La dolce vita". I know that things could be a lot worse, but I can't help but look forward to days that include world travel, regular jobs (no school), and additions to the family instead of surgeries, homework, and doctor's bills. Kristen likes for me to put a picture with my posts so I picked the Eiffel Tower because whenever we can get our feet on the ground, we are going to France, Lord willing :)

Last Surgery....hopefully

(Ben writing)
So the decision has been made. No turning back now. No second guessing.

Kristen went in for testing a couple of weeks ago, and the results were good...no pulmonary hypertension which is another one of the many miracles we have experienced. Yesterday, the doctor called to give us the news and then asked the magic question, "So it is up to you. Do you want to take the filter out or leave it in?" Our answer, we decided to take it out. The doctor agreed with our decision.

We started talking about scheduling the surgery and Kristen said that she wanted to wait until after she graduated in May, but the doctor wants to do it soon. Right now, the surgery is scheduled for Wednesday. It should be fairly quick, 40 minute surgery, 1 hour recovery, then back to the house.