VA Scavenger Hunt

today i "checked out" from my clinic placement at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Dallas. apparently they like to make it EXTREMELY difficult for people to leave government employment. i received a piece of paper which required no less than 14 signatures from certain divisions within the VA in order to sever my employment (with no pay). so i was handed a map and told that i would be walking a lot.
i started at 1pm. i was finished at 3:45. the VA is a BIG building! it has 3 main buildings and about 60 some-odd buildings located around the property. i had to walk to places that weren't even on the map. i went out the front entrance, around parking lots and construction and finally found the building (or should i say trailer..) i was looking for, only to be told I had to have the other sections sign it first. so back around the parking lots and construction. through a different entrance to wait in a line for 30 minutes only to be told the door i needed was right around the corner, where, by the way, there was no line and it took 30 seconds for someone to sign.
i looked lost most of the time and several people took pity on me asked asked if they could help.
i really enjoyed my time at the VA. i think i learned a lot and will really miss the people that i got to work with.
but it would not have been complete without my VA scavenger hunt!

surprises in texas

on tuesdays, i drive around Collin County, visiting the schools of the various students i see for my clinic placement. some people may think it's boring, but i enjoy the 1/2 hour or so i get to spend in the car, driving along the backroads of Texas.
there are lots of things i expect to see when driving around. just to name a few:
big hats
big trucks
tractors
fields of corn and hay
cows
horses
lakes, ponds
goats
sheep
so, you know, i'm in the country. and it's fun for me.
the one thing i don't expect to see though, would be a CAMEL. that's right. the animal that lives in the desert, has long legs, a big hump.. and namely, lives in the desert. but there is was. hanging out in a pen right beside a Mexican restaurant.
you never know what you're gonna see. so keep your eyes open people.

a challenge for you all...

earlier this week, i had a little episode that humbled me.
the patient i was supposed to see showed up 30 minutes late, so i was a little ticked. i had already assumed the patient would not be coming at all, and so was not prepared for him. he came in and was very apologetic. i couldn't be mad any longer. and then i had to do something that many people would think is incredibly disgusting. cerumen management. (wax removal). it wasn't even "real" cerumen management, because the wax wasn't in the ear canal, just outside (that's just for you future AuDs). i could have left it there and it would not have hurt anything. but i realized...
1. this man is elderly,
2. he may live all alone with no one to take care of him, and
3. lastly, but most importantly, i would not be a good audiologist-in-training if i didn't clean this out

when i told him what i needed to do, he just said, "yep, okay" and just sat there all quiet and still.

ask i was cleaning, i must admit i got a little grossed out, and i thought... this isn't just my job to help people like this. this should be my life, taking care of people because we're all people, and loved equally by our Creator. it doesn't matter how much ear wax they have, or how dirty they are, or what diseases they have..... but this is what we are called to do. serve others and take care of their needs if they are without someone to help them.

so i challenge you all to serve others. do something that you wouldn't normally do to help someone else.

you know you're a dork when....

i am fully aware that i am dork. how do i know this??? my friend (and future fellow audiologist) and i had a 5-minute conversation on the rewarding feeling of removing cerumen... aka "wax"... from someone's ear. i believe her words were something like.. "the sense of accomplishment you get from pulling a big plug of wax out". even now it makes me laugh, cause i so understand that.
yes. i am dork.

the beginning...

well. the beginning is actually somewhere in the middle. the middle of my life.
i have never done anything like this thing called "blogging" before, so people reading... bear with me.

i have spent the last couple weekends being immersed in learning new things about myself. i have finally come to the point in my life, not where things are starting to make sense or i have found my purpose in life, but where my eyes and more importantly, my heart, are being opened to how i should be living.
for those of you reading who don't know, i am a follower of Jesus. i must admit, and ashamed to admit, i definitely do not live every day as a follower of Jesus. i have lived most of my life in pursuit of what i wanted and how i thought best. i have not lived to show the love of Jesus to others, which is what He calls me to do. in rare moments, i could do it, but i was probably resisting all the way.

so... back to my heart being peeled open.... in the past 15 years that i have been a believer of Jesus, i would read these verses of the Bible:

1 timothy 5:3 "the church should care for any widow who has no one else to care for her"
james 1:27 "pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles...."
proverbs 14:31 "those who oppress the poor insult their Maker, but those who help the poor honor him"

and my eyes would just gloss over and i would forget these words as soon as i read them. there are many other verses where the Bible mentions helping the poor and oppressed. recently they have been brought to my attention repeatedly, and been beaten against my skull. finally, they are starting to sink in. and now my brain wonders why? why haven't i realized this before and how have i been missing this all along. when i thought about it, i must have thought someone else, somewhere else was following these commands. and back then, i thought that was enough. but i'm writing down for all of you reading to see that it's not okay for a follower of Jesus, to not follow something He commanded me to do.

so this blog will be about how i am living out my story, the one Jesus wants me to live.