She PASSED!

I got a little message asking if Vanessa had passed the NCLEX.... and I realized I left some of you hanging.  She did! That girl was so incredibly sure that she had failed that she was pretty much trying to plan when she would have the time to re-study and take the test again. She was so relieved she cried every time the thought crossed her mind that she was indeed a full fledged R.N. all day!

Christina gets a bee in her bonnet every now and again to do something new, something big, something she has never attempted to do before. So, for the last 7 months she has trained and worked out and rallied friends and sisters to train and work out with her. The goal was the Chelanman, a sprint triathlon. Of all the friends and sisters who trained and worked out with her, only two were able to actually run the race for a lot of different reasons. Brianna and Anthony and Christina didn't just do it, they did it well! Brianna came in 4th in the 20-24 yr old women's category. She was actually 8 minutes ahead of Christina. She really swam fast - faster than she realized. Christina placed 3rd in the 17-19 women's category. Biking is not her thing. BUT she she can RUN. Anthony placed 3rd in the youth division. It was a really fun day. Very inspiring.  It was a revelation to me to see 70 year old grandmas out there, a man missing a leg, people who are heavy, a lady in the last stages of cancer... What is your excuse to not accomplishing your dreams? Cause really, there are no excuses.

A huge opportunity has opened up for Christina. She is 17. She is pretty close to being done her AS degree at the college and she wants to go to pre-med. The universities that she has looked at were not too excited about accepting her yet, at her age. They want them older, more mature in pre-med school. She thought to take a year out and go to a mission somewhere in Africa and get a feel for medical work in some hospital or clinic. Again, age was a factor in the rejection letters... She tried to get a shadowing opportunity at the hospital her dad works at and it was again a no-go. She was offered a job at the hospital that would have been a great fit until they learned her age and once again that was a road block. But this girl never gives up on her dreams. She heard of a doctor and family in Idaho that trains medical missionaries... She contacted them and to make a long story short, after we visited with the family and learned all that the opportunity entailed she was given a week to think about whether she could handle the responsibilities that come with the position. She didn't need any time to think, really. It is a little overwhelming, but she takes that as a challenge. She was accepted and will begin September 7.  Her duties include homeschooling the doctor's children. The youngest ones, anyway... for the mornings and working in the clinic in the afternoons. She has a place to stay with a kind elderly lady and is getting paid to work. She will be trained in all areas of the clinic and the free clinic that is run for financially hard up families and learning to educate people in healthful lifestyle. She will learn everything from drawing blood to giving health lectures. We are thrilled. This year will be the year she decides if she is cut out to be a doctor or not. She already has an acceptance letter from the Southern University in Tennessee for next year, but we won't put the cart before the horse. This year will be a learning opportunity like none she would find at a university. We are thankful. And thankful that she will only be 4 hours from here and can come home often. There is a stretch of foggy, icy road in the winter between here and there, though, so we won't bank on certain weekends, for sure.

Vanessa is at Young Disciple Camp. She is a counselor loving all her little campers (10 girls age 9-11!) and a young assistant that she is mentoring. She's a great big sister and she knows how to handle children well, but 10 is a lot. :-) She is also teaching first aid with a lot of help from her friends. She is a bit stressed and lacks appetite completely, but texted me this morning that she was able to eat a breakfast burrito today.

Brianna is off to cart veggies fro the garden to Youth For Jesus. She loves showing up and seeing her friends from last year when she was a speaker for the Michigan YFJ.

I've had a rough migraine...  BUT my brother and family from Africa, that we have not seen in a few years is arriving this evening so I need to stop laying around and get busy! We are so very excited.

I'll just leave you with this thought:

~"More than enough GRACE" ~

I loved that the moment I read it. It was paired with the incredibly too familiar, disparaging little phrase, "Not enough" - (You know that insidious little line that endeavors to invade and suck the life dry? ~ “Not enough strength, not enough talent, not good enough, not thin enough, not beautiful enough, not enough brains, not enough money, not enough energy, not enough….” And here was the antidote.

~The disease of not enough
is CURED when you give THANKS
for more than enough GRACE.

~Ann Vonskamp

Grace is a daughter cleaning an elderly church couple’s house when I should have been.
Grace is the other daughter standing by to comfort as I hunched over the bowl on the bathroom floor when I was suppose to be digging leeks and packaging herbs for her produce order.
Grace is my husband’s hand reaching for mine after he is utterly exhausted and spent from caring for patient after patient all day.
Grace is the boy learning empathy and asking, “Is your migraine better yet, mom?”
Grace is the cool breeze fluttering the sheets in the night after a stifling hot day.
Our God is good. How grateful are we for the grace extended us Through HIM day after day? . . . because HIS grace is the only thing that is ever enough.