February and A Little of March 2009

At the beginning of February, we headed over to Detroit for a day (actually less than 24 hours) for Cornerstone's missions fest. They had a seminar called Track 2 for those interested in pursuing what God might have for them in full time missions. Throughout the day we heard from several missionaries and learned many valuable things from their experience. It was great to reconnect with familiar faces and friends, many with similar passions and life goals. It was a short and snappy trip because Andrew left the next morning for the Biblical Counseling Conference in Lafayette, IN.

Before he took off for the conference, we had a romantic brunch at a little restaurant in Holland. Did I mention that was the most we've ever paid for breakfast? It was worth every penny. Good thing we had Holland Bucks (gift certificate for many stores in Holland). At the conference, Andrew really enjoyed learning and being in a class type setting for 12 hours a day. The biggest thing that emphasized at the conference was that God's Word has all the answers for life's problems. By far though, the highlight had little to do with the content being taught at the conference. After the first break on the first full day, Andrew came around the corner and much to my surprise was Chip Dean (his best man in our wedding, who he hadn't seen since that day since he lives in Alabama). It was good to hang out and reconnect with a good friend. By the end of the week, he was ready to get home to his beautiful bride :)

Meanwhile, back in Grandville, Kate was plugging away at her clinicals. She finished up her med/surg clinicals. It was really neat to see how much she grew in confidence from the begining of the clinical until the end. By the last week, she was asking to have two patients! In the week between finishing med/surg and begining pediatrics, Kate had her second nursing theory exam and got an A (finally) on the test! The next week, Kate started her pediatric rotation. She has been waiting since the begining of nursing school for this clinical! She hopes that God will allow her to be a peds nurse when she graduates.

Kate realized this month that she is half way through the actual nursing program and so she went to a health career job fair here in Grand Rapids. She was going more for the experience for when she will graduate and have to be interviewed. She talked with a number of different people from hospitals across Michigan, including a recruiter from Metro Health Hospital here in Grand Rapids. He told her about a summer nursing externship (basically she would follow around a nurse for 24 hours a week and not get paid...but it would look good on the resume for the future) and she went home and applied for it that night. Got a call the next morning for an interview and sat down the following week with someone from the hospital. The interview went really well, but still uncertain if she could sacrifice that many hours a week on top of the class load she is already carrying for the summer. We are waiting to see what her class and clinical schedule will be to determine if she can do it.