Let's Celebrate!

"Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!" Psalm 95:1-2

I've told only a few people about this, but I just started volunteering with an organization called Refugee Services of Texas. (You can find their website here). As soon as I got my job, I knew that I wanted to find somewhere to volunteer and the Lord put this opportunity right in front of me. It couldn't be any more perfect for us. 

A couple of days ago, they matched us with a family!!! We are going to be mentoring a couple and their unborn baby who are refugees from South Asia, basically assisting them in learning everything about living in the United States, helping them on their road to self sufficiency here, and -most importantly, in my opinion- hopefully becoming good friends with them. We are super excited about this and can't wait to meet them when I get back from Florida!  

There are also a lot of celebrations this week in our families--

1. David's (my younger brother) 20th birthday is SATURDAY! I can't believe he's not a teenager anymore!! Happy birthday David! You'll be getting the best late birthday present you've ever gotten in your life--ME!! See you soon! :)
2. Sheppard's (Cory's (now our) cousin) birthday party is on SUNDAY! I'm hoping to be able to make it into Pensacola in time for the fun!!
3. Talya (Cory's (now our) cousin) graduates on MONDAY! We wanted to make sure that at least one of us could make it..and although we are sad that Cory won't be able to go due to his school schedule, we are very glad that I can go!! Can't wait!
4. Daniel (my youngest brother) graduates next FRIDAY! We're so happy for him--and super excited that he is going to be a GATOR!! We hope that he has as great of an experience as we did while at UF!! To all of our Gainesville friends, keep your eye on him for me and please make him feel loved :)
5. Eric's (my oldest brother) birthday is also next FRIDAY! Happy early birthday Eric! We wish that we could be with you to celebrate!!! We hope it won't be long until we are actually in the same city at the same time ;) (We always seem to just miss each other when Eric comes to the states)

So as you can see, this week (and always) there is A LOT to be thankful for and celebrate! God is GOOD!

I looked through all of our pictures to find one that really said "CELEBRATE" to me because I love when posts have pictures, and this one was the winner :) Its an old picture, but I miss you girls!!!

Prayer points:

• Our volunteer opportunity!
• Safety and alertness during my drive to Florida (and for no flat tires/dead batteries this time!)
• School for Cory (side note: He thinks his first exam went pretty well and he is also loving his cadaver lab!)
• A family friend's son who is having medical issues. Pray for healing, wisdom for the doctors, and strength for him.
• For all of our friends who are on (or going on) mission trips around the world this summer...pray that the Lord would use them beyond what they even believe is possible, that they would be sensitive to His leading, for courage and boldness, and pray for the hearts of the people to be softened and for the Gospel message to be clear to them.

As always, if there is anything we can be praying for YOU about, please make that known to us through a comment, e-mail, Facebook, etc because we would love to pray for you and your family!

PA school has officially begun

We apologize for the lack of posts lately, but we've had a crazy couple of weeks! Cory wanted to let y'all know about his first week at school...

       As the final weeks and days leading up to my first day flew by I couldn’t believe that PA school was finally about to happen. This was something that Angela and I had been preparing for and dreaming about for years, and suddenly it was only days away. I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what to expect when classes started, but come Sunday night I still had an intense bout of nerves. Despite the many months of research and numerous conversations with PAs, faculty, and PA students it became suddenly real as I tried going to bed on Sunday night. It had suddenly become much more than a series of interviews and applications, I was starting PA school in less than 12 hours! 

Monday morning came quick enough and I found myself sitting in an auditorium with all my classmates getting ready for our day of orientation. Thankfully I had the opportunity to meet many of my classmates the week before classes at a place called Top Golf Dallas. We all hung out on Saturday night as our last hurrah before school took over our lives. And it became pretty clear on Monday morning that school was definitely going to do just that. In less than fifteen minutes the dean of the School of Health Professions boldly proclaimed “At times during this program you’ll want to kill yourself--but please don’t do that!” If you want to know a sure way to wake up a hundred half-asleep students, feed them that line! However awake we all were thanks to that comment, it didn’t last too long. The orientation progressed through a dozen or so presenters covering all the logistics we would “need” to know to be successful through our programs.  While I’m sure each presenter legitimately believed their information was valuable to us, after the third or fourth lecture on how to properly access the internet on campus I have to admit I began zoning out. 

Thankfully, after lunch we were split into program-specific orientations. This part of the orientation confirmed to me one of the reasons that UTSW stood out to me as a program: the faculty.  From Dr. Jones, the program director, to the newest professor that joined this semester, to the administrative team behind the scenes, I have never before felt that a group of faculty and staff sincerely want to see us succeed. They took time to introduce themselves to us on a more personal level and then had us do the same. Their excitement was contagious and got all of us energized about the rest of the day. While it was still just an orientation, the faculty that led it (and the fact that it pertained to us directly) made it much more interesting. I left at the end of the day fairly overwhelmed and classes hadn’t even started yet! 

Tuesday was our first day of lectures. The first week we had three hours of Neuroscience before lunch and 3 hours of Human Physiology after. The reason for that is because we have our first Neuro exam on Wednesday. Yes, after only four days of classes we have our first exam!! The first week flew by. Some of the lectures were a review of things learned in undergrad, but the honeymoon period was short-lived as our second Neuro lecture was intense. The third lecture didn’t let up either and was by far the most intense amount of information I have ever experienced. However, despite all the fairly challenging lectures, the professors made it exceptionally interesting! They never let it be simply a drone of scientific facts or anatomical structures. They were always tying the topics to the clinical representations we’d be seeing in real patients. And for me, the clinical applications spread throughout the lectures made the concepts much easier to understand, and much much more applicable to my future career as a PA. 

The first week was short as we had only three real days of lecture, and we have a four day weekend--plenty of time to study for that first exam. Next week we start our Anatomy courses (lecture and lab) and we start our cadaver dissections first thing Tuesday morning! I was also assigned to the first phlebotomy (blood-drawing) group for next week. We will learn blood draw techniques then work four shifts with a lab tech at Parkland Hospital practicing our skills. I was assigned to the third shift, so I’ll be up at the hospital from 10-midnight all next week. Regardless, I’m definitely looking forward to these first patient interactions! 

I’ll do my best to keep everyone updated periodically on how things are going! Angela and I really appreciate all your prayers thus far and would appreciate them going forward as well! 

 Top Golf was awesome! Neither of us are any good at golf, but it was still a ton of fun!

I made him take pictures before his first day! :)

Always gotta find a way to represent! Go Gators! 

He's so official!

We got a new roof this past week, and she was terrified of all that noise they were making. She stayed at my side like this for the ENTIRE day!

I took a shower while the roofers were still here and came out to find her like this...apparently since she couldn't be at my side she decided it was best to just hide under the bed. Poor thing! She was so scared, but this was just too funny! 

It was UT Southwestern night at the Grand Prairie Air Hogs baseball game, so we got to go for free!

Some of the food was also only $1 for UT Southwestern people so- of course-we took advantage of that. 4 hotdogs, 1 hamburger, and nachos. So terrible for us, but so yummy!

There is nothing better than Saturday morning walks :)

Also, I (Angela) will be in Florida ONE WEEK from tomorrow (Sunday)!!!! YAYYY!!! I seriously cannot wait for lots of family, friends, and beach time!!!! Hopefully we will write another post before then, but if not, I'll make sure to update y'all on the trip! 

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Fun and free

Just an update:

1) We joined our church out here, First Baptist Church of Irving. We are super excited because we knew from the very first time we went that it would be a great church for us...and after praying about it we knew that it was the one to join. We can't wait to get more involved!

2) Cory starts school in 12 days. As scary as it is, we can't wait for him to get started! I know that he is going to love PA school and its going to be a great opportunity for him! Please be praying for us as we begin this next chapter in our lives. Its going to be a busy time but I know that it will be great!

3) One of the best things about not having a lot of money right now is how creative we have to be to find things to do. Its a lot of fun to find the free things to do in this area...and here's a glimpse of just a few that we have found so far.... :)

The Fort Worth Botanical Gardens

One of the malls in our area was having a free David Crowder mini concert!

We went back to DFW to watch planes land again, but on a clear day this time! Its a lot more fun than you think to listen to Air Traffic Control!

Volleyball with our Sunday School class

I didn't get a good picture but we can't wait to go back to the Dallas Farmer's Market...we got to sample lots of yummy fruits and veggies!

Our church had a free Jimmy Needham concert to raise money for a missionary family

Now for some randomness:

The hospital I am going to work for is a faith-based hospital that has tons of Bible verses all over the walls, this is one of them..

 

It was nice to see a familiar face in Dallas, even if it was this traitor....(yes, I'm still bitter that he is coaching Ohio State now)...but at least he's wearing a Gator shirt! ;)

Here's a picture of this sweet face again :) She brings so much joy to our lives!!

Also, I wanted to share this song...I love it and the truth that is found in the lyrics!! Its such a great reminder :)

Please let us know if we can be praying for YOU in any specific way! 

God and the Gator Nation

It feels so weird to be sitting in a Panera and NOT be job searching. After searching and applying nearly every day for 2 months (or more!), I will be okay with not seeing another application for a LONG time :)

As most of you already know, I officially accepted a position at Texas Health Resources in Fort Worth and will be starting at the end of July!! I will be on a Long Term Acute Care unit in the hospital. I'm excited because its a small unit in the hospital and each patient is there for 25 or more days. This will give me the opportunity to get to know the patients and their families pretty well before they have to leave, which is exactly what I wanted. I think it will be a great opportunity to learn a lot!

I, of course, have to thank God. I'm so thankful that He answered our prayers in HIS timing!

I am also very thankful for the Gator Nation- because it was only due to a Gator alum (besides God, of course) that I got the job. After many days of job searching-and nearly giving up-I decided to do a Google search to see if there was any chance that a Gator alum was working in a hospital out here. On the first search, I came across a lady whose picture was in the Texas Health magazine with her office in the background-which was decked out in Gator stuff!! I got her name and then did a Google search for her e-mail address. It was really hard to find, however, because come to find out she was SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/ CHIEF NURSE EXECUTIVE (Coincidence? I think not.) for Texas Health...but I eventually found it.

At that point all I could say was PRAISE GOD! He led me to find her name and I was praying that she would actually answer, because you know, Senior Vice Presidents/Chief Nurse Executives are usually pretty busy. Anyway, so I e-mailed her and she e-mailed me back the next day welcoming us to Texas and saying that she was forwarding my e-mail and resume on to nurse managers...what a blessing! A couple of days later, I was setting up an interview...and the rest is history :)

So, new graduates, if you are having trouble finding a job in your field...just do a Google search, because as we all know- The Gator Nation is Everywhere :) And who wouldn't want to help out a fellow Gator?!

Congratulations to everyone who graduated this weekend! We are excited for you and wish that we could be there to celebrate with you!! :)