A Beautiful Sunday

I went to a small baptist church on Sunday morning with one of the girls from the nursing program and her mom.  The church is called The Hill Baptist Church and is approximately a mile from where I live.  It is a beautiful little church and the congregation was incredibly friendly and welcoming.  The sermon was on the story of Cain and Able and how no matter what you do as a Christian, it is important to have faith and to do things with a faith-centered heart. 

The sermon made me think about where I am at.  I sometimes wonder why I feel the need to go to so many different places when I have such an incredible support system at home.  Why can't I be content remaining close to family and friends? 
I think a lot of it has to do with faith.  I love my family dearly and their unconditional love and support helps give me the courage to continue to move and grow and change.  But my faith definitely pushes me to new people, new places and new experiences.  I know I came to Augusta to go to school, but I can't help but think that there are other reasons why I was pulled to this location.  I am excited to see how life plays out here. 
It isn't always easy though.  There have been many times lately when I call or Skype my family and friends, hear what they are doing and yearn to be home enjoying life with the people I love.  Sometimes I think I am crazy for leaving a perfectly enjoyable job and comfortable surroundings for a hot, bug-filled apartment, student loans, and no job (hopefully this is only temporary).  I guess you could say that I am still adjusting.  I know that God gives me what I can handle and only He knows what is in store for me.  During the moments when I wish I was home, I remember this and it tends to turn my perspective around. 

One with the Roach

When I began telling people about moving to Georgia to go to school the most common response seemed to always have something to do with the cockroaches that live in this area.  So even before I came here I was terrified of the supposed excessively large creatures.  When we finally arrived in Augusta last Tuesday, the first thing I made my parents do was pull out the bug spray and douse my new home.  Once we were sure the place was roach-free we began moving my things in.  My parents did a phenomenal job making sure my apartment was clean, livable and felt like home by the time they left on Friday.  I was and still am so grateful!

Then on Sunday morning while going to make my morning coffee, I pulled out my coffee machine and a small bug scurried up the wall to seek refuge between my kitchen cabinets and the wall.  He disappeared to quickly and we couldn't find him.  Roach 1; Netta 0.   Later on Sunday evening Jon and I were getting ready to go to bed, he was in the bathroom and I was in the hallway.  As we were talking, he would look up at the bathroom wall and then back at me.  After doing this a couple times, I ask 'Jonathan, is there a roach on the wall?!?'  He immediately said, 'No.' but then he smirked and his eyes began to dance and I knew he wasn't being truthful. I followed with, 'Jonathan you better kill that bug and get it off my wall!!!' Roach 1; Netta 0; Jon 1.

Monday rolls around and it is the first day of classes.  In our afternoon lab we learned to take vitals.  While practicing on each other I began asking some of the girls about the roaches here. They had quite the stories to tell.  One girl proceeded to tell me about people going to bed, waking up with roaches stuck in their ears and having to go to the hospital to get the roaches removed!  I was immediately terrified and asked if that only happened to people with poor hygiene.  They said that it doesn't matter if you have good or bad hygiene, it just depends on if your home has an infestation.  By this time I am freaked out. Roach 2; Netta 0; Jon 1.

After class I took Jon to the airport (tearful goodbye), went back home and did some studying.  Before going to bed I made sure I checked every crevice of my apartment, grabbed some cotton balls, stuck them in my ears and went to bed.  I didn't sleep very well that night and woke up repeatedly thinking about cockroaches crawling on my bed.  Roach 3; Netta 0; Jon 1.

By 4:30 AM on Tuesday morning I finally decided that enough was enough.  I needed to make peace with the fact that roaches are a part of life down here and I am going to need to get use to them.  So I proceeded to remove the cotton balls from my ear, set them on the night stand and began to say some prayers.  My prayers went something like this, 'Lord, please help me to not be terrified of the roaches.  I need to make peace with this creature I will be residing with for the next 16 months.  Jesus, please help me be at peace with the roaches; help me be one with the roach.'  After repeating these thoughts I finally fell asleep until my alarm woke me up at 6:30.  I woke up with a whole new outlook on the roach business and I am happy to say that last night I slept like a baby!  Roach 3; Netta 1; Jon 1.  I am staging a comeback!

We Made It to GA!

We officially arrived at Georgia Health Sciences University in Augusta, GA!  We arrived this afternoon and have been busy moving all of my things into my one-bedroom apartment.  We spent an extra day of our trip touring Nashville, Tennessee, and I promise to upload pictures as soon as I get a chance.  I will provide more information in the near future but I am beat and am in need of some good sleep... More to come!

We May Be Crazy

By now, most of you know the story of Jon and me and what the next year will have in store for us.  But for those of you who don't, here is the scoop.  Last Friday I left Fargo, ND to move to Augusta, GA.  I was accepted into an accelerated Masters of Nursing program at Georgia Health Sciences University and will begin classes in mid August.  I will be back at school full-time for the next 16 months to complete my MSN with a focus in Clinical Nurse Leadership. 

 

 

While I am busy hitting the books, Jon will leave for training to become an officer in the active duty Army.  He will go through basic training, officer training and then job-specialty training.  We are hoping that he will finish up his training around the same time I finish my schooling - we know the military can be unpredictable so we aren't getting our hopes up too much yet.  After he has completed his training he will get a duty assignment/location and as soon as I am done with school I will join him and find a job.

 

 

We both understand that for approximately the next year and a half we will, once again, have a long-distance relationship.  We aren't very excited about this, but we are relatively familiar with the concept.  A few months after we first started dating Jon deployed to Iraq for 6 months and we survived it.  For the past couple years we have had a short-distance relationship, living 4.5 hours apart due to our careers taking us to different locations.

Do we know that the upcoming months will be tough on both of us?  Yup.

Will my heart hurt when we have to say goodbye? Yup cuz half will go with him.

Will I cry because I miss him?  Probably. Definitely.

Will he cry because he misses me?  Probably not - he controls his emotions better than I do.

Would I trade our situation for a different one?  Nope.

We know the next sixteen months will be hard but we know that loving someone means that their dreams become your dreams.  Jon's dream is returning to the military and mine is going back to school and we will continue to encourage each other no matter the distance.  We do eventually want to be done with the long distance relationship thing, get married and have babies.  But for now it seems that this is our path and we are both incredibly excited!  We may be crazy but sometimes love does that to you.