Learning to Love our Story

Our story has been one of frustration lately. For me, anyways.

Our new assignment has brought frustration in a lot of ways and left me feeling like a major grumpy cat. Crappy medical insurance. Another dinner that didn't turn out right because of our lack of kitchen supplies. Tough nights at work that leave me crying in the elevator. Austin's unsuccessful job search. New expenses popping up everywhere we turn. I feel like I'm walking around with a rain cloud over my head, wondering what bad thing will happen next.

All this has left me wondering: is this all worth it? What are we doing? What are we going to do now?

My mother-in-law shared a devotion with me this morning that spoke to exactly the way I was feeling. I am so thankful for her, and these words.

"But I love my story. I love my story most of all.

Why? How?

Because I pre-decided that I would.

I decided I would look at it all through the lens of noticing the rich evidence of life through each mess and mishap.

Did I do it all perfectly? Nope, not at all.

But even if we choose to be noticers with thankful hearts just once today, we'll start to look at our stories in a different way.

A more beautiful way.

I remembered our key verse, Philippians 1:3, where Paul says "I thank my God every time I remember you." I have plenty of reminders each day to thank God for the people in my life. To rejoice over every piece of my story. 

So I whispered, "Notice. Be a noticer. See all the fun represented here and thank God for these moments." 

So I'm gonna be a noticer! Well, at least I will try. I'll start by telling you all about some really great things that happened in the past few weeks.

We went on vacation with my family to Pawley's Island, SC in the middle of May. The week started out with a wedding of the daughter of some dear family friends. My parents met the Grahams when they had first moved to Virginia and started attending church where Mark was the pastor. I met Mark the day I was born (which just happened to be his birthday too!) and our whole family is still blessed by our friendship with Mark, his wife Rena, and their two daughters Kate and Emily over the years.

Wedding weekend included dinner and dancing on Friday night, an intense Saturday morning and afternoon of decorating the reception venue, and then a beautiful wedding presided over by Pastor Mark Graham himself at the arrogantly shabby Pawley's Island Chapel. We celebrated (and then helped super Cindy clean up all of her amazing wedding decor) at the reception afterwards. I loved hearing Mark explain each of the Beatitudes as it pertained to Kate and Dave's marriage and seeing the devotion and friendship my mother and Rena shared even though they had not lived close to each other in over 20 years.

Decorating (and testing) the getaway car

These Doods loved the beach

The Sykes family usually doesn't do the beach vacation thing and instead opts for more outdoor adventures, but I think a week at the beach is just what we needed. It was so relaxing spending time with my mom and dad sitting on the beach while watching Austin and my brothers throw the frisbee all afternoon while the dogs chased it back and forth. We stayed at an amazing beach house, watched movies, played games, and helped my mom cook yummy dinner. And there were alligators! I'm so thankful for that time with my family. It had been over 4 months since I had spent time with my brothers!

Enjoying the porch at the house

These guys were everywhere!

A bike ride on the beach!

We haven't spent a whole let of time in Gainesville itself, except for when I'm working. We also went to visit Orlando earlier this week and spend some time with Austin's brother and sister-in-law. We had a great day the next day hitting some fun spots around the city: a boat tour around the lakes in Winter Park, lunch at a trendy coffeeshop, and and afternoon watching wakeboarders navigate the lake at the Orlando Watersports Complex. We ended the day sneaking into some of the pools at Disney Resorts and having dinner poolside- it was awesome!

A very scenic boat tour, indeed!

Stardust Coffee and Video = a very cool lunch spot

The dog cracks me up, and our "36 Hour in the Southeast" has led us to some very fun places!

Orlando Watersports Complex

Using the Port Orleans Swimming pool, quite illegally

I'm certainly bummed to be going back to work tonight. Work has been different from my assignment in Albuquerque in a few ways. Because it is a stepdown unit and I have 1-2 patients instead of 3-4, it operates more like an ICU than the regular floor. I haven't met as many people because we are not going back to a common nurses station to chart, instead we all have our own alcove. The past couple weeks my assignment has been in a corner that has left me by myself with a few visitors. My patients have been challenging, not nursing skill wise but more behavioral and needs wise. Needless to say I miss my ABQ job, and my friends : (

And on that note, I miss all of you! Being away from our friends and family is hard, and we treasure all the time spent in person, on the phone, or using communication of any kind. We love you all!

Read more...

Transitions

It has been such a blessing to have these past two weeks of vacation in between assignments. Time has been spent driving, packing, seeing old friends, and completing necessary things before we start in Florida.

As I stood atop furniture in our storage unit and pointed out to Austin the box we needed to get to that had all of our summer clothes (that one, on the very bottom) I found myself wondering if our nomadic pursuits are worth all the trouble.

Not that I don't love exploring the US with my husband and our dog, but not everything has been easy. I miss cooking a home cooked meal with all of my kitchen supplies. The endless red tape and requirements needed to satisfy state nurse licensing boards is something I don't look forward to repeating in 3 months. We are slowing acquiring duplicates of home goods that we didn't have to foresight to get out of storage and now suddenly need. My life feels nowhere near "together" or close to where we want to end up one day.

Nor does the majority of the public understand or sympathize with plight right now. A lady at the farmers market slowly backed away after I casually mentioned that we were living out of our car at the moment. It stinks to not have a place where you are established.

We have been so thankful for hospitable friends and family. Home-cooked meals and a comfy place to sleep are valuable things, especially these days. So thank you to those who made us feel at home. It means more than you know.

This weekend has been spent adjusting to our new town, apartment, and climate in Gainesville, Florida. Our apartment overlooks a lake with trees and hanging moss (possibly alligators? Tucker watch out!) and we have worked hard to use what we have to make it feel like home. For a little while at least.

Goals for this assignment/summer include:

• Eating healthier! We do love going out to eat and finding fun restaurants in a new city, but now that we have access to a kitchen and kitchen supplies, we want to be more in control of what we are eating. We are attempting to incorporate way more fruits and veggies, less carbohydrates and less processed foods in hopes of losing weight and feeling better
• Exercising regularly! We have never been apartment owners, but we are super excited about access to a free gym! MELTONS GET FIT SUMMER 2014!
• Gospel centered living- We were blessed to be part of a great church in Albuquerque and we hope that we can find an awesome community here too. That is one of the things I love about traveling, Christ's family stretches everywhere and I love hearing different people's stories
• Sight-Seeing- WE ARE TWO HOURS FROM DISNEYWORLD. But I'm sure we'll make time for some other awesome spots too. Savannah, St. Augustine, Miami- can't wait!

We would love your prayers, as always. Let us know how we can pray for you! If you want to stay in touch, feel free to email me and I can send you our address: ellen.sykes@gmail.com

We love you!

Ellen, Austin, and Tucker

Tucker looking for gators

Read more...