Ask God To Bless Your Plans...

"Ask God to bless your plans, 

 and you will be successful in carrying them out."

 -Proverbs 16:3

and on that note...

 I have some VERY exciting news to share!!!

 As of about 0930 this morning, 

 I AM OFFICIALLY A REGISTERED NURSE!!!!!!!!!!

 I haven't been this excited

 or shocked

 in forever!!

 And of course I cried like a baby!

 I called my dad first

 and heard the sweetest words I could have ever heard,

 that I wait to hear from my father,

 "I'm proud of you"

 My parents were always pretty strict about grades,

 and I was pretty personally motivated anyway,

 so when I made A's in school

 it was usually along the lines of

 "great job! Now do it again."

 And I did,

 and I did

 and I struggled my way through nursing school,

 (which by the way has been listed as of 2010 in Guinness as the hardest degree to earn)

 and prayed to God to bless my plans,

 and as of today

 he has truly proven why He is my God

 and why I worship him.

Before I walked into my test yesterday morning,

 I stopped to pray,

 and told God that I knew that he had helped me make it through school

 because he wanted me to be a nurse.

 Because that's what I was being called to be used for.

 So I asked him once again to bless my plans.

 And He certainly did.

 I am on cloud nine.

 Called my mom at home and told her I needed her to do me a favor

 and write down a number 

 so I wouldn't forget it.

 So I read off to her seven digits

 and then paused. 

 She says, "Ok?..." waiting for the rest,

 no clue what I was talking about.

 So then, trying desperately not to cry,

 I told her,

 "Ok mom, now put an RN in front of that,

 because that's my license number.

 I'm a nurse."

 She immediately burst into tears,

 tears because she had never gotten to go to college,

 she had never been able to fulfill HER dream of being a nurse,

 and here I was,

 the daughter she loved,

 the daughter she had stayed home to raise

 and to teach

 and to support,

 calling to tell her that not only had she raised the first girl on EITHER side of our family

 to go to college,

 but also a woman who was going to have a career.

 I had fulfilled my mother's greatest wish:

 that one day, 

 I would grow up and do what she couldn't

 that I would "do better than she had done"

 and make her proud.

 And I attribute so much to her

 because she DID give so much of her life to me

 so much of her time and energy and sacrifice.

 And I love her for all of that.

 So BE and I are going out to celebrate tonight

 after my military wives small group,

 and I am still in shock.

 I did it.

 As Florence Nightengale once said:

"Nursing is most truly said to be a high calling, an honourable calling.

 But what does the honour lie in?

 In working hard during your training to learn and to do all things perfectly.

The honour does not lie in putting on Nursing like your uniform.

 Honour lies in loving perfection, consistency, and in working hard for it:

 in being ready to work patiently:

 ready to say not "How clever I am!", but

 "I am not yet worthy;

 And I will live to deserve to be called

 a Trained Nurse."