I remember the first time I asked my wife out and she said yes it wasn't that romantic you see we both worked at the same place and many times we closed the eatery together and so romantic me I chose this great romantic spot next to the dumpster where we both were hauling multiple trash bags to strike up this conversation. She looked radiant to me and finally she said yes after we had taken breaks together gotten to know each other and became friends.
Somehow she was able to see past the trash I was hauling and said yes and that was our beginning 25 years ago this coming summer. Three years later she would stand with me side by side minus the trash, all in white and letting go of her dad's hand and grabbing mine to be married. God has richly blessed me on so many levels with someone who is committed to me and allowed me to commit to her for the rest of my life - she is an answer to a prayer that I prayed for and is everything that I asked God for and so much more.
She makes me want to strive to be the man God would have me to be and the father to the three daughters that we have together. My wife reached for her dreams of nursing after all 3 girls were in school during the day, we sacrificed so that she could stay at home while the girls were small and I was so glad that we were able to accomplish that. Nursing school was interesting and in 2005 my wife became a nurse and her patients got to see the care and grace that I saw in her everyday it was the perfect fit.
In 2007 my wife transferred to become a Nurse Cancer Navigator - what this means is when someone is diagnosed with cancer my wife steps in and is able to consult with the patient as a liaison between doctor and family, she coordinates care, educates, provides support for both patient and family and becomes a listening ear to those who have just heard the news and are facing the road ahead, she navigates this road with them.
I don't know alot about medical terminology, but speaking as her husband whom God chose to allow me to navigate life with she is an excellent navigator to assist you on this journey ahead. Her strength, faith and grace allow her to provide the kind of care and hope that you and your family can depend on, and I speak from experience. It is with her heart that she listens, with her knowledge that she cares and educates and with her love that she provides the strength for the patient to fight the battles ahead.
I am so proud of the difference she makes in the lives of her patients and while I know that those she meets at work have heard the worse news of their lives they have an ally with whom they will be meeting to navigate the road ahead.
Thank you for navigating this life with me, I am blessed beyond measure Lib.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
9/11/01 - In an American History Book -
It is hard to believe that we are approaching a decade since that terrible September morning in 2001, the weather of an excessively hot summer in 2011 has cooled off and we are having clear skies and it is reminding me of that morning as well.
Today, however something different happened, an almost surreal experience I was talking with my daughter about school as she was studying and there on her bed lay her American History book. I picked it up and decided to flip to the back and saw 9/11 being reported in it. The images of 9/11 were pictured there just in a history book, the fireball of the second tower had been seared so much into my brain that I could almost see it moving in the photo. My daughters were very young 6, 7 and 9 when it happened and they remember that day well, we all remember when days when we see our parents crying, this time day they saw a nation crying.
9/11 tore all of us apart and brought us all together at the same time, flags were everywhere and we filled our churches and the prayers of a nation went up to God, and now here I sit 10 years later in Oklahoma reading about it in a history book. My father was still alive on that day although he did have a heart episode the day before he was recovering nicely on the heart floor of a hospital and all of the televisions were unplugged on the floor when the planes hit the tower for fear it would cause the patients to have heart attacks. I remember going to see my dad that afternoon after work to talk to him after my mom had tried to gently explained what happened as he had been recovering. When your at the hospital you are cut off from a normal environment anyway so to have a thing like 9/11 happen while you are recuperating I suppose would be like waking up from a nightmare and almost wishing you could go back to being sick again because it was normal before this happened.
My dad was a retired military sergeant he told me he wished he could put his uniform back on and join back up and maybe he should call and offer surely he could help out at a desk should they need it, and I said dad your retired and they can handle it, but that was my father, he would have been in the desert had his heart not been sick.
It is one thing to read about the events that day in the history books it was an entirely different thing to live through that day. They say that there are few veterans of WWII left living however there is a project going on where those men and women are being interviewed so that their stories will be preserved the eye witness accounts that will tell the story and pass it down for generations, this generation will be known as a generation who lived during the worst terrorist attack on American soil - we witnessed everything and the loss and heroism we saw that day will never be forgotten.
Today, however something different happened, an almost surreal experience I was talking with my daughter about school as she was studying and there on her bed lay her American History book. I picked it up and decided to flip to the back and saw 9/11 being reported in it. The images of 9/11 were pictured there just in a history book, the fireball of the second tower had been seared so much into my brain that I could almost see it moving in the photo. My daughters were very young 6, 7 and 9 when it happened and they remember that day well, we all remember when days when we see our parents crying, this time day they saw a nation crying.
9/11 tore all of us apart and brought us all together at the same time, flags were everywhere and we filled our churches and the prayers of a nation went up to God, and now here I sit 10 years later in Oklahoma reading about it in a history book. My father was still alive on that day although he did have a heart episode the day before he was recovering nicely on the heart floor of a hospital and all of the televisions were unplugged on the floor when the planes hit the tower for fear it would cause the patients to have heart attacks. I remember going to see my dad that afternoon after work to talk to him after my mom had tried to gently explained what happened as he had been recovering. When your at the hospital you are cut off from a normal environment anyway so to have a thing like 9/11 happen while you are recuperating I suppose would be like waking up from a nightmare and almost wishing you could go back to being sick again because it was normal before this happened.
My dad was a retired military sergeant he told me he wished he could put his uniform back on and join back up and maybe he should call and offer surely he could help out at a desk should they need it, and I said dad your retired and they can handle it, but that was my father, he would have been in the desert had his heart not been sick.
It is one thing to read about the events that day in the history books it was an entirely different thing to live through that day. They say that there are few veterans of WWII left living however there is a project going on where those men and women are being interviewed so that their stories will be preserved the eye witness accounts that will tell the story and pass it down for generations, this generation will be known as a generation who lived during the worst terrorist attack on American soil - we witnessed everything and the loss and heroism we saw that day will never be forgotten.
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