OK. so they stuck me in the icu today at work. I worked on the same floor for 2 days and was looking forward to the same floor assignment again today because there is something to be said for continuity. To have the same patients everyday helps you to know them better as well as know when there is a change in their status. I was angry when I saw that I was being floated. Even though I have come to believe that it is God who chooses my assignment, I still get mad when it doesn't turn out the way "I" think it should. I am human. This is what happens to me. I accept that it takes me a bit to overcome my emotions and then be able to behave in a manner that I want to. It was a good day...................once I had acceptance. That is like most of life isn't it? To accept the things I cannot change. I have learned to not complain about my assignment. I cannot be given an assigned that the Lord does not know about. AS long as I am not practicing outside the scope of my practice as a nurse, then I want to have acceptance of that assignment. This has worked well for me on this journey we are on. The contrary is also true. If I fight for what "I" want, then I usually get screwed somehow.
I love my job. It truly is a pleasure to be a nurse. It has many things that are difficult but I do not have any desires to be anything nut a nurse right now. I feel like this was meant to be for my life. What a gift. Not many people can say they found something to do for a living that they are content with. I really enjoy caring for my patients. I feel like an instrument in the master's hand. What a feelin; to be used by the Creator to touch another persons life and ease their suffering. I am blessed. Thank you Lord.
Daniel

I RECEIVED A PIECE OF MAIL THE OTHER DAY FROM FORT MYERS FL. IT WAS SENT TO MY ADDRESS IN MASSACHUSETTS. IT WAS FORWARDED TO MY OLD ADDRESS LAST YEAR HERE IN FT. MYERS. THEN IT WAS FORWARDED TO MY OLD ADDRESS IN MARYLAND. FROM THERE IT WAS FORWARDED TO MY OLD ADDRESS IN VIRGINIA. FROM THERE IT WAS FORWARDED DIRECTLY TO ME AT MY CURRENT ADDRESS!! WHAT A MAIL SYSTEM EH? THIS WAS RATHER HILARIOUS. JUST WANTED TO WRITE THIS INCIDENT DOWN AND CHALK IT UP AS ANOTHER INCIDENT THAT CAN ONLY HAPPEN WHEN YOU ARE DOING WHAT WE ARE DOING. THANK GOD IT WASN'T AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF MAIL.........I JUST THREW IT AWAY! I ALMOST FELT LIKE I SHOULD HOLD ON TO IT FOR A WHILE EVEN THOUGH IT WAS TRASH. IT TRAVELED SO FAR TO GET INTO MY LITTLE HANDS! NEVERTHELESS, IT WAS MAIL THAT I NO LONGER NEEDED SO IT FOUND THE TRASH BIN ABOUT 30 SECONDS AFTER IT WAS OPENED. BOY, YOU COULD WRITE A STORY ABOUT THE LIFE OF THAT PIECE OF MAIL. IT HAD A LONG JOURNEY TO THE TRASH HEAP. I GUESS THAT COULD BE THE TITLE.
DAN

Here I am on my second night in a row 7p to 7a. It is a little better. I am not as tired but am still weary. It is a little more difficult to sleep during the day. It must be hard for the wife and kids to remain quiet so I can sleep. They do well. It is most difficult between 2 and 5am. I just think I am supposed to be sleeping!! There are some nice people on the night shift. Very friendly. I slept pretty good today until almost 2. I am looking forward to a couple of days off now. Then.... I do 3 nights in a row! Ouch! After that I will be back on days. I definitely prefer days. Nights has a different flavor to it that is good also. One of the things I have to consider is that I may have to do nights on future assignments. I pray the Lord prepare me for that if I need to. I'd rather do days but......It's in His hands. There is a new guy nurse on this shift that I've met. He has been working for only 6 months. More and more I run into new nurses. I forget that I am not new anymore. I have been around for almost 7 years! What a blessing! I can't believe it. God is so good..... All the time! I am a grateful man. The Lord has used this career to provide for me and my family. Thank you Jesus.
I'm done typin. I really didn't have much to say......So I thought I'd say it!

My nursing calendar had a list of favorite Christmas carols on the psychiatric ward. .........
The schizophrenic favorite tune?.........Do you hear what I hear!
I am working nights this week to help them out here in FL. While it's not really what I want to do, I felt led to be of service to them. I must follow the spirit as I feel led by it. AS time goes by, I get the sense of God's spirit more and more. I can also say that there are many times I haven't a clue what the Lord has in store for me. How can that be? Well, I know I need much more practice at listening to Gods still small voice. I've never heard an audible voice mind you, but the Lord has a way of making himself known. I do my best to listen; I just suck at it! Just kidding. Let's just say there is room for improvement.
It amazes me when I stop to think that I have been a practicing nurse since Feb. 1998. It seems like I just graduated. God has been good to us over the years. He has used my salary to take care of my entire family all these years. I thank God my wife has been able to be home with the children all the time. What a blessing. I am a grateful man. Grateful to God for making this happen. Grateful to Catherine for making the personal sacrifice of her own wants or desires to focus on only raising the children up to be Godly people. She could go in many different directions and try and do many things, but instead she has put her own wants aside for their betterment. She is the biggest example to me of God's loving hand upon my life. I never feel alone because I have a woman to trust and count on in life. I really feel like this is what God had in mind when it comes to the marriage relationship. Two people working as a team. Not my will, not her will, but God's will as number one in our lives. It's such a blessing. Thank you Lord.........
back to work. I'm exhausted! It's 3:30 in the morning! I am gonna dive under my covers when I get home in the morning.

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a single mom about raising children. She had many questions for me because, she was explaining how her daughter is now 17. When she was 16 she realized that her daughter had a secret boyfriend and they were having sex. She told me of the clearly wonderful relationship she has with her daughter now and how they are very open about things and how her daughter knows her mom cares for her and is there for her. She has had to explain things very plainly to her about birth control methods. Her main concern is that she not get pregnant at a young age and ruin her life. My friend tells me she was 16 when she had her daughter. There was a guy there but they broke up amicably. The father is involved in the child's life but just not as her mom's husband.
I applaud this woman's efforts. She has done her best to raise her daughter with good morals and to work hard. She has done it without a man to help her. God bless her for doing the best she can with what she has.
Her questions to me were something like this;
"What will you do when your daughter comes to you and asks to go to a movie with a boy? Will you give them a ride? Don't you think peer pressure is going to win out over what the parents think?"
Good questions. I told her that I can't just give a quick answer to these questions. They involve so much explanation. It's a strange thing. Even though we both live in the same world, we are worlds apart in many ways. We have raised our children to believe that the Word of God is true. That you do not take what you want out of the word and fit it into YOUR way of looking at things and go from there. It's that you do your best to adjust MY own way of thinking to the way God sees things. We have prayed for them.......Every single day........That's right every day since even before they were born! There are not many things I do every day. I eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, not much else. So to pray for them daily is a big thing. I think this has had a big impact on who they are; bigger than Catherine and I even realize. We did not teach them ideas as much as the absolute truth about who they are, and who God is. Absolute truth. God is God, and you were created in His image. You are loved by Him not because of anything you do but simply because of who you are......His child. He has given us guidelines to live by. They are there to protect us from evil influences and any other overall harm that may come to us in life. Sex relations are a gift from God. He created sex and every incredibly awesome feeling that comes from it! It was HIS idea! He wants us to absolutely enjoy it. We forget that sometimes. We think sex is dirty somehow; it's not. The problems come when any person,(yes, this is an absolute truth and not just an opinion), anyone at all tries to engage in this activity outside of God's guidelines. We have taught our children this and they believe it.....Because it is an absolute truth given to us by our Creator.
So you see our philosophy is totally different about relationships than many other people. I teach my children about relationships. They are with us all the time so Catherine and I are of primary influence over them and not the school system, or their peers. I am glad for this. We learn together through books, some television, and many many conversations about human behavior and emotions and feelings. The discussions we have are endless. I love when we just sit and talk and talk and talk. The other point is that peer influence is something I am not naive to. That is why we feel it is worthy of our best efforts to limit and closely monitor the peers that my children spend their time with. It is our responsibility to protect and guide them until they can go out on their own; oh, and another thing we discovered, is the value of positive Peer influence. We see it as our duty as parents to raise these children to become productive members of society, but mostly to honor God in the things they do. Time will tell. We hope and pray that our children do not grow up and have 9 heads. It seems to me that my children have great personalities, and are extremely knowledgeable of their own humanness. This helps them understand others. This will also aide them in having a good future. It's just another area where we feel like pilgrims. Not many people are living life the way we are trying to. There are some but you have to search for them. This is one thing we are thankful for in this country. The right to raise our children as we think we should, and the right for you to raise your children as you think you should. That's enough for now. I'm rambling.
god bless.

We have made it to Florida..............................
WE just finished up on 3 months in Virginia and are about to embark on 5 plus months here on the gulf side of Florida. I'm at the same hospital as last time. We have different living quarters but they are very nice. I have many many feelings. It is always difficult to deal with my emotions in these situations. I will show up tomorrow where I was last year and will see many of the same people I worked with before. I enjoyed their company but still feel nervous about seeing them again. There are times I want to just curl up in bed and wait for my feelings to go away. It's called escaping reality. In general, I am loving traveling with my family. In many ways I see the benefits. I believe it is binding us together as a family unit. We are all in this together. We are on a journey through life. In some ways we feel like adventurers on a journey. WE are pilgrims going about the states and trying to see all we can in each place we go. Our country is full of so many incredible sites! It has its difficult times...like the moving part. This time however, we have improved in our ability to pack and go. The children are really good at getting packed up. We have downsized how much STUFF we have each time. It's amazing how much we can live without. The children end up being a power of example when it comes to downsizing. While this is a difficult path we are on, it is rewarding in many ways. We are all getting a hands on education about the world. What is education anyways? This is the question we have answered differently as time goes by. One thing it is not, is stagnant sitting at a desk listening to someone else tell us what they THINK it is. We are all getting an education. It's pretty humbling to see your children become smarter than you about certain things. If I didn't have the teachers manual, I wouldn't be nearly as far behind their understanding of math as I am now!!........or something like that.
Well, I ca see that I am all over the place in this post. I apologize. I hope to snap out of this funk in time to go to work tomorrow. It is a blessing to be with my family everyday and know they are pulling for me. The world continues on no matter what's going on in my life. It is my hope and prayer that we are following our Creator on the path He has laid out for us.