My job.

Ha! If only we all looked like Kate every day. :)

I am loving my job so far. I'm still technically in orientation for a few more weeks, taking more patients each shift, and I'm learning so much that it feels like I'm still in school. At the end of a 12-hour shift (which is usually closer to 13 hours), I'm pretty wiped out. I don't think it actually makes a huge difference that I'm pregnant. Pregnant or not, it's an incredibly tiring job.

If you're like me and have never been a patient in a hospital or had much exposure to hospitals, it may come as a surprise to you what nurses actually do. Take yesterday for example. While it involved the stereotypical giving shots, changing IV bags, checking on patients, reading up on their plans of care, calling doctors, etc. it also involved a whole lot more. Like cutting a patient's burger patty into bite size pieces. And emptying out the bedside commode for the umpteenth time. And untwisting sheets. And a whoooole list of other very non-glamorous things that I'd rather not write about. They involve bodily fluids, which I'm pretty sure I'll never get "used to" as so many nurses claim they do.

But then there were the beautiful moments peppered throughout the day that remind me I'm supposed to be there. They remind me that this is about so much more than what feels like a laundry list of menial tasks. It's about being a light to people in some of their darkest, most hopeless, most vulnerable times. I had the privilege yesterday of praying with a patient before his first ever surgery, with his family all in another state. And holding a patient's hand as she told me about her great-grandbabies and patted my belly, hoping to feel the baby move. And even getting a few thank you's from patients.

So even on the hardest days - and there will be lots, I'm sure - I'm so thankful for where I am... on a medical floor, at a sweet community hospital where everyone knows everyone and really seems to care about each other. I know God has me here for a reason for this season, and in the hardest days, that's really all I need to know.