Snow, Snow, Snow!!!

Whew! A view from my window after the 12/26 East coast blizzard blew through Albany. We got over 10 inches of snow, and other parts of New York up to 24 inches! CRAZY! Apparently, Albany rarely gets more than a few inches of snow a year, and news reports state this is one of the largest snowfalls in the past 4 years! We all REALLY know, however, that they just needed a Minnesotan to move to town. ;) It feels just like home now! Good thing I brought the snow with me. :)

Life has been steadily getting more settled for me here in Albany. In fact, today I went out shopping on my day off and, for the first time, drove EVERYWHERE without using my GPS! I was SO excited!!!! It's nice to feel like I know a little bit of the city, am getting the feel for the Northeast culture, and also settling into work. I've been working about a week or so on my own now, and it has been getting SO much better. I definitely am getting used to the flow more, settling into the norms and standards there, and overall feeling like a "good" nurse again. :) I'm getting back into starting IV's (got 2 difficult one x2-3 attempts the other day, and the other 3 on attempt #1 for all my fellow nursing friends!) and doing assessments and nursing skills work, which has been fantastic. I really missed it in many ways. I miss Minnesota nursing, however and hope to be back there working someday soon. :)

The loneliness has subsided quite a bit, as well, for multiple reasons. One, just getting to know my co-workers and feeling a sense of belonging with them, and working more hours overall (at least 5 days a week) has helped the time pass a bit quicker. In addition, I have been able to do some visiting of nearby friends. :) Laura Coles, a friend of mine from Mercy Ships (the one who actually got me into travel nursing) is travel nursing in Northern Massachusetts. She and I both had Christmas day off and were away from our families, so we decided to spend the holiday together! Yaaayyy! I, in turn, had the privilege of driving through the beautiful Berkshire Mountains Christmas day.



The breathtaking sight from the cold, crystal covered top of the Berkshires. As I was standing at the top, my nose felt numb and I thought to myself, "this feels just like home". :) I WISH Minnesota had these kind of mountains, though. :) That and the ocean too.... hmmmm... ;) We'll have to work on that. ;)


Above, Laura and I on our Christmas day walk at Natural Bridge State Park- an old marble quarry site. I saw my very first marble waterfall(pictured below). It was very much like a walk through Narnia. :)



I'm back to work tomorrow, glad to be busy again, but enjoying the day off as well to do some relaxing. I'll keep you all posted again soon. Much love!

Albany-1 Week In

So, it's been a week since I first arrived in Albany. In many ways it feels like I've been here for years, and in others, it seems like I just arrived and unpacked.

It's funny how out ideas of things or ideals are so often not the reality we experience. Perhaps its from watching too much Disney or Hollywood movies, or even being too much of an optimist by nature. Whatever the case may be, I have found myself here; the place where the "rubber meets the road". My excitement and anticipation of this move to Albany has all but since been worn away to reveal the stark, challenge of reality.

We often assume many things about ourselves- what we think we are, how we see ourselves, but its often in the light of the best possible circumstances. For instance, when we see ourselves as confident, outgoing individuals, usually it is in places we are familiar, or with people we know. When you shake all of that up- you can see an entirely different side of yourself than what you imagined.

Maybe all of this is mumbo-jumbo to you, and I apologize if it is, but I share it because it is something that is deeply on my heart at this moment. While God has been SO faithful to provide me with SO much- this job with guaranteed hours, a reliable car, safety in traveling, a place to stay and food to eat, I have struggled to keep my chin up. I never realized how much of a people person I was, how much I needed others around me until now- as I'm living alone in a strange city, without friends or anyone to experience it with me. It's honestly all I can do right now to fight discouragement and loneliness. I am so thankful for my family and friends and those who continue to pray for me and encourage me to continue to offer myself up to the Lord, to see this season as one which the Lord has prepared and has a PURPOSE in. I know the Lord has great things to teach me in this season, and, praise His name, He even spoke to me of the loneliness of this season over a year ago to begin preparing my heart. I guess now I only have the choice to follow and obey or sit and despair. Thank you so much for the many of you who are praying for me and encouraging me. I am nothing, apart from Christ, and see more of that as I come face-to-face with myself in the midst of these challenges.

On a note of progress, I finished 2 days of orientation to the Medical-Surgical floor of the community hospital in Troy, and had a great time learning from all the friendly staff members there. The floor is much like one big family, and it was really neat to see their teamwork and know that I get to step into an already well-oiled team! :) I was quite overwhelmed with the amount of things to orient to in only 2 days, so thankfully I get to have one more day of orientation before I'm on my own next week. Ahhh!!! I'm so nervous, but I know God will see me through. They use a type of nursing called "team nursing" where, instead of having 3 or 4 patients you are solely responsible for, you have a group of 8 patients to a group of an RN, LPN, and CNA. An effective system, but one which I'm hurridly grasping at to learn.

I just wanted to put up a couple of pictures of my family before I left home just because I realized that I didn't put a post up about my new niece, Abigail Susanne, who was born October 24th. So.. here's a couple of pics to brighten up this post. :)


Abigail Susanne Helweg, born October 24, 2010 weighing 6lb 3oz, 18 1/2 in.


Her first smile captured on film by yours truly! Auntie Anna gets double points for capturing both Bekah AND Abigail's first smiles on film! :)


Isaac and I... the cool ones, OBVIOUSLY. ;)


My all-time favorite- me and my "mini-me", my 2nd niece, Rebekah. It's CRAZY how much she resembles me not only now, but also looking back at my baby pictures. Crazy, crazy! I personally love it, ha ha! But I'm sure the one ginger (red-head) looks a bit odd in the brunette family. ;)


Finally, a picture of my small group Bible study at our Thanksgiving meal! I LOVE and miss each and every person from there SO much! ... there are just no words. :)

About time for a post update!

My new "home away from home".




Hanging out with those crazy Bennor's! :)


Our family picture this Christmas season! :)

Hi everyone! So sorry I haven't kept up on my blog... for a while nothing changed, and then, all of a sudden, everything started changing!

My last post was on November 3... since then, I continued applying for every job I could through my travel nursing company-still with NO results; no phone calls, no interviews, NOTHING. I continued praying and wondering what on earth God was up to... didn't He know how much I needed money to be able to go to Sierra Leone? Why was I still living at home with my parents and without a job?

Well, with the encouragement of a friend and feeling I had given my first travel company enough of a chance to find me a job, I applied with a new travel company- Medical Staffing Network (MSN)-the InteliStaff branch. I applied with that company, going through that entire process once again, and was moving towards working per diem for hospitals in the Twin Cities from now until I left for Mercy Ships Feb. 17th. There was one contract job that I put my name in for in Albany, NY when I first applied, but I didn't expect to hear from them, and actually forgot about it during the hustle and bustle of starting up in the Twin Cities.

I knew the last possible day I could have time to be hired to finish out an 8 week contract position would be Wednesday, Dec. 8. So, what does God do? Shock the socks off of me and throw my plans back into my face! On Tuesday, Dec. 7th, I got a call from the nurse manager at the hospital in Albany asking for an interview. After about 15-20 minutes, she offered me the job and asked, "When can you start?" WHAT??!!!??!! I was SHOCKED! "As soon as possible" I answered. The 2 days following were a whirlwind of phone calls, emails, signing and scanning documents, and finding out about my housing arrangements when I got to Albany.

Thursday night, after a Christmas celebration with the family, I packed my car, and Friday morning I left at 5:30am for Grand Rapids, MI (my half-way goal) where I got to stay with the Bennor's. After that 15 hour driving day, I only had 11 hours left to go on Saturday and arrived at my extended-stay hotel in Albany at 11pm. I have a couple of pics of the room- it's perfect. Small, but has everything I need- compliments of MSN (as part of a contract. NICE, I know!). Whew! So I've just been finding my way around Albany, stocking up the cupboards and settling in, waiting for my first day of orientation tomorrow (Wednesday). I'm so excited to be working again!

Thank you SO much to all of you who have been praying for me these past few months.. it has been a very challenging time for me learning faith, trust and patience to a degree I never imagined. I'll keep up better now in the days and weeks to come, so stay tuned! :)