Do You Want the Good News First?... Or the Bad News?

How about the bad news? It's really more along the lines of sad news that I will not be going to Guatemala again this summer, as I was hoping. I once heard we shouldn't say "I'm going to stay home until God tells me to 'go'", but instead, "I'm going to go until God tells us me to 'stay home.'" It would have been the first time that I had returned to the same mission field, but, due to a series of unfortunate events, I will most likely be home this summer. And really, I had been preparing myself for a while that I wouldn't be going back just yet; I had "that feeling". And looking back on everything that happened, I can see how God just wants me to be home. At the beginning of this semester, the person who would have been the leader of the trip lost his job. It was really "unfair" (for lack of a better word) that he lost his job, and no matter how cliche it sounds, he didn't deserve it. But, apart from that, he also hasn't been home for one month out of the summer for many, many years, and with six young children at home, his wife would like for hime to stay this time 'round. And that's okay, really, I think it may be best. Furthermore, with it being this far into the semester, I begin to feel exhaused at the thought of trying to find another trip to go on, and I almost feel like maybe I shouldn't be "trying to find a place to go on a missions trip". My heart was in Guatemala, and hopefully I will be able to go back summer of 2010. I do wish I could see these faces again!

And of corse, with everything that is going on with me health wise, being home this summer means that I can easily stick to my organic/raw diet and I won't have to worry about running out of medicine in the middle of a jungle.

On to the good news! Tomorrow, my plan is to call Nurse Recruitment at Johns Hopkins to see about being a CNA again this summer! I would have planned to possibly leave Guatemala early so I could be back in time for orientation, but that is no longer a concern! I am starting to get excited knowing that I could soon be walking through these doors again:

This is what I would see every work day at 6:30 am! Hopefully I will be in the Neonatal ICU this time. I was able to shadow there last summer and meet the Nurse Manager of the floor; she sounded like she would like to have me work as a CNA, so we'll see where it goes. But truth of the matter is: I'll go wherever Hopkins tells me to go. It's Hopkins!