My Prayer

So at the end of my last post, I mentioned that there would be a lot of prayer for this summer. While I imagine that during the course of my job there will be moments that require my patience and prayer, my main prayer request is for my sister and her family.

On May 24, 2011, my sister was rushed to the hospital with what appeared to be a stroke. It was a stroke, but one caused by two tumors in her brain. She lost all movement on the right side of her body making her bedridden while in the hospital. I got the call that Tuesday morning, but was told to hold off on coming due to the mass amounts of people from her church and family in the surrounding that were already crowding the hospital waiting rooms to do whatever they could. Two days later, Dad sent out a text to my brothers and me saying my sister was being moved to have surgery in Dallas and we needed to meet there that day. I immediately went and told my supervisor that I would be leaving and then called my older brother. An hour or so later, my brothers, my sister-in-law and I were all in a car headed to Dallas. After a 5hr+ ride there (which I really don't remember a whole lot of) we arrive at the hotel just in time to find out that the plans for surgery have been canceled. The next few days were just sitting around the hospital waiting for a game plan from the doctors. On Friday afternoon, we finally got word back from the team of doctors at Zale Lipshy on their plan of action: focal radiaton/chemotherapy and at home physical therapy. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, they weren't able to take any steps for getting her moved back until Tuesday. So for the whole weekend my family and I hung around the hospital, taking up the whole 5th floor waiting room.

When it was time to leave, I couldn't say goodbye. I feel bad now because all I could do was give my sister a hug and barely utter "See ya later". I wasn't ready to leave my family (I never am), and I especially didn't want to leave to go back to start working an overtime week. It turned out that it was actually beneficial to me though because if I wasn't at work, I was either grabbing a quick bite to eat, or sleeping. I didn't have hardly any downtime to just sit and think about what was going on. After Walmart Week, it took another week to catch up and get me back to my normal routine. Now it's life back to (almost) normal. I'm going to pick up my car and new phone tonight, I get my check for Walmart Week later on this week, and I get to go to Tampa to surprise my boyfriend for his birthday.

My sister started treatments today as well so everything is on the right track to getting better. All we can do now is pray, and leave the rest in God's hands. Then again, isn't that what we should always be doing?

Starting the summer

So I know I failed at keeping up with this blog yet again. Life just kinda got in the way. After finals and check outs (a torture story all on it's own) I went home to celebrate my little nephew's 1st birthday. Needless to say the cuteness factor was off the charts, and I loved having all my niblings around. Oh and the Schlutasaurus and "dinosaur bones" were pretty awesome too.

When all the fun was over and everyone had left, it was time for me to head back to Fayetteville and move from one dorm to another (my summer home). Mom and Dad helped me, thank goodness! I've learned that having a room to yourself doesn't give you more space, you just collect more crap. The next morning was the beginning of training. We went through a soderquist course in pouring down rain and sat through many little meetings. We definitely had some team bonding!

After all the training was over we got to make beds. Now when I say make beds, I mean we made hundreds upon hundreds of beds, hospital corners and all. Singing and goofing off got us through the monotany.

Now we've got thousands of WalMart associates on campus, filling every dorm. We've got to work at least 40hrs this week, and I'm preparing to work a 20hr shift. Yay for overtime pay!

So far it looks to be a summer full of great friends, easy work, and lots of prayers.