119 days in!

We are 119 days in since this pandemic started. March 14th, 2020 will forever be a day I remember forever. The day that church closed. My friend Kristi once told me, church does not close when I asked her about the weather one day. But today I am happy to report that church as been open for 3 weeks and this will be our 4th. Tomorrow will be the first outside service since I have been attending LCC. Max and I are both looking forward to it! 

With church resuming, I feel my faith regaining strength. I cannot tell you how much it meant to be standing in your home lord worshiping you and your son. Thank you for allowing your son to die on the cross for my many sins. Singing your praise and worshiping you are my favorite daily past time. 

Work has been as crazy as ever. We are literally 3 weeks away from Boston at this point. I have no money saved but I will be working extra hard to have money when we go. I am picking up OBGYN COVID testing shifts and picking up Friday's in FP at East. I love helping your people lord, I do. I know you have instilled your strength and knowledge into making the Medical Assistant that I am today, lord.

I mailed out cards to my first grade class from Sunday School recently. I loved getting to talk to Ari via Facebook Messenger and hearing how her summer is going. Loved hearing that Emily loved her card. Lord, these are the things and people that I live for.

Today I wrote Max a card telling him how proud of him I am and thanked him for loving me where I'm at in life and I know that I haven't given him the perfect life but I am sure trying. He is my #1 lord and I am so thankful that you gave me him when you did. I feel you knew I would need somebody to love. As hard as it is to be doing this single, I wouldn't trade it for the world. He loves me so good and takes care of me. Lord, he is perfect. 

Lord, I Pray for the strength and insight to share your name and shout your praise today!

Amen!

Heather 

Day 72 of Quarantine during the COVID pandemic!

Dear Lord,

Today on the 72nd day of Quarantine it is 90+ degrees outside. We have jumped right into summer which is A-Okay with me. The only thing is I need to get the air charged in Snowball. Lord, thank you so much for such a good little car. She is a beauty no matter what her outside looks like.

Lord, last night Altoona was said to be a target of a protest/riot. They were going to be at the new Outlet mall in Altoona. I am so thankful that you protected our officers and others who helped protect Altoona. Nothing is as fearful as knowing that your home town is under attack. Thankfully, there was no protest/riot. There were snow plows, baricades, and cops blocking all entrances to Bass Pro Shop and the Outlet mall. Our officers and other helpful hands were safe! Never in my 36 years of life have I seen a curfew put in force by Polk County. From 9 p.m. - 5 a.m. daily for now we are not allowed to leave our home except for to commute to and from work. Please lord, help this end soon. Life is already scary enough. George Floyd would not have wanted these protests.

Lord, please continue to wrap your arms around us and love us where we are at. I pray that you continue to protect my loved ones and ones I care the most about from the COVID virus. I pray that you keep me safe and healthy while serving your children. Lord, I know that I was called to help your children. I love the feeling when I help people. I pray that we can get back to church sooner than later. I need my church family back. I miss every single person.

Lord, you are good, oh so good, and I know that you have this!

Heather

Lord, What is this World Coming To?

Where to start lord. The year 2020 has definitely been a year we all want to forget and were not even halfway through it. When Max was born in 2009 I definitely felt like my life was going so fast after that. I had a child, graduated college, had my first job as a medical assistant, and life just continued to fly by. I feel like 2020, however has not. 

People are referring to 2020 as a game of Jumanji. First it was the Corona Virus (aka COVID-19). That came right along and turned this entire world upside down. Started in China in 2019. President Trump was said to have known about it months before it actually arrived in the US. It hit Iowa the 2nd week of March. Schools were cancelled, Businesses/Restaurants all forced to close their doors. This lasted through the begining of May. Some businesses have been allowed to re-open but some still are forced to remain closed. I drove by Prairie Meadows today and saw their sign said they would be opening on June 15th at 8 a.m. That is only 2 weeks from tomorrow. I can only hope that swimming pools will be the next type of business to open. Adventureland is doing a soft opening this week after given permission from Gov. Reynolds. 

I hear other medical professionals talk about how their life has been so impacted by COVID-19. Their work schedules were lightened and some were even forced to take a furlough while people were too scared to come out of their homes. Our schedules at OBGYN never really faltered. We have pregnant people that need seen twice weekly, weekly, biweekly or monthly. We had peoples still coming out for their annual exams. We never turned away a patient that wanted to venture out to our office. We had cancelled procedures and surgeries that were outside of our office due to the situation at hand. We have resumed those. Things are finally starting to look normal from a work standpoint. 

At home, I was able to come home and see my son or have a night off to myself, but I was always able to get back up and go to work the next morning. I worked both jobs and gave endlessly to my patients. Whether it was calling people at the FURI clinic to find out why they were there, testing the TPI employees at the Newton Speedway, or working in the Urgent Care with people who had injuries or non-illness related problems. Yesterday I worked and it was nothing but orthopedic injuries. People are starting to feel brave again (of course with face masks) and are feeling more comfortable leaving the house and having fun. Obviously social distancing makes things "weird" but trust me one day we will look back and be thankful. Social distancing is something we have needed for a long time. 

I often wonder what Max has been thinking about this whole COVID situation. He stays between my moms house and home with me. He had to do 2 hours of school work every day and let me tell you he tried numerous times to get out of it. At first he was not allowed outside. Nobody really was outside either. He wasn't allowed to go to the grocery stores or shopping when my mom would leave. He has an X-box 1 at my moms and he has a Nintendo Switch here at home. He has cable and an 80 inch TV to watch at my moms house. He gets lunch made for him and sometimes breakfast too. He's a spoiled little kid. Admittedly, this has been more rough on me than him.

On Monday 5/25/2020 a black man by the name of George Floyd died while in police custody. He had a rap sheet 17 pages long and had charges for threatening harm. He resisted police arrest and was tackled to the ground. There was a picture of a white officer leaning his knee on Floyd's neck. Soon after resisting and stating "he couldn't breathe", the cop still was seen kneeling on his neck. It wasn't until after Floyd went unconscious that they listened to a off duty EMT that demanded to know if Floyd still had a pulse. Needless to say he did not. This has ignited so much hatred around the country. We have riots and protests going on here in Des Moines where this all did not even occur. Friday night what started as a peaceful protest ended as a riot. Saturday during the day a peaceful protest occured. Saturday night a riot down town on Court Ave occurred. Friday it was by the police station. Tonight (Sunday night) the riot occurred at Merle Hay Mall. About 50 people broke into the mall and were looting and terrorizing the mall. Cops have used tear gas and rubber bullets on people to break up the riots and crowd's. Lord, I have never prayed so much in my life regarding these situations. I know a handful of cops and I pray for them and their spouses. It's very sickening to see what we have resorted to. And a side note, none of these people at the riots/rallies wore masks. Potentially this week we will see an increase in corona cases. We already have almost 20,000 Iowan's affected by the virus. It's a very sad city, state, and country right now. I have never in my 36 years experienced a curfew. Tonight as a I currently type this post, we are under a mandatory curfew in Polk County. From 9:00 p.m. - 5:00 a.m. no one should be out of their homes. Lord, what has this world come to? 

Heather <3

Thank you Lord!

Dear Lord,
Thank you for loving me today and every other day. Your love and protection is all I will ever need, lord. You have taught me how to have faith, patience and wisdom. Some of those things were non-existent until I accepted you into my heart as my savior. Thank you again for letting your son die on the cross for my sins. Thank you for dropping the charges of my past. I know lord that I have sinned. I hope to not have to ask you to forgive my sins again.

On Saturday I was privileged enough to work for Mercy at the Newton Speedway doing front line COVID-19 testing on TPI employees. This was an amazing and eye opening experience. We tested close to 900 employees. While I was only there for a partial shift, I worked with Jo from Mercy East so it was a great time. It was nice seeing my East peeps working along side of us. It was even better when I checked my Mercy email and came across this happy note from the Mercy CEO/President. Its always nice to be appreciated.

In my devotional today, there was a quote "My world is your classroom. My lamp is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path." This is so fitting. My possessions are yours lord. I need to learn that. I need your lamp to lighten my path. I learn so much everyday so it is fitting that my world is your classroom. Oh boy, do I learn new stuff everyday lord. 

May I keep on being resilient and learning new stuff everyday.

Heather

The One Resilient One...

If you would have told me ten years ago that 2020 was going to be the wildest year you have ever experienced in your life, I would have laughed and said "why?  Do you think I will finally meet the person of my dreams" or "Will I win the lotto?" Never would I have ever imagined that the world would be in distress over a virus called COVID-19. Never would I have imagined that we would be confined to our homes unless we were "essential" workers. Never would I have imagined that most people would not see their families for weeks or months on end. Again, I would have never imagened anything that is going on today, would have happened. 

When I chose to be a Medical Assistant 10 years ago, I never would have dreamt that I lived through a pandemic, let alone work right on the front lines. While I thank the lord everyday for these 2 amazing jobs, I also pray that god guide me in the right direction when it comes to my career. I some how always end up in the same place, caring for his people. Working in the OBGYN office I get to help people with women's health issues, or I get to see mama's who are so excited and devastated for different reasons. The job can be very wearing on me. In the urgent care or working in the lab at Mercy One Pleasant Hill, is a completely different spectrum. I can see someone who has a simple scrape to someone who might be having a heart attack or stroke. There is not one day that is ever the same in my world. The COVID-19 virus has taken both of my worlds and shook the living daylights out of them. It's so hard to put into one blog all the changes that have been made but some things of the big things are:
1) Masks and shields are worn while in the office or interacting with any patient.
2) No one is allowed to enter Mercy Clinics with a temp of 99 or higher where at OBGYN it is 100.4. I have had to turn away people with a 99 degree temperature, knowing that I myself run high and on any given day, I feel great and run in the 99's. It's also sad to turn these people away for illnesses not related to COVID-19.
3) Loosing some of my co-works to layoffs (aka furloughs).
4) Being short staffed at work, wondering what would happen if any one of was infected with the virus.

Speaking of God, you never really know how "essential" your church family is to your life until you can't see them and hug them weekly. We still come together every weekend for worship, but its not the same. Online worship is great, but still not the same as seeing everyone's friendly smile and enjoying a cup of coffee while chatting among "friends". I also miss my 1st grade Sunday School class. The  innoscence their little faces and minds represent are so fulfilling.

Today our new sermon series started called "Resilient". This was a sermon that hit home with me. While being resilient, we all face adversity. Adversity is defined as difficulties and misfortune.
Pastor Nathan was quick to point out that we all face adversity in one form or another. In Acts 1: 4-5 Jesus spoke with his disciples and said "Don't leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit".  As it was explained to us was Jesus saying "Don't try and be my disciples without the Holy Spirit from my father". I think about this and I think of god telling me "Don't try and go into your day without the Holy Spirit for which I provide for you.".  So please god fill me with your holy spirit and make me resilient. Watching the news every day does not make me resillient, prayer does. Worrying about things that have not happened do not make me resilient, prayer does. Keeping track of all the positive cases in Iowa does not make me resillient, prayer does. Prayer, Prayer, Prayer! Prayer has become my savings grace over the last 15 months. The spirit wants to make you a peron of character and hope. Character is formed by the holy spirit.

Back to the Cornoa Virus aka COVID-19. Governor Reynolds has required that all schools close for the rest of the spring semester. With that being said, schools are still required to offer Voluntary Online Education. Max meets with his 4th grade teacher and classmates on Monday and Wednesday at 10 a.m. via Google Meet. He thinks this is pretty neat, but doesn't like the homework that comes with it. This child feels that this is his early summer and he should be playing video games and Roblox all day. The teachers have been more than wonderful trying to give parents ideas of things the kids should be doing. I am so devastated for Max as he loved his 4th grade teacher Mrs. Kingery. I can only imagine what the 5th graders or senior high schoolers are feeling. New adventures can be hard! 

Fast forward to Wednesday. The last 2 days our numbers for positive for COVID-19 have been astronomical. Yesterday alone, Iowa had 482 positive COVID tests. It will be interesting to see where the numbers come into play once we start testing more people. Lord, please wrap your arms around those affected by COVID-19 and our little state.

Heather