Bad back

When I was 18 I was a nurse's aid. I was planning to become an RN someday. I worked for a few months at a nursing home and couldn't stand it anymore because my back was ALWAYS aching. I think there were several reasons for this.

1) Bad genes

2)Being short (lifting heights are much higher for short people and this puts a lot more stress on the back

3)The nature of nursing home work- always trying to do a two person job alone or a three person job with two etc.

Regardless, I quit being an aid and decided nursing wasn't meant to be for me. Over the last decade I have had 3 incidents which I believe were related to a bulging disc. I also had one 6 month stint of chronic back pain where I spent hundreds on a chiropractor then went to physical therapy for a couple months, neither of which cured my back pain. Ironically it mysteriously disappeared after our trip to Ethiopia. (Possibly due to being pregnant with Nathan and the extra progesterone causing my muscles to relax). This was all at the back of my mind when I decided to pursue nursing again. I even prayed that if my back could not "hack" the nursing field that God would show me clearly before I wasted my time. After all for the last couple of years my back had been fairly well behaved so I had some hope...

.... until two weeks before Christmas. I bent over to pull up on my 60+ pound 6 year old and instantly knew I had made a very bad mistake. A mistake I am still trying to recover from 3.5 weeks later. You know where this is going right? Well, sadly, God answered my prayer, but not in the way that I was hoping for! Guidance is guidance none the less, and it has become pretty clear to me that my aging and undependable back is not suited for the rigors of nursing.

All is not lost however as I will pursue another career. Something that was 2nd choice, not because I liked the idea less, but because in my impatience I did not want to have to go to school for 4 years instead of 2. It just so happens that the local college Mark and I planned to attend offers a 2+2 program where you can get your teaching degree. Yes, I am going to go back to school, not to be a nurse, but to be a teacher! Now if I had my dream job, I would teach math only, as I love it, and I love explaining it, and I love helping people to understand it. But it doesn't exactly work that way. To begin with the degree will be in early elementary education (k-6). I hope to eventually focus in on math, but that is all way way in the future and I am slowly learning not to plan too far ahead.

After my initial disappointment, I have really warmed up to the idea for several reasons. First it is almost CERTAIN we could get a position with mercy ships as they are always looking for teachers who will make long term commitments. This is not the case for nurses who they don't tend to have a shortage of since they allow short term commitments. Second, we STILL have a heart for Japan. So this could also open a door for us to go back to Japan some day as a teacher in a DODDS school. Third... one back incident will not put me out of a job. Fourth, I can complete much of my schooling online the first two years and will not have to have the two littlest kids in full time day care. This is huge as it was probably the biggest negative of going to nursing school for me. It will also save us ALOT of money. Child care is NOT cheap.

So, while I am not happy to have this troublesome back problem, I am quite pleased that the Lord has used it to guide us in a new direction. =) And that my friends is the change to the change to the change in our plans for the future. I think that is about plan G... we still have H-Z as possibilities.... HA.