Kristi's Christmas Story

Here's my story of Christmas morning that I promised I would blog about.

I worked an 8 hour night shift from 11:30pm on Christmas Eve until the morning of Christmas Day. My shift was supposed to end at 7:45am but I didn't end up getting out of the hospital until 9:10am.

This is why.

The shift was going pretty well. I had a nice recovery room assignment when I came on. There was a little lull after I transferred my patient, which was nice. I was hoping that it would stay that way =) Then I got a laboring patient.

I anticipated a quick delivery, but it came quicker than I expected when that baby was finally ready to come. I found myself quickly delivering that baby on my own, with just the mom and myself in the room and when I had the baby in my right hand, crying and safe, I pulled the emergency call bell with my left to notify my fellow nurses that I was in need of some assistance!

In the midst of the excitement of delivery, I got soaked....and I mean SOAKED...with amniotic fluid. It got in my right eye, on my glasses, my face, in my mouth and all over my clothes. Yucky!

Needless to say, I spent the next few hours in Emergency on Christmas morning. I had to get paperwork and blood drawn because of being exposed in a big way to body fluids from a patient. By 8:00am I was getting frustrated in Emerg just waiting for the confusion of what needed to be done to get sorted out. So, I went upstairs back to the ward to get it figured out myself.

In the frustration of something that should have taken minutes instead taking hours of my time on Christmas morning when my husband was waiting for me to open presents and I wanted to get to bed at a decent hour....I cried. Out of frustration.

It ended up being fine! I got home somewhere around 9:30am and immediately showered, before letting Shane greet me with kiss. I needed to wash off any remaining amniotic fluid! Then we opened presents, called the family and ate cinnamon buns for breakfast. It was nice!

I got to bed later than I'd hoped but still got a good sleep before waking up to spend the evening with my husband and siblings!

Yikes...Merry Christmas to me! That was quite the present!

Christmas Festivities!

Here's a quick play by play of our Christmas festivities this month!

#1 - December 13 started out our gatherings with Christmas at my mom's! It was fun, relaxing and such a lovely time with my mom, hubbie and siblings!


Blindfolding mom and escorting her to her gift!


The fabulous four!


My beautiful family!

#2 - December 24, in between night shifts, we had Christmas Eve with Shane's family!


Our beautiful niece, Raign, who is the life of the party and just turned one!


Shane opening his big present of the year!


Yeah! A playstation 3 much to his delight! A gift from multiple family members!



When we got home at 10:15pm on Christmas Eve, Shane "let" me open one of my Christmas presents before heading to work for the night!



My handsome husband and I on Christmas Eve!



#3 - Christmas Day morning with my hubbie and Christmas Day Supper with my siblings! Christmas morning was a story in itself that will have to be a blog entry unto its own soon!



Since dating and marrying Shane, stockings have become a part of Christmas time for me! I like them!




Then came Christmas Day supper with the fabulous four! Complete with a great supper, gift exchange and Elf for the second time this season!



Steph was pretty excited about our matching sister pjs!


Shaun's "ugly hat like Stephanie's" that he requested!


Our matching pjs!



Off to another night shift! Had to miss the Christmas sleepover...too bad!

#4 - Christmas at Dad's with my hubbie, siblings, dad and Rose (dad's girlfriend).


A silly picture!


Dad and Rose



Being silly with the sibs! How can you tell physical touch is one of the top love languages of all three of us?



#5 - Christmas with the Doerksens (mom's side of the extended family) was today. My mom is one of 9 kids and those are fun gatherings with so many of us! We got to go skating, much to my hubbie's delight!

#6 - Christmas with Shane's extended family is for lunch tomorrow!

#7 - Christmas with the Reimers (dad's side of the extended family) is for supper tomorrow. I am heading to the gathering on behalf of Shane and I, and Shane is holding the fort at Sanctuary on our behalf!

#8 - New Year's Gathering with the Giesbrechts (my mom's mom's side of the extended, extended family) is on New Year's Day. We will be skipping this one, as you can see, we have too many gatherings!

We are done 5 and have 2 more tomorrow! This time of the year is nuts! And on top of these gatherings, I worked 6 out of 8 nights in the last week! Crazy!

I am so thankful that I have so much family to love and enjoy! I love my family!

Working the Week Away...

Merry Christmas to all very soon!

So, we've arrived at the Christmas week for 2008. I'm working a ton this week and have a ton of gatherings to boot, making this week a little insane in our home this year.

The best thing about working Christmas is knowing that I'm off next year!

I finished three 12-hour nights Sunday morning. It was a nice weekend with enjoyable shifts and a beautiful birth an hour before home time that finished off the weekend well.

I've been pretty tired in the last 48 hours since getting off work. I've been sleeping a lot! I think my body knew what I needed more than my brain did!

So, tonight, I'm back at it. I work a 12 hour night tonight (23rd to 24th), sleep all day tomorrow and head over to Shane's parents for Christmas Eve in the evening. Then off to work for an 8 hour night (woo! hoo! only 8 hours!) from the 24th to the 25th. Shane and I will have a little celebration when I get home the morning of the 25th. Off to sleep I go, to awake to Christmas dinner with Shane and my siblings. Then back to work I go for one more 8 hour night from the 25th to the 26th. Again, I will sleep part of the day on the 26th before heading to my dad's for our gathering.

I also have extended family gatherings on the 27th and the 28th! Whew! Then the gatherings are over for us, as we are missing another one on the 28th and one on the 1st!

If I can make it through this week, I'll be smooth sailing! Knowing that half of my night shifts are over for the week, makes the last half seem like it's going to be alright! Especially since 2 of the 3 are 8 hour shifts instead of 12! That is such a blessing over Christmas, or I wouldn't have made hardly any gatherings over Christmas!

Thankfully, there has been a ton of grace in the area of work. It has greatly helped that God gave me the heads up back in the summer and fall that the next season of my life would be intense in the work arena. So, in this season of my life, I'm clinging to Haggai 2:4 "'Yet now be strong, Kristi, and work for I am with you' says the Lord of hosts".

With great delight and relief, I can report that I have quite an increased amount of joy and peace when I'm working! I have been enjoying my job and there has been so much grace from the Lord for me to meet Him and rest in Him in the midst of working insane hours, getting minimal relaxing time and specific "God time" during my stretches on and pouring myself out for others that need me in the hospital. He is so faithful to meet us in each season, whether they are easy or hard, enjoyable or difficult.

That being said, Merry Christmas to you all! If you think of me this week, I'd totally appreciate a prayer for increased joy and grace during a pretty insane week, when I'd prefer to be at home with friends and family over the holidays!

Girl's Day!

We had our annual Christmas Girls Day on Monday at Pine Ridge Hollow! It is a fun time of year! We've gone to Pine Ridge Hollow for the last 5 Christmases to celebrate!

I've spent many of these past years in the same dress =) So, after last year's visit to Pine Ridge, I decided that next year I would need something new to wear. So I got a new dress this year! And my first pair of heels...which are difficult to walk on!



3 out of 5 years one of the gals has been pregnant! We've made it a tradition to take a shot of the prego of the group! It's Shauna's turn this year! She's such a cute prego!


The rest of the pics are ones of my beautiful girlfriends from many different areas of my life!






And my favorite...


Merry Christmas!

God's Pleasure

I am continuing in my pursuit to know the heart of God as my Father. In the process, I have listened to more teachings in the series I mentioned last post, by Billy Humphrey from IHOP-Atlanta. So good!

This morning's teaching led me to meditate on Psalm 16:3 "As for the saints who are on the earth, "They are my excellent ones, in whom is all my delight". "

It is absolutely incredible that all of the Father's delight in wrapped up in humans! I delight the heart of God! I move His emotions and when I say yes, turn my face to Him and my heart moves towards His, He is utterly moved with emotion.

We are so limited in our experience of pure pleasure. In general, the word pleasure brings illegitimate and sinful experiences to mind more than true, pure pleasures that we have experienced.

But, the truth is that in His presence is fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). God is the creator of pleasure! He experiences pleasure and delights when we do too!

The God who is love wants to be loved in return. And, even more, when we give love to the Father, He experiences pleasure! His heart experiences pure delight from the love that we give Him!

What's more, the pleasure He feels must be incredible! It is out of this world. We have so many hindrances here on earth to experiencing the fullness of His pleasure. He doesn't have any of these barriers, but experiences the fullest, purest form of pleasure there ever could be....simply when I whisper that I love Him!

The revelation of His desire, pleasure and delight in me causes me to want to love Him more. When I think of Him as angry, detached, or stoic in nature, I want to run the other way and instead give Him my love in a way that consistently first disclaimers my sin and weakness before approaching Him. No way! We are supposed to approach the throne with boldness!

I want to draw nearer and nearer when I know that the Father I love is a glad, delighted, desiring, pleased Father. There is nothing that I have to do to gain His approval. I already have it! I already bring Him pleasure! That makes me want to whisper I love you more frequently throughout my day, knowing that it both brings me and my Father pleasure!

We move His heart!

Ahhh....

I have a very peaceful home this afternoon. It is lovely...

As I type, my under-the-weather hubbie is resting on the couch, the lights are shining from the Christmas tree, it is peacefully quiet in our apartment, supper is smelling great from the slow cooker and my heart is growing in love.

I'm still in my pjs which is exactly the kind of day I needed.

I had a great time listening to a teaching on the Father Heart of God by Billy Humphreys this afternoon. The Lord is highlighting the topic of His heart as my Father to me and it's been tough but good these last few weeks. I think this is a pivotal time period for my heart and for my history in God.

I've been really tired lately and having a hard time getting out of bed in the mornings. I keep sleeping past my alarm these days. It could be a combo of things...shift work, late nights, coming off the Global Bridegroom Fast, etc.

But, it has revealed to me that I really need to learn to rest in God. Whether I have times of rest in my schedule or it's busy, I want to rest on the inside. I have felt busy on the inside lately. It doesn't matter what's required of me in this season with my time. I want to rest in the Lord and trust in Him, silencing the clutter in my head and heart. Today was good for this. Listening, praying, reading and resting were exactly what I needed.

Tomorrow begins my work week bright and early. I'm working 12 hour days Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This means I'm missing a lot of Sanctuary things this weekend, which is too bad, but that just the way it is right now. Some day things will be different. I just want to be faithful in each season, faithfully tending to the things that God has put on my plate for the time being.

It's been to feel like Christmas!

This past week, Christmas has begun to bloom in my schedule. It all started Monday with a date with my sister to find a Christmas dress and start making our lists =) Then, Tuesday was our annual Baking Day with my mom and sister. We baked for 7 hours start to finish! We were pooped by the end! It is such a nice tradition with my favorite ladies!









Yesterday was our 9th annual Farrow Christmas Party! When this tradition started, it didn't have the name Farrow attached to it =) I love hosting a party and enjoying friends from different areas of my life! My favorite part is the opening of the regifts. We bring something from around our homes that we don't want anymore. It is fun to see what people bring!












Merry Christmas...in November!

A update on my wrist...

Sadly, my wrist has been snapping, clunking and hurting more since the end of September/beginning of October. I hated the idea of making an appointment with the sports medicine doc again, who had let me go when he gave me the paper of freedom back in August (to get fully back to work).

I finally made an appointment and waited a few weeks to get in to see him. That was yesterday.

I assumed he would look at me funny, hear my complaint and send me out the door. I prefaced the start of the appointment that I was just there to cover my butt and leave a paper trail if anything should happen in the future.

He felt the snap. Then I did the movement that generally accompanies the clunking. It didn't do it. He started to move my wrist around and it went "clunk, clunk, clunk" every time he moved it! I was so grossed out!

Off I went to x-ray pronto!

Within 5 minutes I was seeing my wrist on the wall in the form of a completed x-ray. It was so fast yesterday!

This is the scoop. There is a bit of a separation between two of the bones in my wrist. He is concerned if the space widens. I have to return in 2-3 months for another x-ray to check that out.

If the clunking increases or has increased pain accompanying it, I gotta get myself in sooner to see him. He wants to wait and see what will happen in the next few months. He "didn't want to press the panic button too quickly". I agreed but hearing that concerns me!

I just don't want to start all over again with all this wrist stuff. It's been such a long haul and I want it to be over already.

Please continue to pray for full healing for my wrist!

There can't be a plan B

This coming January marks the 3 year mark for Shane and I in our journey as intercessory missionaries. This means Shane has worked from the 4 walls of our apartment for the last 34 months, thinning out the carpet on our floor from countless hours of pacing, praying, reading and studying. His hands may not get wounds or cuts from his occupation, as some do, but his knees and heart have the marks to prove his hard work.

Many people think we're crazy. Sometimes I'm tempted to believe the same.

In the 3 years of living out this lifestyle, we had a number of times where we thought, "We could have both worked for a salary that pays well and be way further ahead in the definition of success according to the world". We did the math one time and figured out if we had both worked the first year I was done nursing, we could have paid off all our debt with one of our income and lived off the other within the first year.

A few months later, God blew us away. Yes, we could have done the logical and ignored the call we heard Him call us to and worked off all that debt. But in the big picture of eternity, it was far more wise to obey the risky call that He gave to us. In the end, He had our debt covered anyways, and He knew that from the beginning! The generous giving of other lovers of God provided the incredible $25,000 to cover ALL of our debt last fall.

So, we just can't have a plan B. It is hard not to start thinking that way sometimes. "Well, if God doesn't actually provide for what He's called us to in plan A, let's make our own plan B. Plan B could be letting go of what He's called us to and doing what normal people do to make ends meet. Yes, let's keep that card in the back pocket, just in case we need to use it.".

No! We can't have a plan B. Plan A is following whatever He leads us in. Plan B is following whatever He leads us in. I want a big YES written across my heart that doesn't have fear, doubt and self-sufficiency attached to it. I am foolish to think that I could provide for myself better than God could. I'm not the source. He is the source.

God knows all my needs and all my wants. He cares about the little details. He knows our desires for a home and a family one day. He knows the exact dollar amount that we would need to do work in the prayer movement full-time as a family unit. He knows and He cares! Actually, it was His plan!

All this processing to say, I just want to say yes, again and again, over and over. No matter how bright or dark the next step looks. No matter who points fingers or laughs at us. No matter how foolish we look or what people think or say. No matter how many dollars are in our bank account or coming in through our supporters.

It doesn't matter in the end. My heart growing in love and saying yes to the safest Savior is what truly matters!

Off to Steinbach I go...

First it's supper at mom's! I love being able to invite myself over to my dear mother's when it works out! Steph and I get to enjoy some time with mom, Amanda and Shaun! It should be nice!

Then, it's girls day! This time we are meeting at one of the gal's house in Steinbach. It will be our first time at her new place! I'm excited as 7 of the 10 ladies will be there and I'm looking forward to seeing a growing belly in our midst! So exciting! Girls day is usually encouraging and refreshing!

So, after a day of errands, Sanctuary devotionals and the gym, I'm off to the home country =)

A few rough days and a few good ones ahead...

I worked two 12-hour days the last two days and it was a little rough. I had some heart-wrenching experiences and some sad moments. I know I'm there for a reason as I think I heard the Lord say "I have you there for a reason" when I was using a 30 second prayer time to cry out to Him in the bathroom at work. Without giving details, it was a sad time at work and life issues are on my heart.

I got my Christmas hours the other day too and it's going to be a crazy Christmas week around our place! I have to work nights on the 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26! I told my boss that that was killer and so he was willing to make the 25th and 26th nights 8-hours instead of 12 so that helps! I knew that I was due to work Christmas, but six 12-hour nights in 8 days is killer. Oh well...next year should be better =)

I'm pleased now to have my stretch of 6 off! Woo! Hoo! I'm up early on a Saturday after working in order to make some pies for today's belated Thanksgiving gathering. It is over a month ago that we had Thanksgiving but today we are celebrating with Shane's family! Then we're going to try to get to the Santa Clause Parade and I hope that the weather is nice and the snowflakes are falling tonight =)

Tomorrow I'm leading a set at Sanctuary. It has been a really long time since I've done that and even when I did, I didn't do that many. So, needless to say, I'm nervous and insecure and hoping it goes well. Yikes!

That's the latest!

I'm done!

What am I done? Speech therapy! I waited from October 2007 to July 2008 for my referral to speech therapy. My voice was hurting more than usual last fall and so I got the ball rolling to get my talking and singing voice checked out. It was a long wait!

In the meantime, I started taking voice lessons and that really helped! I had the pleasure of taking voice from January to June this year. I'm presently waiting to hear from my voice teacher who had a baby this fall, as to when she wants to teach a few of us again. I'm super excited to get learning and improving again!

So, a few months ago, I had a speech assessment and have had a number of speech therapy sessions since, complete with homework to do at home in between sessions. It is hard to feel like there has been any progress to be honest. I don't always see the correlation between the exercises I'm supposed to do and any improvement in my voice.

But, alas, there has been!

Today I went for my final session, a post-therapy assessment! And sure enough, there is some improvement in the area that caused me the most frustration! I felt like my speaking voice was low, which is fine, but often at the end of phrases, my voice just bottoms out and hurts. The end of my sentences can resemble a growl or crack to my own ears on a bad day.

Apparently I'm very self-aware =) And heightened on the self-analytical side, which my grade 8 teacher used to say. So, I can pinpoint things that don't feel right that others wouldn't notice by just listening to me talk.

So, for the improvement.....my talking voice for both conversation and reading has increased by 20 Hertz! When it was at the low end of female ranges in July, now it is very average to a little higher! That's awesome for my problem with bottoming out at the end of sentences. Now, if the natural fluctuation in range happens, I'm starting from a higher point so that the bottom isn't causing me the same pain!

I didn't think it was possible to change the range that I speak at, but apparently there has been improvement! Yeah!

I do still have slightly painful and more cracky voice days. I'm doing well though and especially with how much I have to talk on my 12 hour shifts, I'm in good shape! Woo! Hoo!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

And I like that! I'm enjoying the snow, even though it has made for some interesting driving and scraping to and from my 12 hour shifts this weekend. It feels like Christmas when that white stuff is on the ground! I like it!

I worked the last 3 days. It was my first Sunday day shift since February 2007. I managed to switch things around or take vacation since August which avoided my Sunday day shift. Now, I've entered back into the season where I have to miss Sanctuary once a month for work reasons. It's kinda a bummer.

But yesterday afternoon and evening as I was working, I would periodically look at the clock and remember SHOP was going on at another location in the same city. I knew who was on stage, what they were singing about in general (intercession or WWW) and knew that they were "standing on the wall" in a obvious and corporate way while I was standing on the wall in my own way in the marketplace at the very same time. I had enough time between patients to remember, add my "I love you Jesus" and continue what I was doing. But it stirred my heart.

Now I get 3 days off! I slept in this morning, as SHOP was canceled because some of our peeps for Mondays are holidaying it in KC, as we did last month! I slept 12 hours! I guess I needed some rest after the last 3 days!

I'm excited for the day. I'm excited to spend time with my husband! We always feel a deep need for quality time after I'm gone for those day or night shifts! I'm excited to hit the gym with Steph and Shane this afternoon and try a class with Steph in the pool! Here we come Aquafit!

It's going to be a good day!

WARNING: LOTS AND LOTS OF FUN SISTER PICTURES!

Here are the pictures from my birthday celebration with my fabulous sister back on October 20 as I promised! Better late than never!

We started with lunch at Steph's! Mmmmm....

Then off we went to the next surprise! Pedicures! Oh so fun! The chairs gave you a massage, the ladies were sweet and the toes were so pretty by the end!







I love pedicures!

Then off we went to grab a Starbuck's in our flip flops so our toes wouldn't smudge! We had a funny conversation with the girls at our local Starbuck's, laughed and headed to St.Vital Park! To fly a kite...even without much wind =)










Back to Steph's to change and then off we went for supper! We had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden, complete with lots of cheese, more laughter and great bonding conversation. I tend to feel like I've bonded with someone I love when we've shared emotions, dreams, struggles, etc. If it's just surfacey, then it doesn't feel like we've connected to me! Steph and I had a lovely time connecting as sisters!




We picked up a movie and our favorite 7-11 candies for the evening and headed to my place!





Thanks for being the best sister Steph and always making my birthday so special!