It has been truly amazing to see the Lord's hand in this whole process:
- My first year of pharmacy school, I was assigned a faculty mentor, Dr. Lea Eiland. She is an amazing pediatric pharmacist up at Huntsville Hospital. Through this mentorship, she encouraged me to pursue a residency and actually ended up writing one of my recommendations for the residency program. She's well known in a lot of large pharmacy organizations, so I was very humbled to have her write a recommendation. This January, I was able to shadow her at the hospital and absolutely loved it! Not to mention, it gave me the opportunity to be able to tell the people interviewing me why I wanted to be at Huntsville Hospital from first-hand experience. One of the reasons that Huntsville Hospital was so appealing to me is because they have a Women's & Children's Hospital where I could train, and I am so excited about these opportunities. God obviously placed her as my mentor throughout pharmacy school for a reason - what are the chances?
- One of Dr. Eiland's great friends, Dr. Hester (also very well known in the pharmacy circles), was the preceptor during my HIV rotation in October. She was also very encouraging and ended up writing another recommendation. I truly believe that it was God's perfect timing that enabled me to have that rotation with her, not to mention right before the residency process began.
- For a while I really considered just getting a pharmacy job - forget this residency thing and start working. But I really felt God calling us to a residency.
- Luke and I both really prayed over what this next step would be because we intend to stay wherever we're moving for the next few years. Separately, both of us felt compelled to rank Huntsville first, specifically the general residency program first. I also applied to a pediatric residency at Huntsville Hospital but after some thought and prayer really felt like general practice is what I needed to do (this involves adult care and pediatric instead of pediatric only).
- If you had asked me 4 years ago what I would be doing, this would never have been my response. I was moving back to Birmingham. And we would live in the suburbs to be able to see both of our families frequently (because we do love all of you so much and miss you!). We would go to church at Shades or maybe Brook Hills. And we would be surrounded by our friends that we dearly love. But the Lord's continuing to change my heart. He's stripping me of my plans and showing me that He's in control. And that He has a plan. I'm continuing to learn day in and day out that this "American dream" that everyone needs (my dream that I need) is not necessarily His plan. And the Lord continues to teach me to let go. Sometimes I can hear myself saying, "Lord, I'm tired of this.".....You can do this Kristen. "Lord, I can't do this anymore"...I'm here with you Kristen. "Lord, I don't want to do this."....It's not about you, Kristen. Some of you may think I sound crazy - we're just moving to Huntsville. The Lord's not currently calling us across the world. But believe it or not, this has been a journey. This has been even a struggle at times. But I've learned so much, and continue to learn what I'm placing my trust, hopes, and dreams in. And about what's important in life. I'm so excited about all of the opportunities that next year will bring. I'm nervous. I'm afraid I don't know enough. I continue to doubt myself. And I know next year will be tough - emotionally and academically. Yet I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is where we are supposed to be. And I'm so excited to see where God takes us on this next period in our lives.
1 comment:
Yay! Huntsville! Brian and I are so happy for ya'll- we will be praying for you both. :)
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