The Weekend

Oy.

I worked all night Thursday. One of my favorite parts of working night shifts is I get to drive home while the sun is rising. Seriously, it is gorgeous. All the green leaves are all glowy and the mountains look even more radiant. I used to think I was a sunset person. Now I don't know.

Anyway, after working all night two nights in a row I fell asleep and didn't wake up until really late (read previous post). And when I did awaken (I look for every opportunity to use that word) my house was empty. So I ran off to Bluffdale to visit my loves from this past school year. Miss them.

Then, Saturday morning, woke up at 5 to go to American Fork to do Mrs. Kaitlyn Livingston Swain's hair for her wedding. She looked beautiful. It was a beautiful day and I am so thankful to have been such a part of it. I'm a firm believer that weddings should be celebrations and a happy day, not a stress pit of anxiety and perfection. Hers was a happy day and I loved it.

Then Sunday I had to work again, 12L (12 for the hour I begin, and L because it is the 12th letter of the alphabet, meaning I will work 12 hours.) I went to work early so I could go to the Primary Children's ward which meets at 10:30 for a 1/2 hour Sacrament meeting. I love going to church there because you see nurses and doctors dashing in with their scrubs on to hurry and take the Sacrament and then dash back out to see to their patients'. I love going to church there because everyone values each other so much, and you can feel that. I love going to church there because you see families wheel their sick ones in with their healthy ones on either side and they all sit down together, and even though they are in great pain and sorrow they love the Savior and they are having faith. My mom always told us that Andrew's cancer and Abby's heart and everything else that we've been blessed to go through was our Handcart that we had to keep pulling. You see a lot of Handcarts being pulled at Primary Children's.

When you work a 12L, you're often not assigned to any specific patients, and instead you roam around helping with anyone who is overwhelmed. It was pretty slow yesterday so I spent a great deal of time making hair bows for baby girls and then I went around and glued them to all the baby girl heads in the unit. My mom says when I was born she wanted a daughter very badly but they were never able to see in the ultrasound what I was, and after recovering from her c-section she saw me with a bow in my hair and she knew she had a girl. I wanted all the parents in my unit last night to feel something like that, that we hadn't forgotten that these patients are beloved children with personalities, so I stuck some bows on 'em. It was fun.

Later, I was assigned to a pod of patients and I had a very tender opportunity. There was a family of two little girls, and the younger sister was the sick one. When it was time for the father and older daughter to leave, the big sister started crying saying she didn't want to leave her sister behind and she wanted to stay all night. I got down on my knees so I would be face to face with her and I said "I'm a big sister too. One time my little sister had to stay in the hospital, and I couldn't stay with her every night. But I promise I will take care of yours tonight, okay? And you can come back tomorrow." She looked at me with these big, brave, trusting eyes and gave me a hug and went home.

Sometimes work gets crazy and hard and I'm tired and worried about messing up. But sometimes things like that happen and I remember why I want to be there and why it's worth it. And that, ladies and (gentlemen? do gentlemen even read my blog?) was my weekend.