Life in May

Wow - there have been so many life changes in May for us!

Reed graduated on May 14th and I honestly was teary when he walked across, which is so odd for me cause I'm not a usually hugely sentimental person. But I guess it was just the significance of his walk and journey through school. It wasn't the typically get in and out within 4 or maybe 5 years. Nope, he started this process when he was 18 and is now completing it at 27. And that's not a bad thing at all. God has used that time in some incredible and amazing ways. Reed and I wouldn't be married today if it wasn't for this "journey" in his life. Also, Reed wouldn't be the man he is today if he hadn't been refined through this undergrad journey. I can't even describe it, it just is truly amazing how much God has refined Reed into an amazing man through this whole process.

Now that he's done with this path of the journey, we've kind of been at a loss for what the next step is. Reed has been looking for jobs for months with no avail. He's even had some amazing interviews, where he really felt good about the job, but he keeps getting the response that he doesn't have enough experience. It's the "2 years of experience spiral". If no one gives you a job because you don't have experience, then you never end up getting the experience you need to in order to get a job at all. We know that God will provide for us, but during this time of job hunting we've seen lots of closed doors. So with that, we've started to look into grad school and found a masters in journalism program at UNT that has specific specializations in News, Media, and PUBLISHING. For those of you that may not know, that's Reed's dream job. We're really excited about the possibility of him going to pursue his passion and dream. Even if it takes another two years, its well worth it if it puts him in a position to get the job he wants.

So now its time to just pray and be diligent in the application process to grad school. We also are praying for patience in our hearts. We feel ready to move on to "next steps" in our lives, but are wondering if we should hold off on things like a family until grad school is over. These are really hard things to work out and its really hard to know when we're being cautious about having a family in a wise way, or if we are ignoring God's calling. Either way, we need clarity and peace. We need to not worry about what's next, but look at where we are with assurance that we're right where we are supposed to be, in God's hands.

My Wonderful Husband

I have the greatest guy around...seriously, he rocks. I don't know if I've shared this with everyone but a couple of weeks ago I had a mole removed and the biopsy came back as "dysplastic", which basically means my doctor believed it was pre-cancerous. They asked me to come back in so that they could perform a procedure to remove more of the mole, i.e. take a chunk out of my leg. It literally was a chunk.

Sorry if I made anyone queasy just then.

I'm a pretty big wimp, so when I knew I'd have to get numbed up real good for the chunk AND that stitches would be involved, I asked Reed's mom to come with me to help me get through. The worst part about it was the numbing medicine. It hurt pretty dang bad when she put the numbing shots in, but after that it was smooth sailing...I literally couldn't feel a thing. After the procedure I was told to keep it constantly moist with bacitracin, which is an antibiotic, and that I needed to keep it bandaged. Well the mole happened to be on the back of my thigh, in just the right spot to where it is in no way easy to look at, let alone take care of.

So my sweet husband has been cleaning it for me every day and I'm happy to say that it is looking like there will be minimal scarring!! Hurray!! Cancer free and no ugly scars!! I'm thankful that Reed takes such good care of me, that he doesn't mind looking at the ugly stitches or blood. I'm also thankful that he settles me when I freak out. For instance, I was all scared that my skin would grow over my stitches because they were constantly laying flat, as I sit most of the day and the weight of my thigh makes them lay flat against the chair. It literally freaked me out for an entire day. I called my sister, my mom, everyone. When I got home that night I made sure that Reed could pull them all up easily. I truly thought they would've grown into my thigh, and even though Reed thought I was a little crazy, he still did it for me, just to ease my mind. Oh and guess what, they were not growing into my skin.

And now not only do I not have stitches growing into my leg, but I also have a new found appreciation for my husband's patience and kindness. He is pretty much amazing :)

Also, in a COMPLETELY UNRELATED story, but similar topic of how Reed is patient and so sweet to me, especially in the little moments that I freak out or worry; the other day I went to get my haircut at a walk-in where my favorite hairdresser works. When I got there, she was with another customer and a different hairstylist, who happened to be a cute old lady, greeted me at the front. I told her I wanted to wait for Hue, my favorite, and I sat down feeling so mean and incredibly guilty. This cute, smiling, warm grandma just got turned down by me. I texted Reed about it and he replied,

"It's ok, repeat business is part of their job, if you were her customer she would want you to wait for her, I'm sure she understands."

Leave it to me to worry about hurting a random stranger's feelings and leave it to my wonderful husband to send me a sweet and gentle response assuring me that it's okay.

I just love him :) The end.