This weekend has been wonderful so far (no, I won't think about work tomorrow, I won't!).  It's amazing what a couple days off in a row can do for your spirits.  David's mom was in town visiting so yesterday was a wonderful day.  We drove up to the Berkshires and went to the Norman Rockwell museum (SO cool seeing all of those paintings in real life!), visited the waterfalls and enjoyed some of the fall colors, had a deeeeelicious dinner at a cozy French restaurant, and then plopped on my couch and watched "Yes Man."

And then today, David got baptized!!!  It was great first of all getting to be back in my church, which is starting to feel a bit more like home...but the best thing was just listening to David share his faith story and watching him declare himself as a follower of Christ (not that he wasn't one before this, but somehow baptizing is different).  I haven't watched a baptism in a long time because they didn't do it during church services back at Eastbrook.  But today, as David and another woman shared their stories and got baptized, I was reminded all over again of the blissful wonderful-ness and pure joy of being with Jesus...it was a beautiful thing.

Afterwards, we went out to this old fancy hotel to celebrate and enjoyed their fantastic Sunday brunch buffet - prime rib, sausage, eggs benedict, smoked salmon, cioppino with delicious fresh mussels and calamari and fish, fresh fruit with sprigs of mint dipped in whipped cream were all among my favorites.  Mmmmmmm

And now I'm dressed in my Chargers gear, ready to do some leisurely studying before watching the Chargers stomp on the Dolphins today.  Go Bolts!! :)

Week 2 in the ICU is almost over, which means I'm halfway done!  It's still tough..maybe because I feel more lost here than I ever have before.  And I have yet to survive my weekend call tomorrow.  I know that I'm never really alone because (1) I have Jesus and (2) there's always a 4th year surgery resident in house and attendings to call for help, but my first night on call, I was in disbelief all night that they actually left me alone in this place to take care of these people: a patient with a huge intraparenchymal brain infection and cerebellar edema, multiple patients whose heart/lung/kidney functions were completely dependent on machines and drugs, etc. etc.  It's a crazy place.

But the Lord has been SO very faithful.  He somehow brings along encouragement at just the right time...i.e. my daddy coming to visit JUST as I was starting this tough rotation, hanging out with David and praying with him every night for strength to get through another day, bonding with the rest of the ICU team and laughing hysterically together, and finding out that our wonderful 4th year med student is a believer and getting to have a good conversation with her about missions and faith and relationships.  And in realizing God's constant presence, I'm finding that my smile is slowly coming back again. :)  Thank you so much, God

So my first month of residency is winding down.  Can you believe it?! I'm going out with a bang tomorrow, with 5 cases to scrub in on during the day (woohoo!!) and then a long night on call until Saturday morning.

Perhaps my infatuation with my residency program will wear off soon, but for now, I'm still so excited that I'm here mostly because I get to work with some super cool residents and attendings.  Yes, it's a lot of work (80 hours/week), there's a lot of time spent studying outside of work, and I'm tired a lot. But I think that God really knew what he was doing when he put me and David here.  He's already given us so many people to love and pray for and build relationships with.  And plus, I just LOVE what I'm doing.

I'm slowly learning Arabic one word at a time from one of the other interns who is Saudi (Hello; where is the bathroom; here; there; Congratulations), getting to hang out more with some of the other interns.  Plus I got to visit Boston for a day and had so much fun (except for the traffic into the city)...I can't wait to go back.  AND I think we've found a church too!  It's been tough church-hopping because I only have 2 Sundays off a month; but this past week David and I went to visit First Baptist Church of Amherst, because it was one of the churches recommended by the Navs staff at UMass Amherst.  We both loved it and felt immediately at home there...I'm excited about checking out some of the small groups.

So, that's just a quick update. :)  Nap time, then out to dinner with some of the other surgery residents!